Anthony Romero
Released for the company's third wave of figures, and under the Godzilla Wars banner, this toy for Moguera is probably one of the more impressive from Trendmasters' Godzilla lineup. Unlike many of the other toys from the company, this figure is fairly faithful to the source character. There are some discrepancies in terms of size, with the figure overall appearing too slim in the waist and legs, but all in all it's a fairly well done recreation.
Details
The most important thing to note here is the high level of detail that Trendmasters has committed to the release. The "grid-like" blue segments look nice, as do the "spring-like" arms. As mentioned before, the proportions are wrong here, but that still doesn't stop the arms and legs from looking fairly impressive. The back also looks stellar, especially the saw blades. Unfortunately, it does suffer a little in regards to the head, mostly due to it being too small which is the reoccurring blight of this particular release.
Now this is the sound version of the character, with the red button located fairly obviously on the front. The speakers, which flank it to the left and right, are actually well placed and look good within the design. Unfortunately, the roar itself is the one for King Kong/Sanda/King Caesar. This can be overlooked a little, considering the mech had no roar at all, but it's still an odd choice to have such a primal noise for the robot. Certainly Mechani-Kong, for example, would have been a better roar substitute here.
Articulation
Moguera is moveable in several locations. These include the legs, which rotate, and arms. The body itself, at the waist, can also be turned, which is probably the coolest aspect of its mobility.
One of the highlights of this figure, especially over others that Trendmasters released, is the extra features it displays. This includes extendable "wings", which pop out from the hips to simulate the Star Falcon (ignoring the fact that they are much too small), and that the hands open up to reveal the Spiral Grenade missiles. Sadly, the hands have a little trouble closing, and will often always be open just a little.
Overall
Overall, few figures from Trendmasters really stand up against the test of time, and the many fine toys which have come afterwards. This one for Moguera, along with their Mechagodzilla and SpaceGodzilla in the same size category, are some of the select few that do.
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Joshua Reynolds
Ah, Trendmasters Moguera. A long, long time ago, this very figure was my first introduction to the Heisei era Moguera. Long before the advent of the internet, information on newer films was scarce. My father had told me about The Mysterians (1957) and this robot in it, but neither of us knew of its 1994 return. That is until we found G-Fan Magazine in a local store and discovered that not only was this redesign of Moguera a legit thing (and not something just made up by the toy company as we thought), but SpaceGodzilla was also a character that had appeared in a Japanese film before its release in the United States.
Boy, did this change everything. Moguera quickly became my favorite of the robots and this simplistic toy looked good enough to not just fight Godzilla and other kaiju, but its non-robot dinosaur appearance allowed it to fit in with any other toy line of the era. It looked right at home being used to hunt Kenner Aliens by Predators, guard Jurassic Park characters from raptors, and even be unleashed on the Rebel Alliance by the Galactic Empire. Fun times…
But that’s enough going down memory lane. How does this figure stack up nowadays? Let us find out!
Details
Made of plastic and standing at just five inches in height, Moguera is probably one of the better of Trendmasters sculpts by far. There isn’t much of a redesign here like there was for others, but there are some differences here and there. Moguera’s legs appear to be a bit more spread apart, giving it a much less “brick” of an appearance as normal. There is a red button on its lower abdomen that, once pressed, causes the robot to release some… very weird sounds. It’s hard to describe these noises, but it’s not something I’d want to listen to everyday. They sound more weird than robot-like.
Sculpt wise, Moguera is pretty solid. There’s nothing overly complicated with this character, so what is needed is done. The treads look and feel as if treads, there’s some decent detailing in the arms and head, etc. It’s definitely not a bad example of what Trendmasters was capable of way back when.
Articulation
For a typical five-inch figure, Moguera sports some cool articulation. The torso can rotate 180 degrees, but can not do a full 360. The arms and legs can spin around entirely. Curiously, the head is unable to rotate but its tail/booster can. Moguera’s cone-shaped hands can be opened to reveal Spiral Grenade Missiles, which is something that could have easily been glossed over like most figures do. The neatest thing about this Moguera’s articulation I feel is its thigh wings. These are just two little fins that can be pulled out and are rarely seen in the film. While pretty pointless, this was the first non-high end figure I can think of that actually incorporated these fin-like wings.
Accessories
Interestingly, Moguera comes with a bit more than a trading card. Included with the robot is a secondary drill that can be used to plug onto its chest where its maser was located in the film. This was never done (or even thought about as far as I’m aware of) in the film, but it does look pretty nifty on the shelf. And, of course, Moguera was released with a trading card that gives a bit of detail on the astro-mech. Curiously, it does refer to G-Force as a “Superhero Team”, however. Given Trendmasters own take on G-Force with their short-lived run of figures, this doesn’t seem too far off.
Paint
As expected, Moguera’s paint is pretty basic. The machine itself didn’t offer a variety of colors in the film, however. The plastic is a basic silver in color with the treads a solid blue. A few highlights in the treads could have gone a long way, but for a figure over twenty-years old now, it’s forgivable. The eyes are properly painted yellow and its nose drill, drill accessory and cone hands are all colored the same shade of gray.
There are also some touches of black to pull the figure’s look together located on its face, shoulder ports, chest region and on each side of the inner thigh.
Overall
Definitely not a bad figure. Being my first exposure to Moguera, I suppose I could be a tad bit biased here, though. The figure has its flaws here and there (lack of head rotation and the weird sound especially), but the pros surely outweigh the cons. I see them differentiate in price, some go for cheap and others more pricy. I definitely wouldn’t recommend paying much more than $30-$40 for it nowadays (it is a vintage toy now), but if you’re looking for a solid figure besides what Bandai and Monster Arts offer, here’s your guy. It scales in very well with the rest of the Trendmasters lot and does offer a bit more with your posing options.
**Below are a few bonus images featuring Moguera - Sound scaled next to various figures.**
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