Ah the MUTO. I can’t think of a single monster since Titanosaurus that the fandom had (and still has in some parts) gone crazy over when it comes to demanding figures for. Surprisingly, the monstrous pair of parasites haven’t gotten that many figures, not even by higher end companies like X-Plus. Only one vinyl figure was produced for the film and, surprisingly, it was for the winged male that is shown to be much smaller than Godzilla and its mate in the 2014 reboot. To say the least, this figure is a bit of a disappointment. Let’s go in and see why and how.
Details
The detailing of the figure is one issue to bring up. While the monster did have a very smooth body in the film, it also appeared to be covered in an exoskeleton. The figure does not convey this at all. There is also very little detailing done to its chest, stomach, and face. Honestly, if you would only see the monster in this figure form without seeing the movie, one could even confuse its smaller set of interior arms for pointed breasts. They look that bad.
Accessories
MUTO comes with no accessories. However, I do admit that I like the tag that the figure was released with.
Articulation
Articulation is basic. The arms and legs can rotate. That is it. You can pose the monster with one arm in the air, but if you want to try getting both up, you will have to pose it with it balancing on its ankles.
Paint
The figure doesn’t just scale off, it generally looks off. MUTO is molded in a soft grayish vinyl with the only paint applications being on its forelimbs, eyes, and a very light shade of brown on its underside that I admit I didn’t even realize was there until looking over it more closely for this review over two years since I bought it. To say the least, the paint apps just look boring and off. I understand that they were going for the illusion of it using its EMP pulse attack for its forelimb colors, but the shading is just so horrendously bad that it looks nothing like what it was going for. It is really a shame that Bandai seems to have lost its touch for figure paint applications for almost every release since 2014 has had really poor applications compared to other figures from the line released years before.
Overall
In the end, there isn’t much more to say. This is a tremendous disappointment for the first (and most likely only) vinyl figure we’ll ever see for this guy. The poor paint applications, lack of sculpt detail… it’s just a let down. I can only hope that Bandai will one day go back and give us a female one, or a whole new sculpt for the male even if it remains out of scale. Until then, this is what we got.
Rating:  |
| 
