Toy: Power Up Cyber Rodan (Trendmasters)

 

Power Up Godzilla


English Toy Title

Godzilla Wars Supercharged Godzilla Action Figure with Power-Up Snap-On Armor

Extras:

Trading Card

Type:
Company:
Release:
Height
:
Reissue:

Figure
Trendmasters
1994
15 centimeters
No

Source:

N/A

Toy

Review

By: Joshua Reynolds (submission)

Last but not least when it comes to the four Trendmasters Power Up Toys is the one and only Godzilla. Much like the others, this figure happened to be a huge part of my childhood and saw battles with dozens of other toy lines, from Star Wars to Aliens to Jurassic Park. Not to long ago, I decided to revisit this underrated sub-line from Trendmasters and hunted down brand new figures to replace those that had been used and scuffed up from my childhood. Was it worth spending $35 on a new Power Up Godzilla? Well… let’s find out!

Details

Spines
Spines

Godzilla measures out at a height of just over six inches and a length of eight and a half. He’s made of hard plastic and is definitely based on the Heisei version of the character. There’s plenty of texturing covering his body to replicate the roughness of the 1990’s Godzilla. I do feel the smaller bumps lining his back are a bit odd, however, and could have just been removed. The spines here are pretty nice with three large rows going down his back.

I really like the head sculpt of this figure, especially the teeth and tongue. The angry face also goes very well with this figure. One thing they did toy around with is the size of Godzilla’s arms and hands. They’re far larger than your typical Godzilla’s, giving this version the appearance that he could literally choke the life out of one of his victims. I do feel the tail could have been a little bit longer, but I feel I may just be nitpicking at that aspect.

Godzilla does scale in pretty well with the other figures, along with some of Bandai’s six-inch scale figures.

Articulation

Godzilla sports your typical articulation of 1990’s action figures, so don’t expect anything too fancy here. You have your neck, arms, legs and tail. That’s it and, as a child’s play toy, that’s really all you need to lay the smack down on some evil kaiju.

Accessories

Armor Pieces
Armor Pieces

Being a Power Up figure, Godzilla comes with a variety of snap-on armor. There are eight pieces in total: two leg pieces, a wrist blaster (called the Dual Plasma Beam Cannon), a helmet, a shoulder cannon (The Mega-Missile Launcher), an ammo rack that attaches to the cannon, and the Drakken Gunship. The gunship and cannon can each fire plastic missiles via springs. They do have a bit of range when fired. Like other armor pieces, be careful with these. They’re cheap in quality and can snap if you put too much pressure on them.

I do want to voice my frustration with the ammo rack piece. I just feel it’s lazy in design and concept. Why would Godzilla carry ammo on his launcher? It’s not like he could even reach it. Additionally, it is next to impossible to get the plastic missiles to stay put on said ammo rack. At this point, I just gave up.

Additionally, Power Up Godzilla was released with a trading card that gave some basic stats and info on the nuclear monster.

Paint

Face Close-Up
Face Close-Up

Godzilla is molded in a solid black but he does have some nice paint applications on his spines. They’re a nice, metallic blue in color that runs from the top of his skull to the tip of his tail. His eyes are also a nice, blood red in color. His teeth and claws are painted a creamy color while his tongues and gum are an extremely dark crimson. It could have been better, but it could have also been a lot worse.

Overall

Power Up Godzilla is probably my second favorite of the four released figures, with the Power Up Mechagodzilla taking first place. Like the others, if you don’t know where to look, you may end up paying way more than these things are worth. Don’t get me wrong, the Godzilla is a solid release on his own. But he’s not worth the $70-$100 prices that some sellers ask for on places like E-Bay. Play the patience game and wait till one crosses your path and don’t pay an arm and a leg for one. I still feel these four figures are highly underrated by most collectors. For us of the newer generation of kaiju fans, I believe these are a staple. A sort of “must own” if you grew up with the franchise. There was never a line quite like this and, to this day, hasn’t been one since.

**Below are a number of bonus images, including ones featuring the figure with and without the snap-on armor, and some size comparison shots.**

Rating: Star Rating