Trendmasters, a company collectors of Godzilla and kaiju generally hate or love, no doubt introduced some very interesting ideas for the license that hadn’t been attempted before or since. Arguably, the most interesting of these ideas was their short-lived Power Up line. There were only four of these types of figures release: Mecha Godzilla, Rodan, Godzilla, and this Mecha-King. Of all four of them, Mecha-King Ghidorah is the least changed in terms of additional weaponry.
Details
For starters, its size is six inches. It does not scale very well with the other Power Up figures. Mecha-King Ghidorah should tower over the likes of Godzilla, but instead he stands eye-to-eye with the other figures. However, if one would like to pose this figure in a suitable “towering over its opponents” way, it does scale very well with the smaller five inch line. It really doesn’t look that bad when with its Power Up brothers, but it really looks better when it looms over the other kaiju.
The sculpt for this guy is pretty nice. The organic parts are fully detailed with snake-like scales and the solar panel wings look nicely patterned. Even the teeth and insides of the mouths are very well done. The mechanical chest does look a bit dull compared to the rest of its body, but the worst part is easily the lack of detail given to its central, robotic head. With the organic heads being nicely sculpted, the robotic one just looks boring. This could have been fixed with some better paint shading for the figure really doesn’t have much. The organic parts are molded in gold plastic and the mechanical parts in silver.
Accessories
As for the “Power Up” additions, Mecha-King Ghidorah can be equipped with head mounted cannons and new knee armor. These pieces can be taken off at a person’s leisure. However, the arms are permanently attached to the figure and are the only new weapon introduced to any of these figures that can not be taken off. The most interesting aspect if the fact the entire back portion of the cyborg, including its head and wings, can be removed. The storyline (on the card) acknowledges this as the Hiryu (Flying Dragon) and allows it to function as a separate vehicle while the rest of the monster (now with just two heads) fights the opponent. I think someone really liked the idea of the Garuda when making these figures.
The figure does come with some accessories: namely a trading card which goes into detail on its various powers and a short detail describing it. It also comes with some extra missiles/harpoons should you lose any.
Articulation
This figure has pretty basic articulation. All three necks can rotate. The heads are a separate sculpt piece, but doesn’t seem to be made to move around separately. You can muscle them to move, but I don’t recommend it. The legs can also rotate as well as the tail. The wings are also able to be folded back. The added “arms” of the cyborg can also rotate a full 360 degrees.
Paint
The only aspects of the figure that are painted are its eyes, teeth, insides of its mouths, tail tips, claws and “collars” on the organic necks. What little paint detail done has very little paint bleed and I do really like the blood red, beady eyes on the organic skulls. However, I do feel the big green eyes on the robotic head are a bit distracting and take away from what could have been a very menacing look.
Overall
In the end, out of the four Power Up figures, this is my least favorite. It’s not a bad figure, it just seems a bit like wasted potential when comparing all the crazy new things added to the other figures. The paint job, especially on the mechanical parts, leaves a bit to be desired and it could have looked so much better with just a few touches of dark gray here and there. I only got it to complete my collection of all four of these, and I can only really recommend it if you want it for the same reason. There’s no real reason to really dislike it, but nothing there to warrant some of the price tags this guy goes for now. Surely don’t pay anything over $50 for it, even if it’s been over twenty years since it was on shelves in American stores. It’s just not worth it, not in my opinion anyway.
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