Diamond Select Toys' continues their full figure bank line with another release that isn't the King of the Monsters himself. This particular bank is based on the Heisei series version of Rodan. While the design on the whole is well done, the paint job on the figure has some grievances in terms of movie accuracy and in terms of using it as an actual bank it's not all that practical.
Details
This figure bank of Rodan is a bit smaller than the others in the series, which makes sense given that the Heisei Rodan was dwarfed by his co-stars in his debut film. The bank measures about 9 inches in height and has a wingspan of 16 inches from tip-to-tip, so fairly wide.
Detail wise, the bank is on the higher end of things. The head looks excellent, especially the beak and the horn design. Even the folds in the neck are well executed to match the look of the character in the movie. Unlike some of the other banks, Rodan actually looks good from all angles too. Head on or from the sides, the figure looks good.
The legs on the bank area also well done. They are slightly larger than on the movie incarnation, but only overly noticeable when doing side-by-side comparisons. Detail wise, they included the "bandage-like" look past the knee while the feet look stellar.
For the front of the chest, the figure sports the character's trademark chest spikes. The details here could be better, but it looks movie accurate all the same. Moving to the back, the tail is also incredibly detailed. It's a rather small segment of the overall figure, but whoever was tasked in managing it did above and beyond work.
Unfortunately, not everything is stellar with the design. Two things do stand out negatively. First, the neck piece does not fit on smoothly. It's very obvious and is not flush with the rest of the body. This piece is intended to be removed to gain access to the coins inside, but other figures work without leaving a distracting element to the figure bank. This one misses that mark.
The other lacking aspect are the wings. For such a huge part of the figure, the details here are somewhat sparse. There are minor fold lines present, but it feels like an after thought in contrast to the highly detailed body.
Paint
In terms of movie accuracy, the paint job is a rather big miss. In terms of just looking good on the figure, it does a serviceable job. The one area that falls short on both accounts is the back. For some reason, the back of the wings have a light area toward the lower half of them, like the thin membrane on bat wings.This is somewhat film accurate, but the lack of detail here makes it look far too "clean" and just seems off to the eye.
For the front, there is a lot more detail placed in the wings although they still contain the same light style applied to their lower half. This also raises the point of if this is supposed to be Rodan or Fire Rodan from the Heisei series. The brown shade points to it being the regular Rodan, although the overly bright chest is more like Fire Rodan. If it was supposed to be the latter, Fire Rodan had really noticeable veins on his wings that are apsent. If it's the regular Rodan, the wings are way too light.
As for the chest, it feels a little lazy... although it's actually accurate to the paint job on Fire Rodan. While the regular Rodan had a rather colorful chest with a lot of gradients on it, Fire Rodan had a more single tone to this area and the spikes were, oddly enough, the same color as the skin.
Still, as much complaining as I have done, it has to be said that the head is very well painted. The eyes look good and the mouth looks incredible. Diamond Select Toys put a lot of detail in this area, and it paid off.
Bank Function
The coin slot for the bank is located on the back of the figure. It's positioned directly below the head to the left of the back "spikes". It's not exactly discreet, but given the rather small frame for Rodan it's hard to think of a better position for it.
In order to fetch the coins, the head of the figure can be removed. In terms of recovering the coins, this will either be easy or quite an adventure. The reason for this being that the wings actually are hollow and, if shaken enough, coins can slip in them. If a dime somehow manages to slip inside... good luck getting it out of that area.
Truth be told, given a combo of the wing area and also the rather small size of the body, this is one of the more impractical banks to come from this line.
Articulation
This vinyl figure bank doesn't really have any articulation. The best it can muster is that the head can be moved a little, like it's very lightly shaking its head.
Packaging and Assembly
The figure bank is composed of thirteen parts. This includes the head, wings (two), hands (two), legs (two), the main body piece, the tail, bottom beak and the head horns (three). Of these, the head is the only piece that is not glued on.
In terms of assembly, the figure bank comes as a complete unit. So you don't have to attach any body part ahead of time. There is a tag located around the neck area, fastened there with a clear plastic collar.
Overall
This release is a bit mixed, sporting nice details but lacking in terms of function and the paint job could have been better. It's far from the best bank from Diamond Select Toys, an honor that still goes to their amazing King Ghidorah Vinyl Bust Bank, but it's still well done and worth adding to collections that house the other figure banks in the line.
Side note: I normally take photos for reviews using my camera, which is out of commission right now. So I took these using my phone, which has a pretty harsh flash.
In closing would also like to thank Diamond Select Toys for sending this in for review.
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