S.H.MonsterArts UX-02-93 Mechagodzilla & UX-01-92 Garuda
Background:
The Heisei Mechagodzilla from “Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II” is the second iteration of Mechagodzilla, this time it was created by the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center (UNGCC) using Futurian technology scavenged from the remains of Mech-King Ghidorah. The UNGCC also built a smaller airship called the Garuda, which when merged with Mechagodzilla would become Super-Mechagodzilla with increased firepower and added thrust.
Name: MechaGodzilla & Garuda
Manufacturer: Bandai
Line: S.H.MonsterArts
Sculptor: Yuuji Sakai 酒井ゆうじ
Scale: Non-scale
Material: ABS, PVC, POM, Zndc
Release: Dec 2011 | Mar 2012
Original Price: ¥6,500 (approx. $79AUD / $82USD) | ¥2,625 (approx. $32AUD / $33USD)
Height: 170mm / 6.69inches
Packaging:
The packaging for Mechagodzilla is well constructed from thick cardboard with a matte finish which looks rather nice, especially when it is covered with pretty images and photos of the figure inside. The front window wraps around to one of the sides allowing you to view the content to a certain degree, but to see all the accessories you have to pull the whole tray out.
Sold separately, the Garuda is a Web Tamashii limited edition item thus it comes with an outer brown shipping box. The actual box for the Garuda has a high gloss metallic silver finish which is very nice but it is prone to finger print marks.
Accessories:
Mechagodzilla comes with an extra head and neck part to simulate its flying pose, I was disappointed to find that this was a parts swapping affair rather than just having designed the original head to tilt upwards. To complete the flying pose it also comes with a straighter tail and flat hands. For the abdomen it comes with a Plasma Grenade Gun opened mode part, and with the first batch of these figures the initial release bonus Mega-Buster effect and base are included.
With Garuda, you get a dedicated display base, dual laser cannon firing effect parts, G Crusher parts for Mechagodzilla as well as connection pieces to merge with Mechagodzilla.
Form/Sculpt:
On display this guy looks absolutely amazing, the proportions are spot on and it looks like it jumped straight out of the big screen! However, once you pick it up it becomes apparent that Mechagodzilla is very bottom heavy, due to the solid die-cast feet. The other issue I have with it is that the top half of the body is very “rattly” giving it a cheap feel. It would be nice if they spread out the weight of the figure a bit more, and tightened the waist and neck joints.
Garuda is also very well depicted on toy form, the toy feels pretty solid in construction albeit a bit light in the hands. I like the fact that the centre of the thrusters have been detailed with clear orange plastic, and the thrusters themselves are movable. The toy is highly detailed with lots of panel lines in the mold.
Articulation/Action:
Mechagodzilla may not be super articulated due to its inherent design, although it has all the standard modern joints, but it is a hell of a lot of fun to play with especially if you have Garuda as well. I can imagine the kids (including me) re-creating the docking scene from the movie over and over again! With what poseability it has, it does a good job of holding the poses.
Paint/Print:
The paint app on Mechagodzilla is pretty straight forward so it’s hard to get wrong. Apart from the silver colour there are several hints of black panel lining which is needed to breakup the silver. It does appear to also have some lowlights/weathering applied throughout the figure to emphasis the sculpt. Garuda has a much more obvious weathering paint app applied, and it looks great!
Detail/Features:
Not too many gimmick on this toy to talk about so I’ll jump straight to some size comparisons. Standing next to Godzilla from the same toy line, Mechagodzilla actually is quite a bit taller, closer in height in fact to a 6″ vinyl Godzilla toy. Sizing up against GD-57B Mechagodzilla, the S.H.MonsterArts version is slightly shorter and contains much less metal content which is strange as the GD-57B Mechagodzilla actually cost less when it first came out.
Overall:
As much as I heart Godzilla and Mechagodzilla, this is actually a relatively expensive toy for what you get, especially considering you have to purchase Garuda separately. If you really must have a Mechagodzilla in your collection, I’d recommend the Chogokin GD-45/GD-57 Mechagodzilla. It has much more metal, it’s bigger and much better constructed in my opinion. With this new release I feel like Bandai has taken a step backwards in design but increased the price at the same time?
Thanks for reading!
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Filed under: Featured, Reviews, Bandai, Godzilla, Gokin, Japanese, Kaiju, Limited Edition, S.H.MonsterArts, Tokusatsu
