What's next?

Being an SH MonsterArts collector, the news breaking of a Gamera figure is amazing. But, it leaves me asking: Where is the figure line headed? Here are some thoughts as to where I'd love to see it go.

SHOWA
Everyone's waiting for it. Everyone is eagerly hoping each month that the new set of scans will offer up a dynamically posed Titanosaurus, Sanda/Gaira, or Anguirus, and I am right there with you. There is a goldmine of monsters Tamashii hasn't even touched on. The big question is: Why?

Possible answer? The 1964 Godzilla.

And as he trampled, he roared: LOVE ME.

Personally, I really loved the figure and thought it got a pretty bad bashing upon its release. Everyone can agree that it's not the greatest release in the line, but I certainly don't think its the worst. But to a major toy line that has been growing rather rapidly over the last 2-3 years since its debut, a public backlash like that is rather scary. People were DYING for the '64. Then when they got it, they nearly imploded on themselves. I could be wrong, but I think that the fans scared Tamashii away from Showa monsters for at least a few more months. (Or until they run out of obscure footage of Heisei film monsters that they can release.)


SMALLER RELEASES
I'm sure I'm in the minority on this one, but here goes.I'm not a completest collector. I don't need EVERY release in the line. Have I skipped some? Absolutely. I've never been a fan of the Final Wars Gigan (BURN THE HERETIC!) and the sculpt took some strange artistic liberties, so I skipped out. That was 90 bucks I could put towards another release.

The same is true for the Mothra and Battra larvae release. I have never been a fan of Battra. That being said, the Battra larvae figure does look stunning. It's nothing personal with the figure, it's just a lack of interest in character. But I'd love to have a Mothra larvae. I understand the bundle packaging for the larvae, it makes total sense, but I wish they should have made them available separately. The Mothra larvae could sell for the same amount as Little Godzilla. I know I would've bought 2 Mothra larvae if that was the case.


KEEP THOSE GODZILLAS COMING!
One of the things I love about the X-plus line is it's devotion to the monster King. I love that you can get a high quality version of nearly every Godzilla suit through their line and have one cohesive collection. This is what I'd love to see MonsterArts line do. Give us that '62, give us that '68... the list goes on and on. Sure, the Rebirth version is a great release, but was it necessary? That's a Godzilla release that could have been a '54 or a '02. Some may say it's a safe move, but I think that releasing variations of Godzilla would be a smart regular move for the line to take.

Regardless of where the line goes, I'm really excited to see what they do next. Yuji Sakai's sculpts are really phenomenal and make great additions to any collection. Sometimes polarizing among collectors, the S.H. MonsterArts series is far from over.

S.H. MonsterArts GAMERA 1996

That's right, it looks like fans of Super Articulated Kaiju Figures are in for a treat.

GAMERA! As he appears in his 1996 film, Gamera 2: Advent/Attack of Legion.

Followed by a pretty blatant clue dropped by Blue Fin Distribution, Gamera looks stunning in his promo photos. The figure looks as though he'll be loaded with effects as well, which is kind of a rarity in MonsterArts these days. It looks as though he will come with his pair of Sea-Turtle arms for flight, a stand a base for flight display, a fireball effect, and an awesome chest opening option to recreate the final attack of the film!

Hold your ear splitting Gamera shrieks, MonsterArts fanatics... He weighs in at a hefty $95.

Much like the children he saves, he will decimate your wallet.

.But personally, this is going on pre-order.

SKULL ISLAND

Well if the mighty return of Godzilla and the announcement that he'll be resurfacing in 2018 with Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah didn't get a rise out of you, how about this:

Legendary Pictures and Universal Studios have announced that their 2016 undertaking, SKULL ISLAND, will be lead by actor Tom Hiddleston, directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts and written by GODZILLA 2014 scribe, Max Borenstein.

SKULL ISLAND is an examination of the famed Skull Island in King Kong lore. Do I smell a crossover with the Big G? (I doubt it.)

Maybe it'll tie into the Kong Musical. Yeah, you read that right... Musical.
_copyright The Australian_

Figure Review: NECA 12 inch Head-to-tail Godzilla 2014

I know, I know... there are tons of figure reviews out there of this figure. But I'm going to be doing another! Let's dig right in, shall we?


Love it, hate it, or "meh" it, Godzilla 2014 happened and really revitalized the global recognition of our favorite monster King. Recently being released on Blu-ray, most of us now have this new era of Godzilla in our homes stacked between gems like "Terror of Mecha-Godzilla" and "King Kong Escapes", and personally, I feel like this new Godzilla fits right in.
But where does that leave us as far as figure collecting? Well, it leaves us in an awesome spot if you're a fan of the new Godzilla design. NECA's 12 inch Head to tail (Not to be confused with the 12 inch TALL NECA Godzilla...) is an awesome release.

SCULPT:

A really solid Godzilla stance, way to go NECA.

NECA really did a great job with this figure. Godzilla's silhouette is really fantastic. Regardless what you think of the design, it's hard to argue that he is undeniably Godzilla. The detailing along his back and dorsal plates are really impressive for NECA. On the subject of his dorsal plates, NECA made the decision to use a softer plastic on the plates, giving them this sort of bendy/rubbery feel. Not that that's a bad thing, but definitely a unique choice on their part. Speaking of unique choices, let's talk about the tail. Godzilla's tail is half awesome-half meh. The second half of Godzilla's tail is an attached piece of bendy wire-based plastic. Yet again, not a bad thing, but definitely a strange choice. Oddly enough, I feel like the feet are a huge highlight in the sculpt. They're solid, detailed, and ready to stomp. One of the biggest sculpt flaws? The head. I'll get back to that soon.

I give the sculpt a 4/5.

PAINT:
The paint job on this figure is fairly good. Nothing to gawk over, but good. Being a flat grey color with some brown detailing, it's a great representation of the film's design color. The inside of his mouth has a great paint job and his teeth, although slightly bucked, have a decent paint application.

Now a interesting topic keeps popping up with this figure, as well as his larger companion, and that is the blue paint application. Personally, even if it is showing up in my pictures, there is no visible blue paint in person. At least not with my figure, that is. Regardless of that, if it does or doesn't have a blue tint, I can't see how that can hurt the quality of this figure.

I give the paint a 3/5.



FILM ACCURACY:
This is where I think it gets tricky. Is this figure 100 % film accurate? No. But, I do think it is a great representation of the Legendary Godzilla design. There are some slight proportion problems with his head (going back to sculpt for a moment, told you I'd get there.) I think it's kind of obvious his head is too small for his body, in comparison to the film. Also, the figure has this odd crease running directly down the snout. Is that a big deal? No. It's really not a big deal at all. What does bother me, is the face sculpt up front. Is it terrible? Not at all. Maybe I was just too excited with that still (That wasn't even used in the film... sigh...). Bottom line is, I'm being really picky and it's wonderful that we have such a great figure to be so picky about.

I give the film accuracy a 4/5.

PRICE:
Ah yes, price. I type this with a manic smile on my face. To get such a great figure of the new Godzilla with a great sculpt, solid paint job, and an overall great representation of the new design, I'd expect to pay MonsterArts prices. Not with NECA. $20.
Let me repeat that.
TWENTY DOLLARS.

I give price a "IF YOU DONT HAVE ONE WHY ARENT YOU ON YOUR WAY OUT TO GET ONE RIGHT NOW!?" rating.


FINAL THOUGHTS:
I love this figure. It's not perfect, it's not the greatest Godzilla figure out there, but it is a fantastic Godzilla 2014 figure on the market right now.  You can't beat the price either. Now, I'm waiting on my S.H. Monsterarts version to ship right now. Will it top this figure? Will it let me down and put me into a hopeless spiral of Goji-depression? Perhaps. But I guess that's a topic for the next review.
                                                         
                                                               OVERALL: 3.5 out of 5

Suits & Strings Reviews: A Guideline

What makes a great figure? Furthermore, what makes a great MONSTER figure? An age old debate, right? Well here at Suits & Strings, I'm going to be rating incoming figures and figures I have in my collection by four main principals:

SCULPT: Pretty basic, is it a sloppy plastic mess or is it the Michelangelo of small sculptures?

PAINT: How much care was put into the painting of the figure?

FILM ACCURACY: How film accurate is the figure to the suit or the design? Is it SUPPOSED to be film accurate or has the sculptor taken some artistic liberties (and do they work?) I'll also touch a bit on scale.

PRICE: Is it worth what you're going to be shelling out?

These are the four main things I'm going to be looking at when reviewing a figure. Keep in mind, these are four points that I personally feel are most important. Some may agree, some may not, so let's take a moment of Skreeonk to appreciate that.

Huzzah!

A new place to talk all things monsters.

My goal here is to take a fresh look at some of our favorite TOHO (and friends!) Monster movies. From classic Japanese films to American creations, I want to point out what we love, what we hate, and what's funny.
I'll do some figure reviews, some film reviews, and general ideas of whats out there. Also, I'll try to keep the oncoming releases of toys, games, and films right here in one place.