Another Final War For Godzilla

Playmates Godzilla toy line matches the definition of kaiju in that it is a strange beast. You've got a mix of Bandai soft vinyl released through the brand as well as hard vinyl original creations by Playmates. Add in the newer Kong vs Godzilla movie action figure line and you've got a weird mixture of toy types hanging on your Walmart shelves.

I've said before how the hard vinyl figures are visually similar to the soft ones. Aside from varying sculpt quality, you might not notice the difference when they're next to each other. I've chalked it up to a mixture of whatever deal they have with Bandai and Playmates own facilities for the differences in the lines. Admittedly I'm being a nerd about this, but when you collect these things, it tends to be a sticking point. 

I've grown quite fond of the Playmates figures regardless and even find the random sculpt issues pretty funny. It's fun to point out something and just say Playmates. It's just their thing. Then they go and release a soft vinyl figure on their own and we're back to square one. However instead of focusing on that for too much longer, I'm just going to relish in the fact that they made a pretty decent one. 

A little while ago, I talked about Playmates Shin Godzilla figure. This particular toy was subject to a lot of poo pooing in various kaiju groups. Fair enough, despite growing on me, he definitely isn't for everyone. I don't know what the plan was at Playmates, but they swapped him out in newer shipments with a new Final Wars Godzilla figure. A soft vinyl one to boot! I've seen various discussion on the source of the mold and some have speculated it's a laser scan recreation of a Bandai figure. Maybe. There's a little rounding of the edges. 

The only really iffy point is those eyes. I don't mind them as it's different and reminds me of older dinosaur toys. Final Wars may not be everyone's favorite movie, but folks tend to like the movies designs and they find their way to toy form often. Especially with Godzilla, it's a pretty defining look for the gorilla whale. 

It's a pretty good figure of Godzilla regardless of all that nerd stuff I just said. You've got the standard amount of articulation for a figure like this. Shoulders, legs, neck, with a little bit of tail. Don't be gross. 

For me he hit's all the points and like I said, I kinda like the cludgy Playmates vinyl toys. I don't know why either. If you don't like the eyes, I'm sure you could probably fix it with a little paint. I've seen some pretty good fixes on other Playmates toys recently. 

I'm keeping mine stock though.

Godzilla, Ready To Fight

Hey, remember that big Kong I talked about the other day? Well, I can't just not talk about the big Godzilla I also got. Playmates really knocked it out of the park with this large figure of the King of Monsters. Representing his look from Godzilla: Final Wars, this is a really good looking toy. That similar to Shogun Warriors hand feel is here in full effect with a hard plastic body and those satisfying hard vinyl appendages.

Even with the figures limited articulation, it looks full of life as his legs and arms are posed naturally in a ready to fight pose. Which is the definition of Final Wars. If you've never seen the movie, now would be a good time to do so. Godzilla battles a small army of classic monsters as aliens attack Earth. The main characters run around the mayhem in the freaking Gotengo and get into insane battles. This movie is nuts. I strongly advise you take a break in the middle of the film, you'll need one.

Gigan The Pointy

In the initial batch of figures of Godzilla and Kong figures by Playmates is Gigan from Godzilla: Final Wars. He went from outright bizarre looking in the Showa era to hardcore space badass while retaining his trademark looks. Like the other new kaiju toys Playmates has made, this is an outright action figure as opposed to the sofubi that I usually prefer when it comes to kaiju toys. Though it fits in with my Bandai Creation vinyl figures. You wouldn't know it's not a sofubi until you touch it. 

I'm quite fond of these Playmates toys as they're coming along nicely and this Gigan is a good reason as to why. They could have went with his classic looks as it's more common place, his 2004 design is literally in one movie (not counting other odd appearances). Since he's more of an action figure, I do find myself wishing his arm hooks swapped out with the chainsaws he sported in the final battle of Final Wars. Though, maybe that will be on a later edition. They're so close to vinyl figures I wonder if they're using those for a basis. 

It's a really cool line for something exclusive to Walmart (here in the states) and a lot more nerdy than I expected. Since they've released some of the Bandai Creations molds in the line mixed with these action figures, I hope future waves will continue to have a mix of reissues and new figures. I'd love to have crazy things like glow in the dark and transparent figures... but if the line just keeps on... I'll be happy.

 

Godzilla : Final Wars

While settling back into normal life post con and back into what's seemingly my normal work day after a rough few weeks, I'm reminded by a conversation with Shawn Sunday at the convention. We talked about Final Wars. He's never seen it and I love it. It's hard to exactly explain why I love this insane fever dream of a Godzilla movie... but I do.

First off, it's ridiculous. Completely and utterly ridiculous. Of course if your kaiju film isn't a little ridiculous, you've done it wrong. There's a suspension of disbelief when you've got a giant monster smashing a city, let alone fighting another giant monster. That being said, this movie is completely bonkers. Just crazy and weird and that's part of what makes it great.

The best way I can describe it is, a love note to the Godzilla and tokusatsu movies of the showa era on crazy pills. It kinda doesn't make a lot of sense, there's random high energy action sequences, every trope, and there's Godzilla pissed off and kicking all sorts of tail. Watching this movie is physically exhausting. You'll need to pause it occasionally. It's like Toho poured hummingbird feeder syrup into the film stock or something. It's just manic and crazy... and that's also what makes it so wonderful.

Kaiju and other tokusatsu by default is weird. You've got some movie where a giant monster is attacking the city... and usually a sub plot like aliens are invading Earth. Not to mention, the bulk of the movie is made with miniatures and folks in rubber suits. Add in stuff like kung fu sword fights and space ships... Look, it's not Dances with Wolves... probably because you're actually entertained. Watching is a mix of enjoying the plot and laughing at the visible zipper.

So in Final Wars, you've got a movie that is 100% a love letter to all of that at 100 miles per hour. What's not to love?

Pacific Rim Uprising

Cancel the Apocalypse again!

Earlier today, at about 4:20 I saw Pacific Rim Uprising and I'm just now coming down from the adrenaline rush. Without giving any spoilers my thoughts are simple. I liked it. I liked it a whole lot. That was a damn good follow up and a worthy continuation to the Pacific Rim storyline. I really liked the developments since the last movie and how things are set to go forward assuming they make more movies. I know they plan to and before I go any further consider this a spoiler warning even though I don't consider what I'm going to say is an actual spoiler.

Potential spoilers below!

There's intention to crossover Pacific Rim in with Monsterverse (I CALLED IT), you can look the movie up on Wikipedia and see the citations for yourself. That however isn't a big issue here. Here the big issue is expanding the setting to allow the series to go forward, which they did with full robot cartoon love letter madness. I really liked some of the kaiju's methods and the evil Jaegers (that's in the trailers, so not spoilery). The final battle was amazing on an apocalyptic and insane level.

Though the cheesy dialog is often cited as a problem by critics without much sense of awareness. Point blank, this movie is 100% for it's intended audience with no apologies or compromise. Just like with the original it's chock full of homage and even has a few extremely happy Easter eggs.

The only problem I had with the movie is the story moves just a touch too fast. While I could easily keep up with what was going on, I could see where someone else might not. It does stand out from the originals more slow paced pacing leading up the final act. Though with the original masterpiece I wanted more Kaiju vs Jaeger action, something Uprising makes up for in abundance. There's crazy action everywhere with Jaegers taking center stage. So essentially the sheer amount of robot carnage made up for the breakneck pace of the storyline. I've already seen folks in toku groups compare it to Godzilla Final Wars. Which while it might come at you at a crazy pace, it's not near as crazy or as epileptic as Final Wars.

My minds a mush of colors and rovot insanity in the best of ways. Pacific Rim Uprising was an absolute blast and gets my approval as a big fan of the original movie. I want more and I want it now.

NOW!