Overview

Ghidorah is one of the older and most popular monsters in the Godzilla franchise, and at some point in the 1990s, Toho gave him two more legs-- as you see here. He's appeared in several movies including the rarely talked about Mothra trilogy from the 1990s-- and this version of the character is closer to that design than the original from Godzilla vs. Monster Zero from nearly 30 years ago.

The huge monster includes no accessories and was packaged with only a tag.

The Figure

With all those limbs, you might assume he's highly posable. Well, you'll have to settle for just being nicely posable.

While there's not a lot of color here, the detail is pretty apparent. There's a surprising amount of detail to be coaxed out of nicely textured plastic through the use of gold and black, and it seems BanDai figured this out and really went to town here. While true to the original design, there's not a lot of variety-- there's some red for the eyes and mouth, and that's about it. The lack of crazy colors is a big plus, as it looks regal instead of ridiculous. Like many toys in this line, the teeth are pretty much part of the gums-- it's obvious BanDai meant to make it look like he has a lot of sharp teeth, and the illusion is carried out fairly well through their talented painters doing their best work here.

Articulation could be better, but it ain't bad. Each head has a joint at the base of the skull and another about 3/4 the way down the neck-- he can look around and glare menacingly at several toys at once! He has hip joints for his front legs, ankle joints for his back legs, and two tail joints. The wings have a little give to them, but this is due to design, not joints. As such, we're a little concerned if there may be some long-term sag issues here.

While there are a lot of joints here, the design and location of these moving pieces will only allow the figure a limited number of poses. His personality is a ferocious one, and as such, his poses carry this through well-- but he can't do anything fancy like rear up on his hind legs or have the heads looking in all sorts of different directions. This is probably also true of the actor(s) in the costume, and as such, we have to say BanDai did a good job recreating the monster as he appeared on the silver screen.

Packaging

Ghidorah's tag is his only form of packaging, which is just as well as he fits in with the rest of the line.

There really isn't much to it. I mean, it's a tag.

Fin

While not exactly identical to the classic version, Ghidorah is a great update to a great monster. It looks good, not kitschy-- it isn't as freakish as some modern movie monsters or other original oddities you see in toys or movies these days, but just by looking at it you can tell it's big, mean, and a freaking three-headed-winged-monster. It looks fairly durable, but if you're planning to buy this for a kid, watch the wings closely. The toy is a good one, and we like it a lot-- so if you think the design is cool or want a really big monster for your desk at work, be sure to pick this up at your favorite importer or at an upcoming convention's dealer room.

Text and photos by Adam Pawlus
Review posted on February 22, 2005
Sample purchased from a Japanese importer for roughly $18 in January, 2005.