Overview

Godzilla includes no accessories, but is a huge hollow representation of the big lizard as he appears in 2004's Godzilla: Final Wars which, as of this review, is not out in North America.

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

The Figure

It's Godzilla, and it's big. Typically BanDai's rotocast Kaiju are no more than eight inches tall. This one's about a foot tall and fairly long.

Godzilla is jointed at the shoulders, neck, and tail, meaning that on the whole, he's a "collectible figure" or to be more precise, a plastic statue. The joints are fairly well hidden, it's obvious where they are but they integrate into the design very well.

The sculpting is excellent-- which is good, because there's not a lot of paint here. The detail shows a lot of work into replicating Godzilla 2004, and there's so many textures, patterns, and scales employed here that you could probably go on forever describing how diverse and amazing they are-- but we're trying to keep it brief.

Deco is important and a shortcut or two were taken in making this toy. Because they couldn't individually sculpt all the teeth, they're kind of combined with the gums, resulting in a fierce look that if you look too close seems a wee bit off. The end result is good, but perhaps painting the area behind the teeth a darker shade would make them look even better.

While you can get a lot of a toy's personality from its pose, modern toy buffs know that there's a lot you can say with the face. The expression, how the mouth is positioned, all of these things add up to what the toy is really all about. And Godzilla is all about putting the smack down on Tokyo, as you can see here.

On the whole, it's a great toy-- it looks like the suit from the movie, which is a mixed bag. Sure, you could make the toy look more like a "real" Godzilla than the movie does, but why?

Packaging

Godzilla has a tag for packaging, as the entire line of these large BanDai figures are prone to do. As such, the figure will have a small, often invisible, hole where the tag went.

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

Fin

While not the finest Godzilla toy ever, it's a great one. Depending on where you buy it, it's cheap-- if you buy it in Japan, it's like $16 or so. In the USA, it's $30-$40. As such, if you have an importer that can cut you a deal, we say go to them. It's a superb toy and it's very durable, there aren't many parts that look fragile and a kid could probably have a field day with it. As an added bonus, it sports the authenticity that a movie buff would appreciate, so you really can't go wrong with Final Wars Godzilla.

Text and photos by Adam Pawlus
Review posted on February 6 2005
Sample purchased from a Japanese importer for roughly $20 in January, 2005.