Tag: Bandai Page 1 of 14

King of the Monster Obsession

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On July 22, 2020

In Shameless plug

No o-face jokes please.

Last fall, I visited the Boston Museum of Science. One of my favorite exhibits they have there is this little glass display filled with the odd collections of Massachusetts residents. There are porcelain dogs, dolls, Hot Wheels cars, coins, you name it.

I took down the contact info for the display and sent them an email asking if they’d be interested in displaying some of my Godzilla toys. I got an almost immediate response and within a few weeks, my Godzillas were being viewed by thousands of visitors every month.

I posted this on a local Facebook group for my town and the local town magazine got wind of it and decided to profile me. To my surprise, the interview went fairly in-depth, giving a good look at this one particular corner of my collector madness.

You can read the article here. If you’re reading this post sometime after summer 2020, then congratulations! The world didn’t end. But what I was going to say is you’ll have to click on “Editions” to find the May 2020 issue to read the article.

Bandai would very much like you to buy the S.H.Figuarts Super Mario

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On February 10, 2014

In News

And who can blame them? It looks awesome.

You can pre-order from BBTS or Amazon.

My S.H.MonsterArts Alien Warrior review is up at CollectionDX

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On February 9, 2014

In Reviews

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This has to be one of the busiest weekends ever for PGPoA. Usually I take weekends off. And I even skipped some news, like the new Jetfire and Unnamed One leaks.

Anyway, my review of the S.H.MonsterArts Alien Warrior from Alien vs. Predator has been posted on CollectionDX. (The reason it’s up over there is because it was a sample provided by Bluefin via my CDX connections, and part of my agreement with CDX is that any samples I get from their connections I review over there.)

Short version: great sculpt, fantastic articulation, joints are a little loose, figure is a tad on the small side, possibly my favorite Alien toy of all time.

Odds ‘n Ends > Toy Review Advent Calendar, Third-party add-ons, Toy Aisle Trolls, Power Lords

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On December 20, 2013

In Odds 'n Ends

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  • Good lord this holiday season went by fast. Just in case you somehow missed my endless shilling, be sure to check out the joint-blog project
  • I’ve expressed my doubts about third-party toys in the form of licensed characters, but I have far fewer qualms  about third-part add-ons, which are awesome. There are some really cool third party projects going on for MOTUC right now, such as Kevin Kosse’s Horde Trooper helmets or the upcoming conversion kits by Mat Vige O’Toole, a.k.a. Zombihamma (who’s also a special effects make-up, prosthetics and storyboard artist with a pretty badass resume) – plus of course Joe Amaro‘s great stuff. Of course, it took a few years for any sort of third party add-ons to appear. What I’m trying to say is, where is the emergent third-party add-on market for Star Wars Black 6″? Let’s skip the 2-3 year delay and get going on that now. I’d like a 1/12th scale cantina environment for Han and Greedo to have their shootout (so that I can have Han shoot first again and again and again), a headset for Han to go with his pilot gloves, laser blast attachments for all the blasters, an alternate open left hand for the Sandtrooper so that he can hold the light repeating blaster properly, electrobinoculars for the Sandtrooper, Boba Fett’s concussion grenade launcher–actually you know what? This might need its own post.
  • I haven’t received a new Toy Aisle Trolls submission in quite a while. Have the trolls actually gained a conscience? Have the stores caught on, at long last? Or are you all just lazy?
  • BigBadToyStore has pre-orders for Bandai America toys from the 2014 Godzilla. There’s mention of “MUTO (Winged)” and “MUTO (8 Legged)”. M.U.T.O. appears to be the name of an organization that the film’s marketing team has created a fake website for. We don’t yet know what MUTO stands for.
  • NECA has released a great visual guide (warning: 1.4Mb) to every Predator figure they’ve released thus far.
  • I think I want to collect a vintage set of Power Lords. This is going to take a while.
  • Out of curiosity: what are your picks for the best action figures of the year?

CollectionDX reviews S.H.MonsterArts Biollante

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On December 19, 2013

In News

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The mother of all S.H.MonsterArts figures is here, and CollectionDX’s JoshB has the review.

Odds ‘n Ends > Halloween begins, S.H.MonsterArts AvP, random plugs

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On October 3, 2013

In Odds 'n Ends

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  • It’s Halloween season! For as much holiday fun as can be fit into a blog, be sure you’re following Dinosaur Dracula, the current blog of Matt Caracappa, one of the minds behind the late, great X-Entertainment.com. Oh, and be sure to keep an eye around here as well, of course.
  • Pixel Dan has three new video reviews of upcoming MOTUC figures: Geldor, Strongor (Strongarm), and everyone’s favorite(?) pink bunny dictator, Plundor!
  • Speaking of Pixel Dan, it looks like he’s getting another #MyMosquitor – a new Mutagen Man for the current TMNT line, coming in spring. (I must confess I prefer the more grotesque vintage version a bit more.)
  • I’ve never even seen Alien vs. Predator: Requiem – even though it evidently sucks, I probably should get around to it anyway – but I’m still intrigued by the upcoming S.H.MonsterArts versions of the characters. Here’s the official Tamashii Nations page for them. They’ll run $60 apiece, of course, but they’ll be better-articulated then NECA’s figures, offer more accessories, alternate heads, and I believe they will be closer in scale to 6″ lines like Marvel Legends, Star Wars Black, and DCUC than NECA’s stuff (which is in a 7″ scale). While the movie may be dreadful, I don’t mind the designs themselves, so I’m considering getting these. The scale will probably be the determining factor for me, so I may have to see them either in person or next to some other figures first.
  • Requested plugs: T-Rav from Doomkick.com is running a contest for some cool classic villain drink coasters; Acheson Creations is about 1/3rd of the way to their goal for their Kaiju Kaos: Super Robot StratoMaxx resin kit figure with just five days to go.

Super Review Wars continues with S.H.MonsterArts Destoroyah Evolution Set

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On September 12, 2013

In News

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Over at CollectionDX, our own Nemo Eight reviews the S.H.MonsterArts Destoroyah Evolution Set!

Review > Godzilla 1964 (S.H.MonsterArts, Tamashii Nations)

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On August 12, 2013

In Reviews

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As I’ve frequently mentioned on this site, I’ve behaved somewhat oddly in regard to my S.H.MonsterArts collection. I have always, always been an opener – an immediate opener (although sometimes I’ll hold off if I need to take pics for a review). But despite owning every single S.H.MonsterArts toy in existence, up to and including the subject of this review, I have only opened three (again, including this one) so far.

I’m really not sure why I waited so long to open them. Am I becoming a (horrors!) mint-on-card collector? No, I didn’t even have them on display, so that wasn’t it. Part of me wondered, am I getting tired of toys? It’s possible, but I don’t think that’s it either. I have other toys I open right away.

Part of the truth, I think, is that I just wasn’t really into the monster designs. With the exception of Godzilla 1985, I’m not really a fan of the Heisei era of Godzilla films. They were made in the 1990s and with few exceptions, they weren’t imported over here until the late 1990s when the American abomination of a film came out. By the time I watched the Heisei movies, I’d already grown nostalgic about the “Showa” era of Godzilla films (the 1950s through the 1970s). Also, I just didn’t enjoy the Heisei films – I found them rather dull affairs, with little of the fantasy and skill that went into the early Showa era.

So while I was very excited by the prospect of “super-articulated Godzilla figures,” I think I held off opening them because I was waiting for Tamashii Nations (the collector arm of Bandai that produces these figures) to get to the Showa era, at which point I would decide to either integrate my Heisei collection with the new Showa monsters, or just sell them off and focus on the Showa era.

Well, the Showa S.H.MonsterArts figure is finally here. Unfortunately, I found it very disappointing.

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Creeeeeepy.

By

On August 1, 2013

In Miniposts, Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnKj-svA37I

Now that’s a novel way of showing off a figure’s articulation. In this particular case it’s also really, really creepy.

S.H.MonsterArts Godzilla 2000 and Heisei Mothra revealed

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On July 28, 2013

In News

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(Go straight to the bottom of the article if you want all the photos.)

It’s hard enough keeping up with the news on Western toy lines with Tamashii revealing S.H.MonsterArts figures with no fanfare at Wonderfest. Import Monsters always catches ’em, though. I’ve got to figure out where to keep an eye out.

Anyway, they revealed a Heisei-era Mothra from 1992’s Godzilla vs. Mothra (not entirely unexpected, since Battra was revealed last week) and also a new Godzilla based on his appearance in Godzilla 2000. If you’ve never seen it, it’s actually one of the most entertaining Godzilla films out there, especially in the modern era. The dubbing is good because the film had an actual American release. It’s a great movie to introduce someone to Godzilla with.

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I’m not a huge fan of the 2000 design. I prefer Godzilla’s traditional “leaf” spines to the crazy jagged projections; I don’t like the green skin; and I really dislike the rose-colored hue of the spikes. Fortunately, all of that is relatively downplayed on this figure, which is actually based on the original design maquette created by sculptor Yuji Sakai during the development of Godzilla 2000. So while it’s not a realistic 1:1 translation of the movie design, it’s arguably cooler than that.

And they seem to have articulated the hell out of Goji this time around, right down to the fingers – we haven’t seen that on a SHMA figure yet. Sakai sculpts almost all the S.H.MonsterArts stuff and this is one of his favorite G designs to sculpt (for obvious reasons, since it was his design), so I’m not surprised it seems to have gotten a lot of love.

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While I’m not a huge fan of this design – I was hoping for the “Kiryugoji” version, which is similar to this one but features charcoal skin and bone-colored spines – I’m finding myself pretty excited by this figure. It looks fantastic and badass. And I don’t have to worry about a red breath weapon, since I’ve already got one from the Godzilla effects pack.

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Mothra I’m not quite as excited about. I really, really wanted a Showa Mothra to go with Godzilla 1964. However, I will concede that to anyone but the most detail-oriented fan, the difference between the 1964 Mothra and the 1992 Mothra is not something you would notice unless you had both of them side-by-side. 

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