Skree-onk, bitches! You join me today in a good and Godzilla-y mood 'cos the massive
monster-mash sequel King of the Monsters is out this week, promising titan-size thrills
and ensuring this video will instantly be dated. So let's get Godzillin' like a villain
with SH Monsterarts Godzilla '94!
Now I don't feel like I really need to give Godzilla much of an intro. Like, I'm pretty
sure he can speak for himself as an absolute worldwide phenomenon whose instant appeal
allows him to segue effortlessly between harrowing nuclear allegory and silly Saturday morning
schlock for five-year-olds. And being such a universal cultural powerhouse he's hardly
hurtin' for merch either.
So our subject today comes from the Bandai Tamashii Nations SH Monsterarts line of collector-grade
humungahunks, which is, admittedly, slightly outside my normal collecting sphere of Transformers
and sometimes a Gundam, but they seem extremely well-thought-of in the right circles, they
might be an offshoot of SH Figuarts, I dunno. Probably, right? But what we do know is that
they dropped this little enfant sauvage in 2011 as their first ever Goddy Z figure, based
on the 1994 design nicknamed MogeGoji after his mechanical frenemy Moguera from off of
Godzilla vs Spacegodzilla, which friggin' RIPS, by the way.
And as the old G-Unit's designs go, this is a pretty nice middle-ground starter Zilla,
'cos like having been in 30-odd movies of wildly varying tone, he's certainly had to
serve a variety of looks - ranging from the Showa seal pup to the Shin Godzilla melty
zombomination - and this one's right down the middle, like it's hardcore enough to be
a suitably scary city -crushin' zero-f***s-giver, but still dumpy and unhateable enough to be
the star of the show.
So check out this kaijutiful creature! This is one majorly impressive mothermonster, flauntin'
a ferociously faithful sculpt that seems to pluck him right off the screen in merciless
warts-and-all detail! More like warts-and-nothing-else. Like he's got every possible lump and bump
and scale and crease and unfortunate flabby fold, bold as brass for all the world to see.
It almost feels like a callout.
And I dunno if you can tell through the screen just how wildly weighty it is! This plastic's
pretty much the heaviest matter of the universe, and the way it moves gives it a real sense
of gravity, like the joints are sorta stiff but smooth and strong! There's kind of an
assuredness that you can pop it in any pose possible and it'll stay there til the First Gods come home.
Arms are lookin' stupid stumpy and powerfully punchy, and they're honestly articulated to
heck and back, packin' shoulders, elbows, wrists, and a weird sort of mid-bicep twist-me-do.
It's kind of a miracle they didn't end like one of those cheapo wibbly snake things. Hello!
Erk! Erp! Erp!
A happy moment.
Check out his baggy-ass legs down here! Like the thighs are so swollen with thiccitude
that they're almost spherical! And while they are potentially boastin' more joints than
Snoop and Spike Lee combined, they're somehow not super mobile, like they can go from about
here to ...here. But, I mean, it's not like Godzilla was ever known for his athleticism,
and it's kinda cool how there's no singular point of rotation - like it's three or four
different chunks all budgin' a little bit, like a chubby caterpillar.
Anyway, the head's a joyfully expressive little acorn of anger up there with its mad yellow
hypno-eyes and multi-layered shark teeth! Neck's not super flexy but you can pull off
a solid rotate and a bit of a bang, and I think this jaw might even be ball jointed,
like he can't just bite, he can chew!
I sorta love how necessarily minimal the paint job is! Like most of his monster meat is pretty
much left bare in this tasteful dark charcoal
Aside from the aforementioned rabid eyes,
nasty yellow teeth and bone white claws, and his back-plates decked out in this radioactively
radiant grey and blue gradient.
I think these little spine-shrubs might just be my favourite Godzilla hallmark, like a
little squad of Sonic the Hedgehogs curled up along his back rolls in an ever-diminishing
pattern along his unreasonably massive tail. Look at this bloody thing! It's gotta be about
half his mass, stretchin' out from Mars to Sirius until it finally tapers off after eighteen
articulated segments and ten-and-a-half inches!? It's honestly a total shelf-hog and does make
me kind of insecure, but it's just pure Godzilla goodness and he can waggle it like a mad bitch!
I mean he just wouldn't be the King without it.
Which leads us elegantly to the
Yes indeed, earlier runs of this rowdy rubblemaker came with a transblucent approximation of
G-Daddy's deadly mouthblast which you can slide snugly into his gobzilla - that is it
fills it right to the uvula. And I'm usually very iffy on this kinda thing, like, I usually
hate when Transformers do it, but this is just so nasty badass! Like look at this, can't you just
hear that low scrapey thrum followed by an explosion that doesn't really sound like an explosion?
Anyway, you can perch it proudly on this atomic ray stand, which is
stylised to look like ...something? I'm guessing it's just like a tidal wave? Or like some
general Spacegodzilla crystally mise-en-scene?
It barely looks like it's related to Godzilla, and it wasn't a typhoon. Anyway I'm pretty
sure you can get a red version of this as well, but I'm gonna go ahead and put it next
to Swoop and Rumble in things I prefer in blue.
So yeah, SH Monsterarts Godzilla '94 is definitely my king of the monsters! I mean, there's gotta
be more recent and more readily available Monsterarts out there, but whether you prefer
your Godzilla cute and cuddly or massive and mean, American hot or Heisei tastay, you've
gotta recognise that Godzilla 94 is a lavishly lovely lizardlad with a nuclear megaton of
authentic affection built into his mutated bones and a dedication to excellence that
gets me right in the G-cells. The SH stands for Shit hot!
Anyway, huge thanks to the ever-lovely Ed Pirrie for letting me check this big bugger out!
Take that, you dinosaur.
All right! Thanks for watching my friend, and cheers to thedragonfortress for supporting
us on Patreon! Means a lot, buddy. Thank you so much. See you next time!