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S H. MonsterArts Godzilla 2000


Three of my preorders that were released in September were all delivered on Sunday via FedEx. I purchased them all from Kurama Toys, so they were sent in one big box, shipped on Thursday and arriving three days later. That was fast! This here is the S.H. MonsterArts Godzilla 2000. This is one that I’ve been looking forward to for a while.













This is based on the MireGoji suit that first appeared in 1999’s Godzilla 2000, and also used in the follow up film Godzilla vs. Megaguirus. His unique features include a larger, more reptile-like head, a forward leaning posture, and those huge, jagged, distinctive purple tinted dorsal spines. Bandai did a pretty good job with their sculpt, getting the figure to look as accurate as possible to the suit. Certain liberties had to be taken, of course, to accommodate the articulation. The one thing that stands out for me is the spike on the back of his neck. When moving the head forward and down, there’s a significant gap. This was necessary to ensure that the neck can look high up without anything to hinder it, unlike the older 2000 release which was based on concept art and can’t look up at all. I do feel that this particular spike, however, is a bit too long. At certain angles, he looks like he has a lever on the back of his neck, like on the old Shogun Godzilla toy, which would shoot out a fire tongue when pushed down. Other than that, everything else about the sculpt and paint is great. His teeth have a yellow shade with dark wash that’s exactly how they were in the films. The eyes are painted very well and are not (thankfully) misaligned. Those sharp dorsal spines are dark at the base and gradually get lighter as they stretch to the tips. Overall, I’m quite satisfied with the final product.






The articulation is surprisingly better than I anticipated. The head and neck have several hinge and ball joints that allow it to look far up and down, as well as twist and pull out. There are two cuts in the torso that allow his body to straighten up, crunch forward and twist around quite well. His elbows have a very good range, allowing them to bend in much further than expected. His multi-segmented tail can twist and bend with ease, allowing for dynamic posing options. You can have him look far up, crunch far down, do kicks, balance on both feet, sit, and do a variety of fun poses. His engineering feels quite fluid, making it easy to articulate without issues. After messing with it for hours, nothing popped off at all. It seems that Bandai is putting a lot of effort into making sure their newly sculpted releases (not reissues, which use the older molds) are packed with updated engineering options to make the figures as expressive as possible, while still keeping an accurate design. I wonder if competition from Hiya has lit a fire under their asses? Either way, they’ve been on a roll lately.




















S.H. MonsterArts Godzilla 2000 came out really nice. He looks as accurate as he possibly can, and his joints allow for smooth, expressive articulation and poses. He doesn’t come with any accessories, which is the only drawback that has kept their new releases from achieving perfection. Since this figure is going to be paired with their upcoming Megaguirus, they could have included a small GX-813 Griffon ship and a beam effect. Luckily for me, I have enough older figures that I can use one of those beam effects. Hiya will be releasing their version of Godzilla 2000 within the next several months, so I’m curious how that one will stack up against this one. For now, MonsterArts G2K is worthy release, absolutely worth buying.


















 

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