S.H. Figuarts Twin Tail

S.H. Figuarts Twin Tail arrived yesterday. I ordered it off of Bandaionline.com (one of the sites I often get my pre-order figures from). Twin Tail is a kaiju that appeared in episodes 5 & 6 of Return of Ultraman (1971 – 1972). He’s a weird looking fish/silverfish/worm-like kaiju that hatched from an egg and gave Ultraman Jack a hard time when it, as well as the kaiju Gudon, both rampaged in Tokyo. His design stands out as he tends to stand upright, with his head on the floor and his tail up in the air. Twin Tail is one of the more unique kaiju from the various Ultra series, one of the things about Japanese kaiju and tokusatsu series I always enjoyed, the unique monsters.

 

As far as design, Figuarts knocked this one out of the park, as they often do with their Ultraman line. They once again accurately capture the look of Twin Tail, from the ridges of his backside, his tentacles/whips (thus his name Twin Tail), the green “eyes” on the section that holds his tails, to the segmented form of his long body, down to that goofy looking face. Great paint applications, per usual with Figuarts. The articulation is decent for a kaiju that had minimal body movements. His body is divided into several segments that can bend forward and backwards for posing. On the back of his body, there’s a small section that can be pulled out (it plugs in via ball joint), and with the removal of this segment, it allows you to “straighten” him out for caterpillar/fish-like poses (as he appeared in Ultraman Mebius).

The figure's mouth opens and closes, and the head can turn sideways, so you can duplicate his biting poses from when he bit Ultraman Jack’s leg and grabbed his neck with his tentacles. The accessories include 2 alternate “grabbing” tentacles that can be pulled out and replaced, to show him grabbing enemies/prey.

 

Another cool thing about this figure is that at the bottom of it’s “feet” there are left and right foot prints, I imagine duplicating how the actor stood inside the suit. Both feet can pop out via ball joint, so the foot prints also help to know where to put them back in.

 

All in all, Twin Tail is a fun addition to the Figuarts Ultra kaiju line. Later this year they will release his episode partner, Gudon, who is also another cool kaiju that I also plan on getting. What he lacks in radical poseability, he more than makes up for in goofy, unusual design. If Tamashii Nations can do this kaiju in an articulated figure, then they can do just about any other, and there are dozens of uniquely designed kaiju they have to choose from. I like this cool, unusual creature!