S.H. Figuarts Antlar

Today’s box day brought the burrowing ant lion/beetle kaiju Antlar. He first appeared in episode 7 of the Ultraman series. I remember as a kid he was always one of my favorites, back then I always liked the bird/insect/crustacean kaiju most. He returned later for Ultraman Max, and has appeared regularly in Ultra series since then.

S.H. Figuarts did a great job with Antlar. They captured his look accurately, as well as the smaller details such as 2 pairs of antenna and his small beak-like mouth. The paint job is great as well, from the silver highlights of his giant mandibles, to the bluish spots on his back.

The articulation is just ok. Due to the body design, it’s limited and you won’t be able to get him into detailed, expressive poses like the more humanoid characters.

The head can move up and down a little, but turn around and side to side quite well. Also, the giant mandibles can open and close a fair amount, as well as adjust up and down a bit. The small sets of antennas can move around as well, as can his 2 stalk eyes a bit, and his beak-like mouth can open and close a bit. Those parts are all small, so you should be careful when moving them. The instructions also caution that they’re delicate.

The arms can move around and out quite a bit, the elbows can move in and out and around as well, though if you move them too far in they can pop out as they’re not double jointed. The upper waist can move around and side to side fairly well, and the lower waist also moves, though that can also pop off if moved to far forwards or backward. That does allow the top half to pop off easily to fit him into the sand mound that’s the only accessory he comes with.

Another thing to be aware of is that, due to the larger design of the head, standing him up can be a bit of a challenge, as the weight of the head can make it difficult to balance. When displaying him, especially if he’s up high on a shelf, you may want to have him lean against something or have his upper half in the mound accessory to avoid him toppling over and falling.

Overall, Antlar is a decent figure, I’d give it a 7 out of 10. The sculpt and paint are great, but since it’s a web exclusive, he’s pricier than others, and considering his sparce accessory count, and limited articulation, some fans might pass and just settle for the Bandai or B-Club releases, or even the very nice, detailed X-Plus. Honestly, for the price this figure is, they should’ve included more accessories, like a magnetic beam effect, maybe a small desert building, the blue stone that ultimately defeats him, or even a small statue of Ultraman that was featured in the episode. Here’s hoping that future Tamashii web exclusives come with larger accessory counts.

Comments

Titanic Creations Yongary 1967

This figure was released in late December, and I got it about 2 days before the New Year, so I'm counting it as a 2025 release. It is the Titanic Creations version of the Korean kaiju Yongary, Monster From The Deep. The film was released in 1967 as a Godzilla ripoff, with several ideas copied from the Gamera series, such as his tusks, his ability to fire a stream of flames from his mouth, and even firing a laser beam from his horn, similar to the slicing one used by Gyaos. The film is pretty goofy, but Yongary, like most of those Asian monsters, was pretty cool (to me, at least), so I was psyched that someone finally made a figure of this lesser known kaiju. When Titanic Creations put it up for pre-order, they announced a series of tiers, where they would add accessories when a certain number of orders were met. Enough fans ordered him, so that Yongary ended up with a shit ton of stuff, making him absolutely worth the price. In addition to the kaiju, you get a flame breath effect, ...

RicSan Custom Toys Kyōrū Kaiju (Titanosaurus)

My latest kaiju figure purchase is the Titanosaurus made by Ricsan Custom Toys. I own and love the Varan & Gabara, so of course I had to preorder this one when it was available. He was delivered earlier this week. This kaiju hails from the last Godzilla film of the Showa era, 1975's Terror of Mechagodzilla. The Black Hole aliens are back, rebuilding their robot in another effort to take over the planet. They enlist the help of an ostracized Earth scientist named Mafune and his daughter Katsura, who are able to control an aquatic dinosaur named Titanosaurus. They plan to use both kaiju and mecha to attack Japan. Titano was a cool monster, with his tail that opened into a fish fin, and he would use it to create whirlpools in the sea, and high winds on land. I'm hoping that S.H. Monsterarts makes one for the 50th anniversary of the film, but when I saw this Ricsan Custom version, I couldn't pass it up. Titanosaurus (called the Kyōrū Kaiju), comes in a white box, with its n...

Help Me… I’m Possessed (1974) / #Missingcouple (2024)

I've watched some weird, obscure horror movies throughout my life. I can now add this lurid 1974 schlockfest to that growing list. In a castle in the desert, Dr. Arthur Blackwood runs a sanitarium filled with mentally disturbed patients (as well as staff). He claims to be working on finding a way to cure people of any violent tendencies they have, and brags about his younger sister, innocent, child-like Melanie, as evidence that his treatment works. When she was a child, their parents had to keep her locked up and chained in the basement, to control her violent fits. Now that he's cured her, Arthur has his wife Diane come to the castle to meet Melanie, so that they can be one big, happy family. Diane begins to grow suspicious that something is amiss after a Sheriff shows up investigating the murder of 2 local teens, and sets about on her own investigation, hoping to uncover the sinister secrets that she feels her husband is hiding. Help Me... I'm Possessed is an outrageous,...

Musings of an Inkd Geek

Search This Blog