S.H. Figuarts Gudon

My latest arrival is S.H. Figuarts Gudon. He’s a kaiju from the Return of Ultraman series, appearing in episodes 5 and 6, where he was pitted against the monster Twin Tail. Gudon has since appeared in various Ultra shows, such as Ultraman Mebius, Ultra Galaxy, etc.

Figuarts has once again done a great job with the sculpt, capturing all the details from his spikey body to his eyes and tentacle whip arms. The paint applications are also great, sporting a nice tan color with darker highlights, as well as blacks for tentacles and horns and red for mouth and eyes.

As for the articulation, that’s where this release is a bit inconsistent. The photo with arrows shows all the articulated points, and he also has several joints along his tail as well. His neck joints, tail joints and torso have great range of motion. His mouth can open very wide, but due to the lower jaw being on a ball joint and the shape of the mouth, when closing it fully, make sure you alight the top half with the bottom or you’ll get a derpy overbite from either side.  He can look far up and far down.

However, the figure does not seem to have the same range of motion for each set of arms and legs. His left arm joint seems to be pushed in more at an angle, and this makes it unable to fully move the arm all the way around. On the right arm, the socket seems to be sticking out more, but that one can move fully all the way around. On the legs, the left knee is able to bend more than the right.

I thought at first that it was probably a QC issue with my figure, but upon closer inspection ofothers’ photos posted on Instagram, I see that their figures also seem to have the right arm socket sticking out more, as well as the left socket pushed more at an angle. Perhaps it was the way the figure was designed that made it so that once you put in one arm, it moved the peg so that other arm didn’t quite match it. It’s not an entirely bad thing, but important to be aware of so you don’t try to force one of the arms too much and risk breaking it.

The directions do highlight the entire area of the arms with a note advising you to use caution. It’s a good argument for making sure one looks over the instructions carefully (as not everyone does; I know I’ve been guilty of this myself in the past).

The other thing I noticed is that on the whip arms, the right arm is able to move around in all 3 connecting joints, whereas the left arm seems to be pushed more forcefully in at the 2^nd connecting point, making it difficult to move around. I didn’t try to force it for risk of breakage. This is something I was curious about, as Twin Tail’s whips are also articulated in 3 pieces. On him they move around freely on both sides, not with Gudon.

The only accessory he comes with is an extra damaged Twin Tail head, to reproduce the scene where the MAT team shoots out his eyes, making him unable to see and easily killed by Gudon. You simply pop out Twin Tail’s regular head and pop in the damaged one.

One thing I noticed, since I had never popped off his head, is that the joint had a white, greasy substance on it. I assume it’s something they used when putting it together to ensure it goes in smoothly. When putting in the damaged head, I wasn’t able to get it all the way back in, but I’m sure simply heating the joint will fix this.

 
 

My rating for Gudon is a 7 out of 10. It’s priced decently, the extra damaged Twin Tail head is a fun accessory, and the sculpt and paint are great. Just be careful when articulating it. I’ve already read one person note that the arm on their figure popped off easily and was difficult to keep back on. Thankfully mine hasn’t lost any limbs.