Skip to main content

S.H. Figuarts Ultraman Taro


Every time I see Ultraman Taro, I hear the opening line of his theme song play in my head. "Taro! Ultraman number 6!" It's a very catchy theme song, for a very goofy show. Taro took the outrageous kaiju designs and some of the comedic storylines from Ace and kicked them up a notch, resulting in a very colorful series.





Ultraman Taro is the son of Ultra Father and Mother of Ultra, and with the more recent series, the father of Ultraman Taiga. Tamashii Nations finally released him. Now we just need Ace to complete the original Ultra Brothers line up. They did a good job with Taro, giving us a figure with a nice sculpt, articulation and a good amount of accessories. In some ways this figure is an improvement over the Ultra Act release.




Taro comes with 4 pairs of hands, including fist, flat, grasping and one open hand and one holding. He comes with alternate color timer, another fist shooting his storium beam, bracelet lancer spear weapon, and three interchangeable right wrist parts, one plain, one with Ultra bracelet and the third with the King bracelet. 




His wrist pieces are similar to Ultraman Jack's, in that they fit snuggly over an elongated section, making it easy to swap out and stay in. This is one way Figuarts improves over the Ultra Act version, which has the wrist pieces plug into a peg that tends to pop off easily when moving the arms. His chest armor plugs into one hole in his chest and two on his back. You can swap out the color timer by taking off the chest armor and pushing it through. The timer also fits very firm in the hole, so it stays in safely. The Ultra Act version had 2 separate chest pieces, one that was bent on the right side to make it easier to move his arm forward for his beam attack. Both of the chest pieces on that release were kind of a pain to swap out. This one clips in nicely and stays secure, and the butterfly joints on his shoulders bend forward far enough that his chest armor won't impede the articulation. 





He has all the standard Ultraman articulation points, including great butterfly jointed shoulders, and double jointed knees and elbows, to get him in many action poses. Nothing is too tight or loose. All the hands are easy to swap out, though his storium ray fist takes a little extra work to align in properly with the peg so the plastic of the beam doesn't get in the way of his wrist. 





S.H. Figuarts Ultraman Taro is a the final Ultra release of 2019, and they end the year on a high note with this figure. Tamashii Nations have announced several upcoming sculpts, including the kaiju Tyrant from this series, so that will be nice to give Taro a companion monster from his show. I would love to see Figuarts versions of Birdon, Valkie Seijin, Samekujira, Mukadendar, Enmargo, and I know this is wishful thinking, but an articulated Cosmo Liquid would be awesome. Highly unlikely, but a fan can dream, right? 





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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,...
Post a Comment
Read more

S.H. MonsterArts Anguirus 1972

One of my most anticipated figure releases of 2025 was finally delivered this last week. Godzilla's trusty sidekick, S. H. MonsterArts Anguirus (based on the 1972 suit). From the early video and photo reviews I had seen, he looked to have turned out a great figure. Now that I have him in hand, he absolutely is! This Ankylosaurus is based on the suit that was introduced in 1968's Destroy All Monsters, and made subsequent appearances in Godzilla vs. Gigan (72), Godzilla vs. Megalon (73), and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (74). Anguirus was the 2nd Toho monster to ever appear on screen, dueling with the big G in 1955's Godzilla Raids Again. For the later films, he became Godzilla's buddy, helping him out in his various battles. I'm a bit surprised that it took Bandai this long to release Anguirus in the MonsterArts line, as he's one of the more popular kaiju, but better late than never. He's painted in a chocolate brown, with pale yellow on his various spikes, hor...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more