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S.H. Figuarts Shin Ultraman


The other June pre-order I got is this guy, Shin Ultraman. He hails from the film that has yet to be released (it actually ended up getting delayed some time ago). The film is directed by Shinji Higuchi and produced by Hideaki Anno, who gave us Shin Godzilla. A trailer dropped sometime last year that briefly showed the Ultraman from the film, as well as the kaiju Neronga and Gabora. Shin Ultraman has a sleeker, more lanky body, and has no color timer. Other than those differences, he resembles classic Ultraman.







Shin Ultraman simply comes with 4 pairs of hands (fists, karate chop/beam shooting, and 2 sets of relaxed palms). There is no alternate color timer since he doesn't have one, and no beam effects. I wonder if they didn't include any beam effects as the film hasn't been released and they didn't want any spoilers? Though everyone pretty much expects Ultraman to have some type of cross hand beam. I mean, that's his classic signature move. The figure is painted nicely, red and silver, and his white compound eyes. Another thing I noticed is that his eyes don't have those small dark pupil eyes that are present on the original Ultraman. Otherwise, he's just a taller, lankier Ultraman. I'm curious as to why they decided to stick with his classic look and not give him a wild make-over, like they did with Shin Godzilla? Either way, he's still cool.











His articulation makes up for the lack of accessories. His head and neck are on ball joints. He can look to the sides, far down, but not too far up, though you can pop off the head and reposition the joint for farther up range. His shoulders are on hinged ball joints with swivels and a bit of a butterfly joint, double jointed elbows and knees, ball swivel wrists, upper torso and waist on ball joints, swivel thighs, upper thigh cut, swiveled ankles that can tilt far to the sides, and toe hinge. All of this allows you to place him in a variety of poses. His joints allow for a wider range than both of my classic Type A and Type C Ultraman figures.






He stands a little bit taller than my classic Ultraman figures. The red on his suit is a darker shade, and the silver is shinier, so he does stand out when next to his Showa counterparts. Besides his slightly taller height, he scales well with the rest of my 1:12 kaiju and Ultra figures.








Despite the lack of accessories, S.H. Figuarts Shin Ultraman is a decent release and worth getting if you'd like an articulated version of this specific Ultra. However, many other companies such as Mafex, Threezero, Ultra Action and the much larger Dynaction have or will release their own version sometime soon. I'm not sure why Shin seems to be getting produced by so many different companies, especially since the film has yet to drop. My guess is that it's either in celebration of the 55th anniversary of Ultraman, or because Shin Godzilla was actually a hit in Japan and these toy companies are anticipating Shin Ultraman will be just as big. Either way, fans have a good variety of choices when choosing which poseable Shin they'd like to purchase. I'm happy with my Figuarts, so I'll stick with him. Now I will just have to wait for the film to release. I enjoyed Shin Godzilla, so I'm curious how Ultraman will fare in that style. Until then, Sayonara, or Shuwatch!








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