Skip to main content

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!








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

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

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