This week I received Gigan, the infamous cyborg monster (or as some call him, Space Chicken) from the Godzilla series. This version is from the 2004 film Godzilla Final Wars. The cyborg monster was upgraded to have a more biomechanical body, as well as added powers such as firing a laser from his eye, and shooting out small cable hooks from his claws to wrap around prey and pull them towards him, where he would slice them up with his rotating buzzsaw spikes on his stomach (the original 1972 Gigan had this buzzsaw feature as well). As badass as he appeared, he was quickly killed, having his head blown off by Godzilla. Then, the Xillian aliens gave him a new head and a pair of chainsaw claws, but once again he was killed by his own razor discs that he shot at Mothra and boomeranged back at him, cutting off his head. Then Mothra, who was on fire, flew right into him and blew up his headless body. Despite his fierce look, he didn't last long. Tamashii Nations first released a figure of him in 2014, and decided to reissue him this year, this time with an extra eye beam and cable hooks that attach to his spike claws.
Like the original 2014 figure, this reissue comes with all the accessories needed to switch him from his first form, to his 2nd, "Modified" form. His extras include chainsaw claws, an alternate neck, extra horn and mandibles for his modified look, his eyebeam effect, a stand to hold up the beam, and four cables that can be attached to his regular claw hands. These cables are made of bendable wire, so you can articulate and wrap them around another figure that he "catches". The cables are a bit challenging to swap out. You simply have to pull it off at the right angle, but popping them in is fairly easy. One end of the beam rests on his eye, while the other end is supported by a hole underneath it that you can rest atop the stand. Tamashii Nations made it fairly easy to swap the other accessories, which is always welcome.
Gigan’s articulation includes his head and neck on ball joints, his shoulder pads are individual pieces that rest on pegs, ball jointed shoulders and thighs, single jointed elbows and knees, swiveled upper shins, ball jointed feet, multiple joints on his tail, hinged mouth, his mandibles peg into a hole and have a slight up and down range, his outer wings are hinged and can open and close, and his middle wing can shift up a bit. As for both sets of claws, they attach via ball peg that twists and turns, and the blades on the chainsaw hands are soft plastic that can rotate around, so you can move them. That’s a nice little detail that helps to elevate the fun factor of this kaiju figure.
S.H. Monster Arts Gigan is a great release, with lots of nice accessories to make it a fun purchase. I appreciate that they give you the option of switching his forms, instead of releasing 2 separate figures. If this were a new sculpt, they’d probably release it like that, so this being a reissue probably works in its favor. He’s absolutely worth getting if you missed out on the initial 2014 version. Gigan is one of Tamashii Nations best figures.
One photo idea I had was of Gigan using his chainsaw claws to decapitate two enemies, so here’s 2 versions of that idea I had in my head, in the bloody spirit of Halloween, my favorite holiday this month.
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