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S.H. MonsterArts Godzilla Ultima



 My last late November pre-order arrived, just before the holidays. It is none other than Godzilla Ultima from the anime Godzilla Singular Point. I had been looking forward to watching it, and when it finally dropped, found myself straining to sit through it. I found it better than the Godzilla Earth trilogy, but not by much. The Godzilla design, however, looked very nice, and the promo photos that Tamashii Nations put out looked promising, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger. Now that I have him in hand, he's as great as the pics promised.









The figure is large, though most of his bulk is in his thick thunder thighs. He's a much more interesting design than what we got with Godzilla Earth, with his mouth full of teeth, including two very large ones protruding from the upper lip, and his dorsal spines that are shaped like maple leaves, cream colored with red veins stretching through them. What makes this guy stand out, though, is that massive tail that's about 18" long. That will be the thing that takes up most of the room on whatever shelf you decide to place him on. His paint job is really nice, at least on mine. His eyes are yellow with small amber pupils, and since they were clearly done by hand, I'm happy that mine were painted well. His mouth and teeth are also decently done, with only some mild yellow bleeding onto the sides of his teeth. I had seen photos of other's figures where the paint was quite sloppy in the mouth, and the gum line came down too far. Mine turned out just fine.





For his accessories, this is where Tamashii Nations skimped out. They include an alternate head with the mouth open very wide, for when he shoots his beam, but surprise, surprise, they didn't give us a beam. Instead, we get 2 tiny, crudely sculpted Jet Jaguar figures that look like they were made out of clay. They didn't even bother to paint them. I would have gladly preferred a beam instead of those mostly useless clunks of plastic. But at least the main event, the figure itself, is great.








As impressive as he looks, his articulation is where he will really wow you. His head is on a ball joint with several seams in the neck, which allow him to look up, down and to the sides pretty well. For his regular head, the top and bottom jaws are separate pieces that each attach via ball joint, so you can utilize them both to open his mouth. He sports ball jointed upper torso and waist that can move forward a bit and a decent amount to the sides. His ball jointed shoulders can move forward and out, he sports an upper arm pivot, bend at the elbows and knees, hands on ball joints that can twist in all directions, ball jointed shoulders that can click downward, allowing a very wide range for wide leg stances, has joints at both the ankles and feet which allow a good range of movement, and he sports floating pieces around each thigh to help conceal any gaps. And finally, his super massive tail, which is composed of multiple joints and can twist and turn in all directions, and does a great job of holding those poses. I was extremely impressed that I was able to articulate the tail without the joints falling apart. Their Godzilla Earth figure from a few years ago is about the same size, and was quite cumbersome; you couldn't pose it without a tail piece or arm easily popping off. I still don't understand why they felt the need to make his tail so long, and it is quite heavy, so when picking up the figure, you'll need another hand to hold his tail, otherwise it will droop down. But at least it won't crumble into pieces, so hats off to Tamashii Nations for whatever miracle they utilized in its engineering.








Despite being thick, Godzilla Ultima is really not that tall, standing only about 7", so he won't eclipse any other MonsterArts, Figuarts or NECA kaiju if you pose them next to him. His tail, on the other hand, has them all beat. 









I gotta hand it to Tamashii Nations. They give us a release with meh accessories, but damn, did they go all out on making sure the actual star of the package was worth it. Godzilla Ultima sports a fantastic sculpt, superb articulation, and nice paint job (at least with my copy). I suspect that they may re-release him in another year or so, in special color version, with glowing spikes and maybe (just maybe) a beam. But then again, they gave us Heat Ray versions of Godzilla 2001 & 2021 without an actual heat ray, so who knows what the hell they'll do. Since they knocked this figure out of the park, I'm willing to give them a pass on those cheap, laughable tiny Jet Jaguars that come with it. If you own any pets of the feline persuasion, maybe you can utilize them as cat toys. The main attraction, however, is a star!






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