Skip to main content

S.H. Monster Arts SP Rodan


The next figure released from the Godzilla Singular Point anime series is Rodan. Unlike all previous incarnations of the flying kaiju, the anime version resembles an actual pterodactyl or pteranodon. Rodan was always one of my favorite Toho monsters, and the flying dinos were always my favorite of the prehistoric creatures, so I had to get this release. 







SP Rodan is small, about the same size as Fire Rodan. His scale is accurate, as the anime version was smaller than both Godzilla and final form of Jet Jaguar. The paint and sculpt came out nice, accurately capturing his large head, long foldable wings, the spikes on his torso (a feature he shares with his Showa counterpart), the thin membrane going down his back, and his small feet and tail. The detailing on the mouth is particularly nice, with well sculpted and painted rows of teeth, his tiny eyes, pink membranes on the inside corners of his mouth when opened, and turkey like folds on his chin and neck. He’s painted a medium brown with highlights and shading, a grey and red beak, and several light colored spots on his wings and body. That Tamashii Nations put a lot of effort into a figure that’s smaller than the rest goes to show that they can give us great paint jobs when they feel like it. Some past releases weren’t so lucky.





The accessories he comes with are a stand, and 2 sets of tiny Rodans that are on bendy wires, also attached to a piece of plastic that can plug into the stand. The cup at the end of the main stand is sculpted on the inside so that the torso of the big Rodan’s body slides in just right, resulting in a secure fit. All 8 of the tiny ones are a solid brown, but decently sculpted. They came out much better than the small Jet Jaguar figures that came with Godzilla Ultima.



For the articulation, Rodan’s head and neck are on ball joints that allow him to look up, down and turn to the sides. His beak can open wide. His wings are where the fun engineering is at. They’re on ball joints that can twist fully around and inward. Divided into 3 segments, the middle and end are on small ball joints that allow the wings to fold backwards. His “shoulders” contain a loose piece with a membrane. This helps to not “break” the design when articulating his wings. His upper torso and waist are ball jointed and allow the body to arch back a bit. His fingers can twist around, and his ball jointed legs can move forward and spread out a bit. And finally, hinged toes. Since the joints on the folds of his wings are small, you should exercise some caution when moving them, to avoid bending them too far and risk them snapping. Otherwise, the figure moves great. Rodan can achieve both flying and crawling poses, and with the small ones on bendy wires, you can duplicate and incoming flock attack.










With this figure, Tamashii Nations is on a 3 for 3 winning streak with their Godzilla Singular Point releases. For a cartoon that was quite divisive with the fans (I found it to be a dreadful bore with occasional good moments and ideas), the figures we’ve gotten from it have all been impressive. S. H. Monster Arts SP Rodan turned out great. I’m glad that I pre-ordered him.










Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ultraman Omega finale

Episode 25, the series finale of Ultraman Omega aired this Friday. From the very first episode I was hooked, and the series continued to maintain a high quality until the surprisingly emotional end. Sorato (Omega) regained all his memories, learning that he was one of many Space Gazers, who's job is to watch a planet and not interfere with any wars between the species (in Earth's case, humans and kaiju). A space Gazer's job is to observe, study and take notes, to learn from a planet's successes and mistakes, in the hopes of finding the right formula to achieve universal peace. Having returned to his previous role as simply a watcher, Kosei, Ayumu and Sayuki were forced to rely on themselves and their team to defeat the powerful kaiju Zomera. As he continued to watch the battle, Sorato/Omega found himself wrestling with the inactive role he was meant to do and his memories of the friendships he had forged with the others, as well as the examples of human kindness he had ...
Post a Comment
Read more

S.H. Figuarts Father of Ultra

Last week I received the latest SHF Showa Ultra figure, the one and only Father of Ultra, who made his debut in the series Ultraman Ace. He’s the 1st of the two Ultra related August releases I had pre-ordered (the other being Ace Killer). Father of Ultra is easily recognized by the huge horns on his head. The rest of his body is the standard red and silver color scheme that the other original Ultra brothers have (different colors wouldn’t be introduced until Ultraman Tiga decades later). Bandai did a fine job in capturing his look, much more accurate than the highly stylized Ultra Act version, which made him quite muscular. For his accessories, he comes with 6 pairs of hands (fists, two sets of holding, 2 sets of flat/karate chop, and grappling). He has an extra right flat hand that shoots out his signature beam, called the Father Shot. What makes this different from other releases is that the beam and hand are 2 separate pieces, with a clear plastic peg on the side of the fingers that...
Post a Comment
Read more

S.H. Figuarts Ultraman Arc

With the release of Tsuburaya's new Ultra series that premiered some weeks ago, we now have a figure of the its from Bandai's S.H. Figuarts line. Upon seeing the promos for the series, I initially thought it would be rather silly and I wasn't expecting much. To my surprise, I'm really enjoying this show. I find it well written, the characters are likable, and Arc has a lot of personality. I haven't enjoyed a new Ultra series this much since Z. So I went ahead and purchased the figure of Arc. It was pretty cheap, and was delivered from AmiAmi earlier this last week. I opted for the plain figure. They also have two other versions of him wearing his armor up for pre-order. The orange Solis Armor version, which is due in October, and the blue Luna Armor, which is due in November. Anyway, Arc resembles Ultraman Orb, especially the shape of his head. He's primarily red and silver, with black on his shoulders, upper chest and neck. He sports a blue crystal in the middl...
Post a Comment
Read more