Earlier in the year, Tamashii Nations announced they would be re-releasing their Gamera 1999 figure. When the promo photos dropped, it was obvious that they had resculpted the head to be more screen accurate to the sleeker, more menacing look he had in the film. Along with a different paint job, they also added an extra accessory. I liked the original release, despite the inaccurate head sculpt and paint glob on his lower row of teeth that made it look like he went overboard on toothpaste, but this new one looked appealing, so I decided to preorder it. Now that it’s here, I can say the resculpted head very much makes a big difference. And since Gamera 3 is my favorite of the 90’s trilogy, I’m quite pleased with it.
The accessories include a flight stand with an orange, fiery base, interchangeable wing arms for flying, an interchangeable flight tail, 2 small flight fins, a translucent, fiery claw called the banishing fist, and bloody, cut off right arm segment. These last 2 parts are from the scene in the climax where Gamera blasts his arm off, then gathers energy in a phantom fist and uses it to kill the monster Irys. To change into his flight mode, you pop out the arms, legs, lower torso segment and tail, and pop in the flight ones. For the small fins, you remove 2 small tabs on each side, and plug in the fins. Then you place the figure onto the stand. For the arms, you pop out the regular hand and plug in the cut off appendage or banishing fist. The cut off appendage is a bit hard to plug in at first; you may want to heat up the joint a bit to make it go in easier. Otherwise, everything else is easy to switch out.
In addition to the head sculpt being different, this newer figure is painted a darker grey. His shell has a more vibrant green paint stripe down the middle, his nails and toes are more yellow, and his torso segments are painted individually, with yellow in the middle, and green on the outer edges. This looks much more arresting than the simple tan with green splotches that the older release had.
Tamashii Nations did a great job of sculpting Gamera 99 so that he better resembles his screen counterpart. His lower jaw is thinner, his mouth opens wider, the spikes on his head are more pronounced, as well as having additional small spikes on the sides of his jaw. The teeth are painted individually, and the inside of the mouth is painted and sculpted well, including his tongue. The eyes appear to be printed decals, green with yellow irises and black pupils. I’m happy to report that they turned out good and symmetrical. His shell has scrapes and bruises running along its surface. He sports spikes under each elbow and behind his ankles. For his cut off arm, there is bright green paint to mimic blood, as well as 2 bone segments that stick out. I appreciate that they added this small detail. All of these things add up to a much better figure.
The articulation includes head and neck on a ball joint. The head can look far up, down and to the sides. His tail is multi-segmented and can turn a decent amount in each direction. His arms and legs are on multiple ball joints. Arms can move in and out, elbows can bend a bit inward, and his knee and ankles have a decent range. Gamera won’t be able to do karate moves like the Teenage Ninja Turles, but for a giant, fire breathing tortoise, he can move well enough.
S.H. Monster Arts Gamera 99 Kyoto Battle version is a great release, and a worthwhile upgrade from their original figure. The screen accurate head sculpt, vivid paint, detailed sculpt and plentiful extras make him worth getting, even if you own the older release (and especially if you were unsatisfied with it, as quite a few collectors were). Since they will be releasing Irys in August, it was fitting that they would revisit this figure and give it a retool. I love the Heisei Gamera trilogy, so I couldn’t pass on a better version of Gamera 99. He turned out great.
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