The late August kaiju pre-orders have arrived. The first of the two I received was Gamera Rebirth, from the 2023 Netflix anime, that's set to premiere on September 7th. Based on the trailers, the series looks to be quite action packed, with Gamera squaring off against newly designed versions of his classic villains Gyaos, Jiger, Guiron, Viras and Zigra (my boy Barugon is feeling ghosted). The new depictions of these kaiju all look quite fantastic in my opinion. Gamera resembles a snapping turtle, with his short, stubby neck and long front claws. I'm happy that Tamashii Nations decided to drop him before the premiere of the anime, though that does cause me some concern. Is the series so bad that they knew the figure wouldn't sell, so that's why they released it first? Considering how awful and dull the Godzilla animes were (the Earth trilogy and Singular techno-babble Point), I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Gamera is shown respect with a good show. Then again, if it is good, it will make all the Godzilla fans wonder what the hell happened to their beloved King of the Monsters? But anyway, onto the figure.
From my understanding, they worked with the source material when designing this figure, and the result is stunning. Gamera looks fantastic, the sculpt looking accurate to the animation, and the paint job is impressive. He's several shades of dark green, with highlights throughout his body, including on his belly, the zig zag pattern a lighter tone to make it appear to be glowing with energy. The eyes are green with black pupils, and the teeth are each painted individually, proving once again that Tamashii Nations can do fantastic work when they feel like it. Why Godzilla, the crown jewel of the S.H. MonsterArts line, doesn't get mouth paint nearly as good as our favorite kaiju turtle is a mystery. For accessories, he comes with a flight base that's molded in translucent green, appearing like a ripple blast, and a clear stand. He also has a flight torso and flight fins.
You switch him into flight mode by popping out the arms, legs and tail, then popping out the 2 pieces of the torso. Then you attach the middle piece of the torso onto the flight torso and attach it back onto the body. Then you pop in the flight fins. The way the stand is shaped, Gamera fits perfectly onto the base. On my figure, the right leg seemed to be stuck pretty good, so I applied a tiny drop of shock oil, and that helped to lubricate it enough to pop it out. Everything else was fairly easy to assemble.
Articulation includes several ball joints on the neck and head, hinged jaw, hinged tongue, ball joint shoulders and arms, ball joint thighs and ankles, and several ball joints on the tail. His arms can be raised high and out, he can look up, down and to the sides. His legs kick up and out to the sides a bit, but have limited movement on the foot due to the sculpt; his ankles able to turn just a bit. His tail can move, but not too high, as the sculpt of the shell doesn't allow for it. The arms and the head are where you'll get the most movement. This Gamera's arms seem to have the best range of motion out of all the ones released. If you own any of the other S.H. MonsterArts Gamera figures, then you know this kaiju tortoise won't be the most expressive, but what he can do is good enough.
Ultimately, Gamera Rebirth is a very impressive figure. Starting with the Godzilla Singular Point releases (Godzilla Ultima, Rodan and Jet Jaguar), Tamashii Nations have been putting out quality figures based on anime characters. I'm hoping that Gamera's anime outing is a success, so that perhaps Tamashii Nations will release some of his co-stars. I would love to see a Gyaos, Guiron or Zigra figure based on the series designs. As for the star, he's turned out just great!
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