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Super7 Ultimates Hesei Biollante (rose form) / SHMA Announcement


Back in March of 2022, I pre-ordered this rose form Biollante from Super7. They usually announce their stuff months to over a year in advance, and this figure finally dropped some time ago. I had gotten it from Kaiju Live, who delivered it this week. It is part of their new Godzilla Ultimates wave. While the promo photos looked nice, once the final product arrived, it didn't look as great. This rose form Biollante dropped with a Godzilla figure, and honestly, that Goji figure ended up looking really lousy, like a cheap plastic Trendmasters toy. The rose Biollante looked a little better, and since I had already paid for it, I figure I might as well see for myself what it's like. Now that I have it in hand, it's a rather cumbersome disappointment.








The sculpt is pretty decent, capturing Biollante's early rose form, which was basically a thick stump with tentacles and a giant rose that had a mouth in the middle. The paint job is just ok, the biggest disappointment being the rose mouth.


As you can see from the promo photo above, the rose and mouth are much more detailed. The rest of the paint job has a shiny finish, making it look like a cheap plastic toy instead of a high-quality collectible. From what I've heard from other collectors, Super7 are notorious for having their final release look not as good (or in some cases much worse) than the final product. The figure could have used a dark wash on the rose head, to better bring out the colors. As for accessories, it comes with an alternate open mouth rose head (why none of their Godzilla Ultimates releases have a hinged jaw as opposed to 2 separate heads is beyond me), and 2 torn vine pieces with green blood. You can plug the smaller ones into the actual vine, to make it look like it was torn off.


As for the articulation, well, it sucks. The head is on a ball peg, and can look slightly up, down, and tilt to the sides. 4 of the petals around the rose head are on hinged ball pegs, but they can't be moved too much without you accidentally popping the peg out of the base. The 2 tentacles with small mouths have 4 hinges throughout, as well as a hinged mouth that can open and close. These two tend to be kind of heavy, so they don't always hold a pose too well. The other tentacles have hinged ball pegs at the base, and those, too, can hardly move. And finally, it has a "neck" cut that can spin fully around. That neck piece and the mouths on the vines are the only articulation on this figure that is decent. I had to run several of the vines under hot water to get the hinge to move, but even when they're plugged into the base, they have minimal range without popping out if you move them too far.






I had always wanted an articulated figure of Biollante's rose form, but this Super7 release ain't much to brag about. It looks ok, so if you plan to have it sit on a shelf, then it's fine. But as a highly articulated action figure, it royally sucketh.









And on a more positive note, S.H. MonsterArts have finally announced their Godzilla 1972 figure, to go along with their (fucking fantastic) Gigan. This figure looks so damn good! So much better than I was hoping! While promo pics are not always accurate to the final release, Bandai's last few figures in the MonsterArts line, such as Gigan, Gamera 99 and Gamera 2023 all turned out fantastic, so I'm hopeful that the final product of Goji 72 will look great. It's actually the suit that was designed for the 1968 film Destroy All Monsters, and Toho got the most mileage out of that suit, as it appeared in 69's Godzilla's Revenge, 71's Godzilla vs. Hedorah, and the Gigan film of 72. By that time, the suit was pretty worn and practically falling apart. The figure will come with an alternate bloody head, to duplicate the scene when Gigan smacks him a few times and draws blood. Pre-orders go up on October 2nd, and I will absolutely be ordering this one. I've always wanted Bandai to give us more Showa suits, and they just added another to the list. It is set to officially drop in February of 2024. Can't wait!









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