The other figure that was delivered with my Storyboard Godzilla was of Gaira, the green Gargantua from 1966's Toho kaiju film War of the Gargantuas. It was kind of a quasi sequel to Frankenstein Conquers The World, where a fisherman who survives an attack at sea claims his boat was attacked by a giant Frankenstein monster. Some scientists (Russ Tamblyn, Kumi Mizuno and Kenji Sahara) once has a baby Frankenstein in their possession for study, but can't believe that the creature who attacked the boat was the same monster, as the one they studied was gentle. It soon becomes apparent that there are 2 monsters, the brothers Sanda (the good brown one) and Gaira (the violent green one with a penchant for eating people). The movie climaxes in a big brawl between both monsters in the middle of Tokyo.
The figure turned out looking really great, accurately capturing Gaira’s menacing look. He’s painted green, with some white and black on his eyes, and a bit of white on his teeth. Some of the paint on his mouth had rubbed off a bit, and I tried to touch it up with some white acrylic paint, but it came out looking too white and caked on, so I took it off with an alcohol pad. I may try another attempt, but for now, I’ll leave it as is. For accessories, Gaira comes with 2 different pairs of hands, flat and holding. He utilized magnets for switching them out, and they work quite well. The other accessories are two 3-D printed tanks, and a pair of battle trucks. These are a solid grey, unpainted, but still highly detailed.
Another cool thing about those magnet wrists is that you can place other magnetized stuff on it, such as these small fridge magnets I have. That way he can “hold” some extra stuff.
The figure utilizes string articulation, just like all his other figures. His head can turn side to side, tilt down, his shoulders and thighs can twist around, his elbows and knees can bend and twist, his torso can twist, lean side to side and crunch, and his ankles can pivot and turn. Due to the thick sculpt, Gaira doesn’t have very expressive articulation. Still, he can achieve some good rampaging kaiju poses. Another thing is that his upper chest is top heavy, so you have to exercise caution when posing him, so he doesn’t fall, as those small feet can only support so much weight.
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Despite the limited articulation, Ricsan Custom Toys’ Gaira is a nice figure. The sculpt is really accurate, and the interchangeable magnetic hands are a nice touch. I’ve always been a big fan of the green Gargantua, and it’s cool to have a posable version of him in the 1:12 scale. I’m thankful for these 3rd party sellers who give us figures that we might not get from companies like S.H. MonsterArts (at least for a while). As long as Ricsan Custom Toys continues to churn out these great sculpts, I will continue to purchase his way cool action kaiju figures.
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