Did a search to see if there was a general kaiju or Godzilla thread but didn’t find one. With Bandai, Neca, Playmates, and now Super7 entering the mix, there’s a lot of Godzilla to be discussed here. Not to mention Trendmasters’ old Zilla and Gamera lines. But let us not forget there is a world of Kaiju beyond the big Gs. I figured it’d be nice to have a central place to discuss all things giant monster in the Tokusatsu genre.
There are SH. Monsterarts and NECA threads, but we don't have a general Kaiju toy thread. So, I think this is a great idea.
That was my thought. Those aren’t strictly Godzilla or kaiju threads and while there are a couple other Godzilla threads out there, they are either toy line or company specific. I’d like to see much more than just Godzilla or even Gamera talked about here. For now though I figured we’d start things off with the newly announced S7 line. Pixel Dan did a recent interview that sheds a lot of light on what we can expect. Discussion begins about 7:40. I think of note is how they had tried for the license before and already had a near completed figure that will apparently be out by summer of this year - around whenever SDCC would usually be. Not sure if that’s the actually figure ready for purchase or the preorder. Further figures however won’t be ready until early next year. They plan to do all the monsters minus Kong and Mecha Kong which are off limits. That of course means we’re getting a Gabura!
I saw that Super 7 interview. It has me really excited what we might see. Brian seems like a big fan of Toho monsters, and he said he wants to do all of them, and apparently he can with the exception of Kong and Mecha-Kong. I think I'm most interested what he does outside of ReAction and Ultimates...the Vinyl figs seem interesting, but the price on those are always so high?
I don't have time to watch the interview. How articulated are they making these, and how much are they going to go for?
Yeah I was skeptical of the Super7 announcement until I watched the interview. I mean the only downside I’m seeing so far is possibly the pricing, but they’re likely still to be more affordable than SHMs. If things turn out well I hope they take a shot at the Gamera license. I really need some of those Showa foes. They didn’t get into those specifics, but the phrase “fully articulated” was used. Pricing will likely be more than what we’ve been currently seeing from them unfortunately based on the general pricing discussion near the end of the video.
I think I misremembered the “fully articulated” remark. I tried rewatching that part of the interview but couldn’t find it. Might have been in another part of the interview. Possibly regarding the Power Rangers Ultimates as I was watching that part of the interview with just as much interest as the Godzilla part. I guess for now we can expect that the Godzilla figures will have similar articulation to what they’ve been doing. Hopefully they can get close to what Neca had going in their later figures though. But yeah rewatching the video I did clarify that we are getting that first figure later this summer. So we’ll find out soon enough what the articulation will be like.
I'm looking forward to what S7 is planning with their Godzilla Ultimates line and it's looking like they'll be doing more than Neca just by virtue of having the ability to do monsters besides Godzilla. I mean, outside of KotM Neca never touched a monster besides Godzilla. Was it a licensing issue or did they simply not want to? I'm not the biggest fan of Neca so I never really followed them much, to begin with. Yes, all their Ultimates figures are fully articulated. I've got TMNT and Thundercats currently in my collection and a Conan on the way currently. They've all got the standard articulation points you'd expect for the most part. Less so with Thundercats and Conan though since they reuse the old MOTU Classics styled bodies (these aren't bad... just slightly dated and could use some updating at this point), but the TMNT stuff is all new sculpting and has better articulation by virtue of that. Given that Godzilla can't use those old MOTU Classics bodies I expect they'll be more in line with their TMNT releases than Thundercats or Conan. The only downside I really see to S7 Ultimates is that they tend to be pricey at $45 each on average (their Transformers Ultimates are $55 each), but it's not just about the figure itself. These are basically made to order via preorders, sculpts are generally top-notch, you get loads of accessories (I'm really looking forward to seeing the loadout they give these Godzilla figures... the accessories department is one of the places S7 really shines), and they have some very fancy collector oriented packaging (if you care about such things). Overall I'd say their lines are worth the price of admission... granted some of their early MOTU Classics figures had issues after they took over from Mattel, but they've generally worked out those kinks... you just have to realize that these aren't mass release mass retail figures from a big company like Hasbro and that's one of the reasons why they're pricey for a 7" figure.
Toho Kong and Mechanikong are kind of a nightmare to navigate so I'm not the least bit surprised that Super7 can't touch them. Very excited at the possibilities of such a line and getting a company to actually do action figures domestically that aren't just Godzilla suits is enticing. I don't seem them replacing MonsterArts for me as they're probably in a similar 7" scale to their other Ultimates action figures, but by virtue of the company involved (I remember those old Super7 issues fondly), the enthusiasm on display, and (it bears repeating) a wide net of kaiju that are on the table, I am excited at seeing how deep I get into this line.
Yeah, if someone can afford Monsterarts I don't see them necessarily being interested in this line. Myself, a lot of Monsterarts are too pricey for me so I'm looking forward to what S7 puts out as a cheaper alternative.
It's not like MonsterArts produced all the characters, or had the best of quality control. There are still huge gaps that never got filled in the span of 10 years of MonsterArts so at this point we welcome other companies to take a shot and fill these gaps.
Very curious to see how the Ultimates turn out. While I enjoyed the NECA Godzilla figures for the most part it was a bummer that, outside of KotM Mothra and Rodan, they never did any of the other monsters. Really excited to hear Brian indicate that Super7 will do more than just Godzilla himself. My only real concern is that the fairly basic engineering they rely on may not suffice for bulky kaiju, so I hope they can get some articulation in there that is at least as good as what NECA was doing at the end of their line. Also curious to see if they'll do some Shogun Warriors-type kaiju toys. They'd probably be stupid expensive but that could be a fun homage.
Yeah I'm sure I'll like the S7 figures, but I just don't see them mixing in with NECA and Monsterarts in any real way. Looking at what S7 has done with other lines, if anything I'd expect it to look cartoony or very toy like; not perfect movie representations. That's just not what S7 does. That's why I still expect NECA or someone else to do Godzilla in the future that's akin to those lines.
I'm sort of expecting this as well. Their attempts at "realistic" characters tend to look fairly cartoony, though you could argue that's because they were built on what is essentially the MOTUC buck from 10+ years ago. I'm gonna presume that the Godzilla Ultimates will be entirely new sculpts, so it is possible they'll be able to go in a more real-world direction with them
Yeah I think their movie Conan figures are the most movie realistic looking figures they've done. But they're still a little cartoony. Like their Andre the Giant figure, he's mostly bare plastic so pretty toy looking outside of the headsculpts.
To be honest I'm going to see pictures of what Super7 is bring to the table and a review from some youtuber of all the pros and cons about it before I bite.
