Friday, January 18, 2013

Bandai Museum Gigan Review


Before Bandai Museum's first location officially closed in Matsudo, Chiba, they sold exclusive figures that could only be purchased from their location. Gigan (Showa) was one of the last two Godzilla-related figures that Bandai Museum released. What's even more interesting is X-Plus was contracted to create this limited edition toy, opposed to having Bandai reuse their previous molds.

The Figure:  The overall model has both good and bad qualities. In terms of detail, Gigan has a lot of it. From the overlapping scales, skin texture, buzzsaw tips, wings, or horns, everything seems right.




The best detail is focused on Gigan's head. X-Plus designed the mouth to be wide open with individually sculpted teeth, a larger tooth on Gigan's palate, and flexible side mandibles. The line of horns starting from the head look pretty accurate as well as feeling sharp and pointy.


Another point to admire is Gigan's movie accurate colors. The pieces where molded out of gray (hard) vinyl that has shades of matte gold and silver, along with some red and pink on other parts. Perhaps the tip of Gigan's tail would look better if that part was painted silver also.


However, the biggest problem with this figure is the body proportions are not spot on. Upon viewing Gigan's front profile, the figure's abdomen and waist is simply too thin, when such shapes should have been more plump. The form just isn't fat enough, but this model does look much better at different angles including the side profile.


Figure Specs:


Articulation:


Final Thoughts:  This model may be nowhere near exact to the actual monster, but the impressive level of details greatly makes up for such mistakes. A very hardcore collector that really stresses at most near perfect accuracy may not be pleased. Bandai Museum Gigan seems better fitted for casual fans. I recommend this figure to anyone that can get pass all of the bad points.

2 comments:

  1. Either way...I likes!

    I picked up the X-plus version recently and I really like it as part of my collection.

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    Replies
    1. Congrats on the great find! I would love to have the X-Plus version in my collection any day, but I couldn't pull the trigger on time. This version still satisfies me though, and if I find a decent deal on the X-Plus one, I'll buy him for sure.

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