Sunday, April 28, 2013

Bandai Ultimate Monsters: Gigan, King Caesar, and Ebirah


Besides the common six inch scale figures and above, I enjoy collecting smaller toys as well. Years ago, while living in Oahu, I was fortunate enough to find these figures from a local hobby/anime shop. Bandai Ultimate Monsters made six different figures of monsters from Godzilla Final Wars (GFW) that were individually boxed under the same box art, meaning you have no idea what monster you will have inside. Through my numerous attempts, I was able to collect up to three different monsters.

GFW Gigan


Gigan is made out of solid PVC and was already disassembled once he was taken out of the box. However, the assembly process is not difficult at all, but if anyone needs further help, there are instructions printed inside the box. Rip the edges along the box and lay them flat to get a better view.


Gigan looks nicely detailed for something shorter than six inches. Gigan's fixed pose looks as if he's about to approach his opponent and unleash his very first strike. All of the pointy, blade-like parts feels pretty sharp, which may hurt someone when the figure is handled irresponsibly.



Gigan comes in metallic blue, while other parts are painted silver, and his visor is translucent red. Gigan's visor does glow, when held up to a light. Although the metallic blue looks fantastic, the arms, legs, and tail could have been colored black instead, just like Bandai's standard eight inch scale.

Unfortunately, there are no points of articulation on this figure, so Gigan's pose is fixed. Gigan comes with a clear stand that fits on his right foot for more stability. Technically, the figure can stand on it's own, so luckily the stand can be easily removed depending on someone's preference. In my opinion, Gigan is my favorite figure from this series.

GFW King Caesar


To be honest, King Caesar (old and new) has never been one of my personal favorite kaiju. To be fair, He is not weak at all and has some pretty cool abilities like his reflective eyes that can deflect Mecha Godzilla's eye beams right back. King Caesar just falls a tad short of my preference due to my liking of dinosaurs and other reptiles. With that said, GFW King Caesar figure did impress me though.


Design wise, King Caesar does pay homage of himself in GFW without fail. This toy captured all of King Caesar's physical traits perfectly and I particularly get a kick out of glancing at his dog looking ears. He is a lot slimmer than his previous Showa version, but that was how King Caesar was originally made, so I can't fault Bandai for that. King Caesar's face is perhaps the best aspect on this figure because the features immediately reminds me of lion costumes used for lion dancing.


King Caesar does have at least two points of articulation in the arms. Both limbs can rotate at the shoulder, but they are hindered because of King Caesar's stance. King Caesar does stand quite stable all by himself, but he does have a clear stand for better stability just in case. I played it safe and chose to leave the clear stand on. Despite my views of King Caesar's goofy looking appearance, he is still a cool, solid figure to have and any fan of this beast can certainly appreciate this toy as well.


GFW Ebirah



Ebirah is the most interesting entry in this wave, but that isn't necessarily bad thing either. Assembling Ebirah can seem a bit overwhelming at first because you have to piece every single flimsy leg onto the body, which required a few redo(s) during the process.


I am overall impressed with how this figure was designed because there were a lot of neat looking details that I would have never noticed or expected on a crustacean figure. Ebirah's carapace has a few lines of thorns than run all the way down to the tail, the shell has a rough bumpy texture, his pincers look life-like, and the face looks very accurate. The crustacean also has a set of little swimmers underneath it's tail. The only downside of this figure is how some pieces, especially the legs and antennae easily falls off, which could push a collector's patience so far that he or she may end up gluing those limbs together. I feel compelled to do it because I prefer to keep my figures in their original condition. For Gigan and King Caesar, the clear stand may or may not be useful, but in this case, Ebirah does need it at all times.


Overall, Ebirah blew me away with the awesome array of fine points that speak how good the quality is. Even though the crustacean falls apart a few times, just pop those pieces back in and everything should be fine. Ebirah is best used as a display piece and should not be handled too much. Who likes to put this monster back together all the time? Ultimate Monsters' GFW Ebirah is strongly recommended

3 comments:

  1. How much did you pay for each of the figures? I just got Hedorah for $33 and King Caesar for $11 on Ebay. The cheapest I can find Ebirah for is $37.95 and I don't know if I should get it for that price since it's not that big and it falls apart easily.

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    1. Hi Landon! I bought these figures from a local anime shop years ago when these figures were new. I don't remember the exact price for them, but I remember not paying a lot for them. I'm guessing around $11 or less.

      Ebirah's individual legs don't fit in as snug as its pincers. The figure's weight and ability to keep Ebirah's legs in the socket is heavily depended on the clear plastic stand and I don’t recall having the hassle to reassemble Ebirah’s legs every day or very often once everything was put together and then supported. Leaving the figure alone after being assembled and displayed is recommended. I think some collectors on forums stated they worked around the issue by gluing the legs in the sockets, which could explain why some figures are photographed without a stand, but I personally haven't tried it. There aren’t many figures of GFW Ebirah around unfortunately, and this one is the biggest and most detailed figure of Bandai so far.

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