I didn't think there was much that could top last week's new toys (see above) and unfortunately this time I was correct. I got the (expensive) Marusan Mechagodzilla repaint today, as well as the Marmit Iron Joe Gorosaurus. Sadly, they both ended up disappointing me quite a bit.
Backtracking just a bit, this is what the original photo of the "metal"(?) release of the Marusan MG initially looked like:
And this is what the figure actually looks like:
It's a shame. The original photo succeeded in making the figure actually look like it was made of metal, while the finished product is much darker and nowhere near as metallic looking. To be fair, on it's own the paint job is actually really cool. The gun metal color really looks great and is aided by some nice subtle patches of blue and copper sprays. In fact, they were able to make the metal finish look like it had worn away with age in some spots such as the chest. And regardless of how it's painted this figure is light years ahead of the original release, which was made out of a bland baby blue vinyl. As a matter of fact, if the actual sculpt on this toy was a little stronger this might have turned out to be a really terrific-looking figure. It's just a shame it doesn't look much like the original photo.
But I was much more disappointed with the Iron Joe Gorosaurus. After the Gigan, Angilas, Megalon and Hedora figures I was expecting something fantastic. Unfortunately, this one falls short on many levels.
First off, and probably the most annoying, is that this figure is in a completely different scale entirely and doesn't fit in with any of the other figures in this line. Here is how it looks with the Angilas:
In fact, this figure is small enough to easily fit in with the original 8" Bandai line. For the most part the paint job satisfies me just fine. My one gripe is how the pink color under the lower jaw simply stops when it reaches the seam on the neck, which doesn't look natural:
But something also seems really off about the sculpt. I think it's primarily the head, which just appears to be a little small and the neck area is a bit lean. I'm not even liking the pose the figure is in. Marmit's Monster Heaven Gorosaurus was looking directly up at the sky. This figure is posed looking directly at the ground, which would have ruined it's display potential if it's awkward scale hadn't already taken care of that.
On it's own this figure really isn't horrible, especially compared to that horrid Bandai Museum figure:
But compared to the rest of the built-up Iron Joe line, Gorosaurus is a serious misfire. I guess my favorite Goro figure will continue to be the classic Bandai toy for the time being.