I mean lets cut to the chase, I just can't keep calling this thing Ebierion. I know who it is and YOU know who it is. Yes, he has two evenly sized claws, and yes he has hind legs and other different features. But, at the end of the day, I just can't go with Marusan's Charade.
So for the rest of this review we will refer to him as Ebby, with the proper wink and smile he deserves.
There is a very particular reason for the likeness issues going on here. It isn't because Marusan can't easily afford to pay Toho to mass produce vinyl toys based on Ebirah. No, the modern Marusan can do that VERY easily and reap tons of cash back from the profits of what the vinyl will bring them on the collector's market.
No, its because this particular toy is a re-sculpt of a classic Marusan Kaiju from a time when things weren't so good.
Come back a moment with me children...to 1972. A couple of years earlier Marusan created the VERY genre of the vinyl Kaiju before going bankrupt in 1970.One of the characters they created was Ebirah from the recent Godzilla film Godzilla vs The Sea Monster. But, a new owner and some fresh new ideas was able to see Marusan make a come back just 2 years later.
But, in 1972 the big player in the Vinyl Kaiju market was Bullmark, who was Marusan's successor in the great field of Kaiju Vinyl Toy making. So the newly re-built Marusan was up the creek in terms of getting those necessary licesnses to do what they did best, make monsters.
The Licenses were of course Ultraman and Godzilla. (Gamera and Gappa were happily being made by Nitto). So they did what any number of their Kaiju making brethren did, they made their own unique Kaiju toys that looked more than a little like some of their classic monster creations, but were JUST different enough to get around Tsubaraya's and Toho's lawyers.
Thus, Ebby was born in his first incarnation...
So when the modern day Marusan decided to make Kaiju for their new Tederos line of Vinyl Robot characters they decided to make a few of them as resculpts of their classic "original" line from 1972.
So Ebby has a very interesting, if overly complicated heritage. More so than any of his brethren in the Tederos line, because like Martin Sheen's brother he wears a famouse face, but isn't quite the real deal.
But, real-deal or not, he totally blows away any figure representation of his more famouse counterpart. Unlike Martin Sheen's brother.
First of all, as I was first made aware of on Toybox DX, this figure is translucent. You put this thing in front of a decent light source or have it outside and it just shines in stunning hues of reds and violets. The effect is just to cool for my humble abilities to describe. But, I will say this one detail was worth the price of this toy.
It also allows me to forgive one of my personal pet peeves. Live Lobsters aren't red. They are largely brown, with yellows, grays, and blues making up highlights on their shelled areas. Largely they aren't really red until they are lying on your platter. (If anyone knows of any ACTUAL speciaes of Lobster that is red while alive feel free to correct me).
Next there is the TRUE highlight of this line for me, Marusan's fantastic use of Texture. Like his brother Seabull, Ebby is just covered in every wonderful spot with lots and lots of texture. Smooth lobster-like shell, scales, spikes, and he even has sculpted, layered fur that runs from the bottom of his mouth all the way to his tail.
I'm not sure I'd eat a lobster with a furry underside, but that's OK, with his big mouth and disturbingly protruding tongue, Ebby seems more inclined to eat me.
Red, orange, and gray paint was used to add depth and give Ebby a more solid and detailed look. It works well, especially in the head region.
Finally, unlike Seabull, he does not show hints of any sort of cyborg qualities. This one is purely organic Kaiju through and through, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Ebby is another great Kaiju from Marusan's already AMAZING Tederos line and I can't recommend this figure enough.
-Ray
