PART 8: HEDORAH
Time to put this baby to bed. I hope everyone enjoyed this thread. EDIT: Hey I'm a poet and I know it.
By the time of Marmit's latest release I had seriously cut back on my spending. Not only was this new figure going to be really expensive (the exchange doesn't help) but it was going to be yet another Hedorah, a figure I had more than enough of. Buying just
one seemed pointless, let alone multiple variants. The Monster X figure figure taught me that it was insane to buy multiples of a figure you don't like. So I skipped Gigabrain's Hedorah.
This was last year, and I always regretted it because it was the only Gigabrain Toho figure I still didn't have and as of now they still haven't announced anything new, making it obvious that they only went back to the Godzilla series because of how popular Hedorah has been. There are at least five different variants of this figure so far, probably more. It's hard to find many pictures of this release. I've found pictures of the green and grey (see below for both) versions on the internet, but I can't find photos of the amazing-looking blue and purple variants. Since the store I picked mine up at wasn't selling it cheap, there was no chance of me picking up more than one, and it's doubtful I'll get another. If anyone has pictures of the blue and purple Hedorahs please post them.
I spent at hour at Toy Tokyo in NYC just trying to convince myself I needed this figure and most of that time was spent just trying to chose the one I liked the most, as they had all but the gray one. In the end I bought the black vinyl version as it's probably closest to how Hedorah looked on film. And the damn thing is just cool as hell.
First of all, this is probably the most accurate Hedorah figure out of all the toys ever made out of this monster in this particular style. And that's saying quite a bit. From the front this thing is just dead on. The eyes are perfect, with even the edges of the eyelids being sculpted on the outside of each eye. The distinctive crack across the top of the smog monster's head is carved nice and deep and I like how the front of the head flows over the body and combines with the detail on the body to give Hedorah's rubbery "scales" a sense of depth. That's something most stylized Hedorah figures have a hard time with. Unfortunately, this level of detail wasn't retained on the back of the head, which just settles on a simple joint line instead of overlapping sculpted details. Other details such as the long arms and pollution sack are faithfully reproduced. The tail is also very long and curves nicely, unlike the Marmit kit, whose tail rested completely on the ground.
And this thing is huge. It's in the standard 8-9" Marmit/Gigabrain scale, but it's sized to match the Godzillas in the line. That means this figure is a full foot tall and is just about 15" long. This is one huge, heavy chunk of vinyl, far bigger overall than the Pilot Ace version. It's no wonder this thing came boxed.
But the paint job brings this figure over the top. The vinyl itself is glossy back, it's shine accentuated by moderate silver sprays on the body and stronger sprays on the tips of the arms, feet and tail. This is an awesome look, as it sort of makes the figure look like it's molded in silver and painted black instead of the other way around. The head and body are sprayed with matted green/yellow and red, which contrasts nicely with the black base vinyl. Twin red sprays run down the tail. But the best is definitely the incredible zig-zag pattern painted on the back. This
is on the suit and the Marmit kit does the exact same thing, but this is so much cooler here. In addition, the underside of the arms are painted an insanely strong yellow and that's what made this figure catch my eye as it was on a much higher shelf than the other Hedorahs Toy Tokyo was selling and I could easily see under the arms (the photo immediately below approximates this). It's a little strong, but still incredibly cool. And of course, the eyes have the trademark star pattern. I'm still wondering how the hell Bandai left it off their 6" version.
In all this is a damn cool toy and I highly recommend it if one feels like splurging on one. Lastly, here are photos of the gray and green versions, nowhere near as nice as the black one.
Check back this weekend for a brand new spotlight thread on a Bandai favorite!!!
by Bio_Goji_89 » Wed Sep 15, 2010 7:30 pm 
:-\ 
