Standing in at a towering 5 1/2 inches, all the way from 1994 is Bandai's Little Godzilla, the second "stage" of Godzilla's "son" from the Heisei Series as depicted in 1994's Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla. Believe it or not, this little guy was once considered to be among the rarest of the 'modern' Bandais, regularly fetching over $200 if and when they turned up for sale. Now he appears far more frequently, and at a much more affordable price.

 

Side View

Toho took the Baby Godzilla from Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993) in a strange, yet familiar, direction when they mysteriously changed the more realistic looking Baby into the Minilla-ish, green skinned Little Godzilla for the following film, and naturally the toy reflects this change from the already-reviewed Baby Godzilla '93 from Bandai. Besides the obvious change in color and appearence, the first thing you'll notice is the change in body type, Little G is pretty thick, you might even say he's getting quite chubby. He features moveable arms, and limited articulation in his legs, though his enormous thighs prohibit smooth movement.

 

	Godzilla and Little Godzilla

Bandai did a nice job in capturing the little monster's cute appearence. I suppose my main gripe about the figure would be the paint job on the mouth, which hangs open yet is not hollowed out or painted in, leaving a blob of green vinyl between Little Godzilla's top and bottom teeth. The rest of the paint job is decent, with the teeth and fins done in white (though sadly the claws on both his hands and feet are neglected and are unpainted green vinyl), his torso with nicely sculpted individual scales is yellow, eyes are orange and black, though I must say I wish the green was a bit darker to better match the suit.

 

Side View

Little Godzilla's screen time was limited in his film, so I'm glad Bandai made a figure at all, but he's a bit too big to fit in perfectly with the re-re-released Heisei Godzilla figure, he seems to stand a bit taller than he should. At least he looks suitably dwarfed by SpaceGodzilla, should you choose to recreate their "epic" standoff. As a word of caution, oddly enough, perhaps due to the one-time demand and selling price for this figure, Little Godzilla is heavily bootlegged. It is not always easy to tell the bootleg figure, though it is slightly shorter than the authentic Bandai and the yellow torso looks a bit orangeish, though this can be hard to tell if you do not have the genuine Bandai to compare it with side by side. As a general rule, check the bottoms of the feet. Bootlegs generally do not have the "BANDAI" name stamped into the foot. Minor issues with the choice of color and scale aside, Little Godzilla gets a 3 1/2 out of 5 from me. I've always had a soft spot for the character, but he's just a bit too big and the color is just a little off. Good figure, but I'd like to see him re-done some day. Little Godzilla toys are incredibly scarce with most companies simply not producing him, so if you're a fan by all means hunt down the Bandai, it's a lot easier now than it was about 7 years ago....when I paid more than I'd like to admit for the damn thing...