Playmates: Godzilla/Kong

[Platypus Prime]

Oh, I'm not saying he's wrong! I'm saying I never realized before that I have no idea how to sex Godzillaforms.

[Platypus Prime]

Finally got the 11-inch '54 back long enough to photograph!



And it really IS a good one, my prior stunt-Godzilla, also a Playmates '54 but of a totally different size that I got for $2.50, doesn't even compare.





And alongside the '95, it still looks great. As noted elsewhere, not a lot of articulation, the same as '95 with the neck, shoulders, hips, ankles, and tail base. One LESS in the tail, actually, '95 has a joint near the tip '54 does not, the tail is stuck lying flat.





Still, for under $25, a great figure, this has to be one of the 'best buys' in durability, size, and general value I've seen in a while. Also looks surprisingly close to the suit from most angles. I have no idea who does the Toho Kingdom toy review section, I'm tempted to submit a guest review if they don't already have one, though I'm not sure anyone would agree with me on this one. It certainly has flaws, but my nephew borrowed it as soon as he saw it and it only just came back, so clearly as a stunt-double for expensive collectibles, while getting the interest of the next generation of fans, it works fine.

Thanks to clearance sales, this entire display cost me less than 35 bucks.

[Janjira-York]

mmmm chonky af


looks good too

[Executive Hamster]

Its definitely one of Playmates better sculpts but it still suffers from a bit of wonkyness. I would like to think they are getting closer though, and maybe soon we will start getting figures that are comparable to Bandai in quality. That would be nice.

[Platypus Prime]

I think the biggest problem is that the sculpt of the body is not quite as well defined as the tail, head, and limbs. While the shininess in pictures does not really match real life, the details just aren't done to the same level, and so the body looks oddly 'flat' compared to everything attached to it. Still, the fact that the big '54 and my little glow Re-Action Jet Jaguar cost about the same is just weird. I know that they're entirely different things with vastly different companies, production, etc, but the 'value to dollar' ratio is MUCH better for the big guy.

[JVM]

I've enjoyed Playmates' line on the whole -- the initial wave was bad and a lot of people had trouble forgiving them, and nothing is on the same level as Bandai, but it's nice to see affordable things on shelves in the United States again. It's a shame the detail and sometimes paint on these are very soft because I really think Destoroyah in particular has a great pose and articulation, easily the potential to have been the best mainstream figure of the character if the detail had been on the level of even Bandai USA. The only Playmates figure I like more is Burning Godzilla, which is just fantastic and no weaknesses jumped out at me, and Rodan who feels on par with Bandai. We probably would have had a really great Godzilla 2004 as well but the soft details and misprinted eyes ruin it completely. While Bandai outdid Playmates with Gorosaurus, I still really like what Playmates tried to accomplish with their own and they feel sufficiently unique next to each other rather than simply a superior and inferior version of one item. The new G54 looks great.

Hedorah, Megalon, Mecha-King Ghidorah and Kong 1933 were mentioned in a leak that also referenced Rodan, Jet Jaguar and Gorosaurus before they were publicly revealed, I wonder if any of them may show up at some point? I'd love to see Playmates' approaches to the latter two monsters. An action pose Megalon would be a fun cousin to the Bandai.

[Platypus Prime]

Oops! According to the Toy Review section, everything I did above where I thought I was comparing big '54 to '95 was actually 2004! Well, hardly the first time I failed the fandom, as anyone who's seen my comics knows. Here's where I found the other big one, and it looks like that review said the same thing about the body vs. limb detail two years ago for that one that I did for the new one.
https://www.tohokingdom.com/toys/giant_ ... mates.html

[Fermix]

Wasn't sure if this was already discussed but it looks like Ghidorah is landing in stores

[canofhumdingers]

Looks pretty darn good. Who’d have expected playmates of all companies to make the best ~6 inch scale MV Ghidorah?! I may have to get one for a custom paint job if it looks decently in scale next to SMHA, NECA, or Bandai MMS.

[Executive Hamster]

Its a shame that that Ghidorah looks so shoddy. Was hoping to have a more proportionate replacement for my Bandai Ghidorah. Oh well, at least I got the Heavy Paint figure on the way.

[canofhumdingers]

What’s shoddy about it? The sculpt looks pretty good from what I can see. And the proportions are probably the best of any 6” MV Ghidorah so far.

[_JNavs_]

Disagree, it looks about what you'd pay for it. Cheap plastic, molding scores, doughy headsculpts, also looks too small for any current 6 inch line up. :/

[G1985]

Its a shame that that Ghidorah looks so shoddy. Was hoping to have a more proportionate replacement for my Bandai Ghidorah. Oh well, at least I got the Heavy Paint figure on the way.

Comparing the two, I think you'd have a hard time finding anyone who thinks the Playmates version is LESS proportionately accurate than the Bandai version:

[miguelnuva]

Playmates is the same size as the Jakks Ghidorah and smaller than the bandai Ghidorah.

[Executive Hamster]

Comparing the two, I think you'd have a hard time finding anyone who thinks the Playmates version is LESS proportionately accurate than the Bandai version:

Thats not what I was saying. I was hoping to get the Playmates figure to replace my Bandai BECAUSE it was more proportionately accurate. But looking at it, nah, not a fan. Sculpt and details are a bit too soft for my likings, though not bad for Playmates, and the paint on the heads looks pretty scuffed.

[JVM]

The level of detail on a Playmates figure will never exceed a Bandai figure; frankly, if that was possible, I think we'd have already seen it. These soft details seem to be their absolute limit as it is. The only exception is sometimes the teeth are a hair more defined than Bandai counterparts, but that doesn't mean much with some of the other problems. This isn't to invalidate the lack of detail as a criticism, just to suggest I don't think we can expect them to be any better in the future. I really think this is as good as it gets from them.

[canofhumdingers]

Playmates is the same size as the Jakks Ghidorah and smaller than the bandai Ghidorah.

Do we know that for sure? I’ve not seen any actual size comparisons for the playmates yet.

[Executive Hamster]

Ive seen one. I think Ned Chang had one. Its definitely on the small side.

[canofhumdingers]

Aw you’re right. Found a YouTube video of it. Same size as Jakks. Way too small to properly scale with 6inch figures. Bummer. Oh well.

[Maverick Centigrade]

Scale aside it looks like an ok decent Ghidorah. The character is cursed to always be so off in scale because he's just so massive in the flick.