Review - Gigan 1972 (50th Memorial Box) (Movie Monster Series)

Gigan is one of those Kaiju you love to hate - snickering, evil, and iconically surreal, the mutilated cyber-chicken is definitely one of the most beloved - albeit, relatively obscure - Godzilla monsters, returning to face Godzilla once again as recently as 2022's Godzilla Vs Gigan Rex short film. Debuting 40 years earlier in 1972's Godzilla Vs Gigan - the first Godzilla film to feature gratuitous neon-red blood - he's always been one of my favorite Kaiju, with his endearingly strange design and loud personality; one of the only classic Showa era monsters who seemed not only aware of, but completely elated by the death and destruction brought by he and his space-alien cohorts. 

This particular Gigan comes from 2005's Godzilla 50th Anniversary Memorial Box, a highly sought after box set of twenty figures celebrating Godzilla's colorful history in vinyl. Before that, though, the figure was featured in 1997's Godzilla Island line, and is surprisingly still reissued in various forms to this day. Guy's been around.

Gigan looks awesome - there's a few issues perhaps due to the sculpt's age that superfans might notice, such as his shortened wings, or sort of thin build, but by and large he's the horrible BDSM chicken right from the movies. I really like his layered Ghidorah-esque scales and fleshy wings, contrasted against the flat cybernetic modifications defining his body. I especially dig how they've subtly replicated the suit's folds and wrinkles, meshing into the musculature and grain fading into his smooth silver appendages. It's a great figure to just look at and appreciate - The character definitely comes to life through the sculpt itself.

That said, I do think there is a small lack of texture detail compared to other MMS figures; though it doesn't all that negatively effect a design as sleek as Gigan's, he could've used more gravelly nicks and scars. The more obvious - albeit, admittedly minor - issue is the filled-in mouth, a recurring "thing" with this era's figures. It's sculpted in a typical, open roar, complete with sharp little teeth, but the blank space was left totally solid. Doesn't look all that bad, per se, but I'd rather they had just made his beak closed. Least could've painted in the void. Tends to blend in fine, though - you can hardly see it in my pictures. 

Gigan moves in four places - both arms, both legs - five, if you break the glue seal on his tail. Not that you should. But you could. Pretty average for the MMS series, though a neck swivel (or, yknow, the tail) would've been nice. Still, for a somewhat static pose and limited articulation, I think you can get a lot of cool action out of Gigan. He's so full of personality. 

The Memorial Box Gigan features a unique black redeco, most likely referencing Bandai's first 1989 Gigan figure; though, it's also a pretty close representation of how Gigan looked onscreen throughout his debut film - the intense, grungey lighting often making him very dark and ominous, especially compared to his more popular appearances later on.

It's a killer look that really brings out his shiny silvers and golds, and I definitely prefer it to the standard issue figure's seafoam green. Always looked a bit too soft. There's a bit of overspray in certain areas, but the majority of the applications are very clean cut and sharp. There's even some nice shading on his neck and wings. The only real issue is that the fools of Bandai seem to have forgotten about Gigan's epic tail spikes... leaving them - gasp - unpainted. Break out your silver sharpies, folks. 

Gigan's a tried and true classic MMS figure, still seeing re-releases to this day; with 2018's standard reissue, and 2022's glossed "retro color" variant. I think the Memorial Box variant by far offers the figure's best overall appearance - perfectly capturing Gigan's wicked campy, evil charm - and though its more typical, modern variations are naturally much more affordable, and widely available, I'd say he's worth the extra hunt for just that slick black getup. I do think an updated sculpt would be nice - the closest we've had is Bandai Creations / America's 2002 figure, which wasn't really an upgrade, as much as an... alternative?, somewhat resembling Gigan's 1973 Godzilla Vs. Megalon suit - but, it's hardly necessary, as this old chicken still looks killer. 

Check out my previous MMS reviews:
Godzilla Evolved

Gamera 1965

Godzilla Minus One

Godzilla 1994

Pondering The X From Outer Space

I recently rewatched an obscure Kaiju classic, The X From Outer Space; a wholly forgotten, yet very creative and engaging mega-monster flick all but lost to the sands of Toku time. It and it's even rarer 2008 sequel, Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit, have been among my favorite Japanese horror movies since I salvaged them from the depths of TPB as a teen; so, I was very interested to see how it holds up all these years later, finally returning to my gross, shower-free Kaiju phase of long ago.

The X From Ouster space is, for the uninitiated, essentially about a cast of astronauts sent on a veiled suicide mission to Mars; which, in all previous expeditions, has been fatally cut short by an unknown UFO. Of course, besides the whole landing on Mars thing, the astronauts' duty is to report on this mysterious craft should it once again appear - which, it most certainly will.

Along the way, the captain, a bit of an unintentional machismo-idiot conspicuously swooned over by both his fiancé, and flashy blonde co-astronaut, experiences the dreaded space sickness; leading them to visit an imaginative base on the moon, adding the hilariously unwilling Doctor Stein, a chronically pissed off man forced to monitor the ill captain, to the crew, as they return on-course for Mars.

After their inevitable run-in with the alien craft, a mass of flashing eggs wrapped in an odd, thick substance appear on the tail end of the ship; a small egg from which is, wisely, removed and contained by the captain, soon brought back to earth for analysis. As the great minds of earth deem it better to celebrate the crew's triumphant return rather than monitor the literal alien, it escapes - Guilala, the metal-headed astro-chicken beast, emerging from a wicked eruption of fireworks and flame with a unique guttural roar. Awesome.

From here, things go south real fast for the citizens of Japan -  as Guilala wildly races towards civilization, the story becomes almost real-time, following both Guilala's rampage and the astronauts' mad race to orbit, hoping to synthesize a defense against the monster in the vacuum of space, utilizing the unknown substance. As the defense forces hurriedly study the creature, turns out, he's just greedy; targeting any, and all sources of energy - especially, nuclear - as he grows larger and stronger.

Successfully producing the coveted "Guilalanium", the crew return, only for their Earth base itself to be the next target of the power-hungry alien kaiju; the captain racing off, luring Guilala away with highly radioactive fuel in a wicked car chase as he is finally lead to his demise - jets bombarding the monster with the insulating Guilalanium substance, reducing his power, as he shrinks once again to a small, flashing egg. 

In the end, Guilala is sent on a one-way rocketship to nowhere, blasting beyond our galaxy, from whence he came; and, the idiot captain learned nothing. 

While hunting for this movie, I somehow came across what I believe are two totally different English dubs - really strange a movie this obscure would get two go-arounds. One is terrible, one is.. fine. Sure, it's blasphemy to skip the Japanese version, but all things considered, the dub I watched was pretty well done. I appreciated the on-and-off attempts give the very multinational cast mostly correct accents - dated as that may be - but the dubbing on the main mission director, Doctor Swedish, genuinely sounded like Father Guido Sarducci. The moon base's Doctor Stein (awesome name) is also hilariously performed - maybe by the same dude? - constantly on edge, and totally manic as he's a bit inexplicably coerced to join the crew. I love his screaming rant at the blonde astronaut about her crappy space food. Too bad he disappears from the movie about halfway through. 

I really dig the 60s era adventurous spirit, and bright eyed optimism - the very animated, fun music, interesting world and overall goofy vibe are totally engaging, and despite appearances, it never feels low-end or especially crappy. It takes itself seriously in the same way any fantastical sci-fi of the time did; so, in that, there's a lot of room for silliness. A good example is the oversized fruit served on the moon base, explained away by the lack of atmosphere. So creative, so weird! At times this movie feels full on Disney style whimsical.

Awesome effects - again, you go into this expecting schlock, but beyond the inherent and intentional comedy of it all, it's really well done. Lots of really creative shots and cool cinematography, with perspective views of the monster and military forces, as well as various nicely done ground level shots giving great spotlight to the beautiful sets. You can tell they're fake, but it's like a painting - every little, hand made detail is so entrancing. Guilala, portrayed by future King Ghidorah actor Ryu Hariken, is a totally mental design, but very well performed; spastic, childish, and, appropriately, alien, seemingly very entertained by destruction. My favorite part's definitely when he lifts up a massive model ship and tosses it towards a power plant, screeching in joy. You can tell a lot of money went into this production and it's a shame it's become next to public domain. 

All in all, it's hard to call this one a must-see for anyone but dedicated Kaiju nerds; while the effects sequences are awesome, and the overall spirit is lots of fun, the story itself is extremely clunky, offering more in terms of flighty narm-charm than anything resembling depth. Not necessarily uncommon for this era of Kaiju, and in that, there's still a lot to enjoy - it's worth seeing for the loveably, hilariously manic Guilala alone, one of the all-time strangest, coolest and absurdist monsters. A true King. Check'er out.

Review - Godzilla Evolved (Movie Monster Series)

Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, the latest Godzilla entry, recently became the highest grossing Godzilla film of all time - crazy, right? - and I'm so here for it. This year's previous Godzilla flick, the Japan-grown masterpiece, Godzilla Minus One, was a beautiful, moving piece of art... but, in the best way possible, Hollywood's Godzilla X Kong is the complete and total opposite - hyper, unrelenting schlock that's nothing but popcorn-munching fun. Very much in the vein of Godzilla's stupider classics, such as Godzilla Vs Megalon or Godzilla: Final Wars. It's awesome to be a fan during a time when two wholly dissimilar, yet equally successful Godzilla films have been released back-to-back, proving just how resilient and multifaceted the dancing rubber dinosaur can be.

Godzilla himself received a redesign for the feature, sporting a flashy new look perfectly in line with the Monsterverse series' continuing delve into insanity; out with the realism, in with the "Hollow Earth". Very much in the vein of the classic Showa film's incarnations, or more specifically, Godzilla 2000, Godzilla sports a slimmer build, with extreme features - huge, jagged pink spines illuminating his skin, glowing with power as he leaps, runs and even flies. It's that kind of Godzilla movie. It's a badass design that I've loved since it leaked... though, you gotta admit, not the best first impression. If you know, you know.

The figure has very pretty detail, especially the intricate textures of his crocodilian skin and sleek, almost fleshy spines. Sharp scales, gills and spikes cover Godzilla's body from head to toe - even the bottoms of his elephantine feet are nicely sculpted. Neat! I love his evil, murderous smile - he's jacked up on that Tiamat juice, and he's one happy boy. I think he's even got teeny-tiny pupils sculpted in there, though, I can't really tell. He's even comparatively tall next to past MonsterVerse MMS Gojis, being evolved and all. They really captured his agile new look; though, he could've been a dash wider in the face and hips, and something about his long legs and sort of limp arms can feel a bit lifeless, especially for this incarnation. All MMS figures share this static, standard pose, so you can't fault it too hard, but I do wish they worked a bit more energy into his base sculpt. Just splitting hairs.

Despite only having four points of articulation, he can, surprisingly, strike just about all the wacky action poses you need; his static limbs actually lend themselves quite well to that, easily fitting into a running leap, or a big, triumphant roar. To me, that's what make the best MMS figures so cool - they manage to pack a lot of imagination and imagery into addictively simple designs, even here. Still, a neck or (intentional) tail swivel would've been nice. 

Godzilla's paint is comparatively minimal, but solid. It definitely catches the eye, and beyond that, gets the point across. His spines and eyes are a very pretty, shiny salmon, standing out amongst the typically grey and gothic Monsterverse characters; even the additional tail, elbow, and head spines are fully painted, something many fans were happy and surprised to see. Otherwise, his little individually painted teeth are a dark off-white, with his body cast in a dusty dark blueish-black. I think he looks good, though further highlights and decos could've definitely elevated what admittedly is a bit of a matte figure - despite what the majority of merchandise will have you believe, Evolved had a strong sandy tan undertone to his charcoal skin, which is totally absent from this and most other figures. I think some soft sprays on the face and chest in particular could've captured that.

My only real major complaint beyond his sort of rigor-mortis is that, because of the figure's seemingly softer vinyl, his legs and body are easily warped and can lean a little too close together when standing. He can look a little too thin - it might even just be a poor sculpting choice, I'm not totally sure. It can be somewhat fixed with good ol' hot air, or by simply posing him differently - that trailer shot running pose really suits him well - but, unfortunately, Evolved tends to get stuck in a bit of a Pee-Pee Stance.

Evolved Godzilla is a wicked little figure - perfect for fans looking for a well made, affordable representation of Evolved, or, y'know... kids. It's important not to forget that a certain amount of MMS figures are aimed more for the youngin's than collectors, and I think this guy falls into that category. While he's nothing necessarily incredible, and may not be a must-buy if you own the pretty similar previous MonsterVerse Godzillas, he's definitely my favorite MonsterVerse MMS so far for his cool design alone! Could've used more paint applications, perhaps a stronger pose, but the pure detail to his sculpt really carries.

Check out my previous MMS reviews:

Gamera 1965

Godzilla Minus One

Godzilla 1994