Wastelnd: Review - Godzilla 2014 (Movie Monster Series)

I've always had rather mixed feelings for America's second big swing at a Godzilla picture, Godzilla 2014; the grand reintroduction of the iconic monster after a ten year absence following the epic failure of Godzilla: Final Wars. On one hand, it's a huge, conceptually impressive, and visually engaging blockbuster... on the other, it's boring, underachieving, and not especially satisfying or even memorable outside of one or two notable elements. Not unlike today's figure!

While I'll always love the movie for being the first Godzilla flick I had ever seen in a genuine theater - a week or two before release, no less, which was an incredible experience - it's also hard to willingly watch a Kaiju movie that... isn't much of a Kaiju movie. While they make pretty excellent use of the titular monster, when they use him, it's also obnoxiously sparing, as they repeatedly tease the audience with his grand, horrific appearance, only to instantly cut away to some random somebody babbling their heads off. If you've seen the movie, you know exactly what I'm on about. It's almost infuriating - show me the boy!

The Movie Monster Series had slowed to a halt by the 2010s, with the Godzilla film series itself going through an aforementioned period of hibernation. After years of absence following a handful of limited releases in 2008, MMS returned in 2014 with a two brand new figures; Godzilla himself, and his latest threat, the MUTO. These figures are very nostalgic to me, and loads of fans, being some of the nicest G'14 - and cheapest - merchandise available at the time. Cool memories.

In many ways G'14 is a very accurate, and nicely detailed sculpt; but, at the same time, it's a bit plain, and stilted. I've always found his rather stock pose awkward - while there's some nice sculpt work going on that's true to the onscreen design, it's also vaguely smooth and and undefined. For one reason or another, he's noticeably on the smaller end of MMS figures - not by much, but he's definitely a little atypically scrawny; reminds me of Bandai's 5 inch Ultra 500 series. Something about the way his legs and thighs are cut and sculpted really doesn't lend itself to poseability, making him overall very stiff and lifeless paired with that rigor mortis sculpt. I do think it vaguely captures his puffed-up, intimidating bear chest, and I suppose it is the more or less standard MMS "look", but overall the figure's pretty blasé.

Really, the sculpt is fine, if uninteresting, but the paint is where things really get shaky. Cast in a sort of shiny dark brown that well matches the film's gritty, dirt red color scheme, light tan sprays detail his big ol' belly, inner thighs, and claws, with a blood red mouth, shiny orange eyes - with pupils! - and... a solid, eye-meltingly white chunk of teeth. Yikes. Maybe those horse-like veneers were aiming to capture G'14's memorable slasher smile, but as far as execution goes... Yikes. Kind of throws the whole likeness, if you ask me. The odd tan highlights are also a little uncharacteristic, barely, if at all present on the actual design, and not very natural or necessary; though, I guess it's a nice touch of contrast. Probably would've looked better with dark greenish-blue sprays. In a moment of diabolical foreshadowing to the future of the MMS line, Godzilla's belly spray only reaches to the tail's midpoint, leaving the rest of the very long tail unpainted. Overall, the paint's... odd, but generally sharp, and I appreciate the touches of extra effort such as the sprays, or pupils, unnecessary as it may be.

Much like the film itself, in the ten plus years since release, G'14 has become very sought after; never seeing any sort of re-release, re-deco or otherwise - essentially being outmoded by the MMS Godzilla 2019. While I wouldn't say he's a great figure, or a must-have, it does capture the increasingly beloved design; and, being fair, there's aspects of it that do feel slightly higher quality than the average MMS nowadays. I think if you're a fan of G'14, you'll be... almost satisfied; I imagine most who are after this guy are moreso completionists than die-hard GarethGoji fanboys - and, for them, I say go for the truly wicked Bandai Creations Godzilla 2014; an American MMS equivalent with so much more to it's sculpt, genuinely bringing G'14 to life. While it's also growingly rare, I'd say it's absolutely the version worth hunting for.