A juvenile, feline Kaiju Freddy Krueger, Gabara is a fascinating, and obscure character in the vast Godzilla rogues gallery; only appearing once, in a film largely dismissed by the fan community for its starkly family-oriented vibes, offering a cutesy, moral-driven romp in place of the usual sci-fi melodrama. The wicked Gabara represents a "real life" bully of the same name, who continually persists the young protagonist, Ichiro; an isolated boy who escapes his anxieties by - what else? - astral projecting to Monster Island, where he and Minilla learn to face their fears with the help of the baby kaiju's atomic father. Together, the duo prove the solution to bullying is... violence! How nice.
Being a somewhat unpopular monster, from a somewhat unpopular film, Gabara was among the few classic Godzilla enemies to never see a Movie Monster Series release; that is, until 2024, with the announcement of the DREAM5 box - a set consisting of five popular fan-request kaiju, most of which, like Gabara, hadn't seen an MMS before this collection.
A dream come true for fans of the great Gabara, the figure simply, but effectively captures the nightmare beast; from his stringy mane, to his hammer punch, to the warty, pimpled skin covering his frumpy build. I especially dig his swollen, weak chinned likeness - perhaps could've taken a slightly more narrow, focused expression, looking a little bug-eyed, though it overall captures his fierce personality; for what it's worth, it actually somewhat matches the monster's later, dingier appearances throughout the 70's TV series Go! Godman and Go! Greenman, almost an amalgamation of all three looks.
At only two points of articulation, Gabara's rather limited; though, it's not unfitting, and I appreciate the separately posed arms offering some energy. It seems like a waist swivel should've been entirely possible, with a very rotund belly that could've allowed for articulation without any unwanted warping, though, it's unfortunately glue sealed. The lively sculpt carries, and I think what's here works perfectly fine.
The figure especially shines when it comes to paint; cast in a dark, sort of turquoise green, his horns and claws are sprayed yellow, with a blonde-ginger mane, intricate red-on-maroon pupils with white sclera, a very clean red-maroon mouth behind his needly white teeth, and a subtle sparkly bronze spray defining his plated chest. It's about all you could ask for, and really looks great - especially those crazy-eyes. Really the only thing missing is the sandy color present across the suit's back, though, you're unlikely to notice.
Gabara's always been one of my favorite Kaiju - what can I say, I'm a hipster at heart - and I'm psyched to finally have an MMS incarnation of the forgotten foe, one of the only widely available toys of the character ever made. Only took 55 years. Though not 100% perfect, I really love the figure - next to the new King Ghidorah 1964, it's the main reason I purchased the DREAM5 set, and feels very high quality all around.
My only real complaint? It's just too bad there's no in-scale MMS Minilla to entertain the little devil - who's he supposed to Falcon Punch now?
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