Wastelnd: Review - Gyaos 1967 (Space Gyaos) (Movie Monster Series)

The "Ghidorah" to Gamera's "Godzilla", the vampiric pterosaur Gyaos has sonically diced his way through Gamera's filmography again and again; first appearing in 1967's aptly titled Gamera Vs Gyaos, and continuing to appear throughought the series and its various iterations, becoming the defacto nemesis to the friend to all children.

Bandai's first Gyaos was released in 1991 as part of the Gamera Series. Eight years later, the figure would be downscaled, redecoed, and tossed into the Gamera Memorial Box, an MMS collection featuring every Showa era Gamera kaiju - a real must-have, if I do say so, myself.

Gyaos sports a solid, efficient sculpt; somewhat slimmed down, though not missing out on MMS' usual level of detail and accuracy - even including what appears to be the suit's seam along its back. The figure is especially well textured, very tactile to the touch. The pow-poly bat-demon he is, it's a pretty perfect likeness to the distinctively surreal monster.

Gyaos only features two points of articulation - that being, both legs. There's a bit of unintentional movement to his wings, due to the construction of the figure, but they can't hold a pose quite the same as, say, Zigra. It seems like his head should be able to move without any issue - it's glue sealed, and in a rather off-center position, at that - however! The '67 flick makes a point of explaining that the monster cannot turn its head due to its Forked throats; so, I dunno. Props for accuracy?

As mentioned before, this version of the figure sports a unique color scheme, most likely replicating that of Gamera Vs Guiron's Space Gyaos - though, it isn't a perfect match. It's possible the deco was only intended as a fun, funky one-off look - as many of the other figures included in the Memorial Box feature similarly technicolor reimaginings, without any accompanying film context - but, I assume if the truth's somewhere in the middle. That being said, while I might've preferred the typically gothic style of '67 Gyaos, I also dig what this guy's offering - it's awesome that they've (perhaps unintentionally) recalled such a terribly specific version of the character, and its, of course, a creatively distinct and very cleanly applied look, either way. A little prettier than one might expect from the hardcore Gyaos, but it definitely pops.

In 2023, Bandai released an entirely new take on '67 Gyaos, sporting a much sharper sculpt, let alone, deco. Though the new figure's the clear winner here, I feel both versions look solid enough, so it more or less comes down to your take on that paintjob.

What more can you say - it's Gyaos! Though modern collectors, and fans of the character will probably be inclined towards the screen-accurate '23 version, the '99 figure definitely stands on it's own - it's distinctively wacky color scheme adding a little toyetic flair to the otherwise just about perfect sculpt. A great companion for anyone's lonesome Gameras, Gyaos is a cool little figure - just, keep him out of sunlight. Oh - and away from Guiron.