Wastelnd: Review - King Ghidorah 2019 (Movie Monster Series)

The most notorious of Godzilla's recurring foes, the MonsterVerse's indomitable King Ghidorah - "the dragon who fell from the stars" - rose from an icy grave in 2019s Godzilla: King of the Monsters; inciting a worldwide Kaiju riot (very much in the vein of Destroy All Monsters or Godzilla: Final Wars) as it forcefully stole the crown, reveling in Godzilla's defeat.

Ghidorah '19, along with the further KOTM crew, were originally released alongside the film; and, more recently, was one of many MMS figures reissued for overseas retailers such as Books-A-Million, FYE or any otherwise nerd-type store. The figure's very common, and shouldn't run you more than MSRP.

While its definitely got its somewhat obvious limitations, Ghidorah's a cool, and impressively large sculpt, covered in very rich little details.

Though underscaled, Ghidorah takes a massive shelf presence thanks to his intimidatingly splayed demon wings, and long, rattled tails; with an approx. 12" inch wingspan, plus an additional 12"~ inches, from head(s) to tail(s). The figure's really awesome mass carries, along with its proper threatening, animalistic pose, giving the (spoilers) totally static figure a lot of life.

Each serpentine neck is nicely arched to the incarnation's unique quadrupedal stance, a fierce and well stylized snarl shared across all three faces - complete with forked tongues. While I do wish there were a bit more variation differentiating each head, it works, enforcing the figure's strong pose. I especially dig the flowing manes of dense horns(?) trailing each head; interestingly, a departure from the onscreen design - but, we'll get there. His toned reptilian body is nicely defined by gruff textures, shingled scales and muscular alien intricacies; just look at the thin, fleshy skin of his tensely stretched wings. Unfortunately, those big honkin' wings are pretty prone to warping, and the figure tends to have trouble finding its center of gravity.

As noted before, Ghiddy seems to be based on an earlier, unused version of the 2019 design; missing, or differing on various small elements of the look, such as the structure of his wings, the spikes lining the back of each neck, or, again, his tendrilled manes of horns. Frankly, I can barely tell, so I wouldn't call it an issue - the specifics are quite negligible - but, it's definitely worth noting for the purists out there. Generally, the figure makes up for these inaccuracies, and I dig its unique look.

Though sculpted in a pretty energetic, lively pose, Ghiddy unfortunately features zero articulation - not even the glue-sealed heads, knees, or tails. The pose, again, carries, but it's just so strange - you'd think at least the heads would be a requirement, man, it's a hydra. They've made MMS Ghidorahs with proper articulation in the past - some reaching as many as nine points - I guess it could have to do with the 2019 version's comparatively spindly proportions, but I dunno. If Bandai Creations could do it in 2005, MMS can in 2019, too.

Largely a subdued, earthy yellow, Ghiddy's unfortunately not quite the shining fire-dragon one might expect; though, I suppose it's about screen accurate, realistically muted. With six shiny gold eyes, his little teeth are a simple white, with a bit of beige and light yellow sprays highlighting his horns, throats, arms and claws. Accurate or not, I think a more typical, flashy, fully golden color scheme would've added so much regal flair to the figure; more definition to the mouths, variance to the sprays - just more in general could've totally elevated what's already a pretty slick sculpt. As it stands, beyond the quality sculpt itself, he ultimately comes across as rather low-end.

Come 2020, Bandai did offer a so-called "heavy paint" version of Ghiddy; though, at the end of the day, it's basically just what the main release should have been... and, still, not that much better. I've seen a few wicked fully golden bootlegs of Ghidorah '19 floating around online, which often totally destroy Bandai's originals - and, as jank as it sounds, I'd kinda love to have one; if only because I really think that extra touch of color pushes what's a mostly sub-standard figure to something truly sick.

I really applaud the figure's wicked pose, very huge, very evil; I think if you're a fan of the character, or even just the figure itself, it all works fine - though, beyond it's size, there isn't a whole lot making it especially desirable, especially among his Glimmering Ghiddy Brethren. It certainly meets the MMS standard, as far as sculpting goes... but, that's all she wrote, with no articulation, and pretty weak decos. Serviceable - even a little bit cool - but nothing fancy.