Viras, the six-armed leader of an eerie squid-alien race, is one of many evil, telepathic, Japanese-speaking Kaiju invaders terrorizing the nightmare that is the Showa Gamera world; capturing who else but a pair of small boys in his odd quest to overtake Earth, much to the chagrin of the hero to all children, the Great Gamera. One thing leads to another, and... colossal Kaiju calamari.
Viras first joined the Bandai lineup in 1993 with the
Gamera Series; later being ported from 8", to 6", as part of 1999's
Gamera Memorial Box.
Bandai's Viras is simple, but effective - a pretty solid MMS take on the character; true to the onscreen monster with intricate, suit-replicating details, a nice scale, and very solid paint work. It really plays to his funkyweird design - the lanky space-age squidward definitely standing out among the crowd. It's texturing is especially striking - really perfectly capturing the heavy painted rubber look of the real deal. I especially like how they've stayed true to the design by incorporating his unsubtle "tentaclegs", revealing the performer inside. Kinda funny to see a standard scale Guy among the MMS.
I do think he could've used more width, and life; more squiddy, and sprawled-out, with some tangible motion to those static arms. The X-Plus does its pose very well, for example. Still, simple as it ultimately is, it's Viras!
At only two points of articulation (with a crookedly glue sealed neck,
a weird shared trait between the Memorial figures), there's not exactly a lot you can do with the figure - especially with those aforementioned very lifeless arms - but, either way, that tactile sculpt and bold deco carry.
Sadly, I don't (currently) own the original Gamera Series release; though, they're about the same, with the only actual difference being scale, and specifics in paint. I will say, I dig the slightly more accurate face on the '92 version - the MMS' face is cleaner, and more defined, but the Gamera Series' take just looks more... right. Still, they look about equal - I imagine most will be after the 6".
I don't think anyone expects All A's from "
Viras"; and, being fair, this is a pretty standard, middle-of-the-road MMS - for better, or worse. These further, more obscure classic Gamera enemies really deserve the "2.0" treatment. Still, there is some real quality to this figure; well capturing the charmingly strange Kaiju - and, even beyond that, making for a perfectly weird little sofubi creature. There's a certain fun to that itself! What you see is what you get - whether you like the character, or even just scary little Japanese collectible dudes, Viras is solid.
Check out my previous MMS reviews:
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