Figure Review - Jakks Pacific Giant Size Godzilla

Any Godzilla collector should at least have one large scale figure of the Big G in their collection! Fortunately when toy companies began announcing their involvement with providing fans and consumers with new Godzilla action figures, Jakks Pacific was one of the companies on board. Initially they had plans on making a 31-inch tall Godzilla, but when it proved to be too big, the scale was lowered to 24-inches tall and 43-inches long. Regardless, this still makes Jakks Pacific's Godzilla one of the largest Godzilla figures available to collectors, and a eye catching piece in anyone's collection.

Despite the product specs of it being 24-inches tall, the Jakks Godzilla figure is actually 22-inches at its tallest (at least when it has the tail attached). The figure comes in a large box with an uncovered window showing the figure and allowing people to test the articulation points on the mouth, neck, arms and wrists. It is packed in three pieces: the main body, and the tail split up in two parts.

The figure, when fully assembled, is quite a neat-looking sculpt. A lot of it is pretty accurate to how we see Godzilla in the actual film with a few exceptions, which we will get to later. There are parts of the figure, however, that have excellent detail, while other portions of the body are very lacking and too smooth. In regards to detail, the figure is just ok. Its body is mostly shaded in one color, a dark-brownish-gray, with lighter highlights on the underside. The claws, dorsal plates and toes remain the same color as the body.

The head detail is pretty good when compared to the rest of the body. The teeth, while fewer than on Godzilla in the movie, are all colored it, and the tongue is appropriately colored - though it may appear too bright depending on the lighting of the room. Moving onto articulation, this figure has 12 moveable points across its body: the jaws, neck, shoulders, wrists, legs, ankles, and tail.

One of the features of this figure is the swinging tail. The swinging hinge joint is located halfway down the figure's long tail and provides minimal swinging motion and distance. Personally, it is a feature that could have been easily left out as it kind of removes the fluidity of the sculpt.

The dorsal plates appear a tad smaller than on other figures. This is most likely done purposely for safety reasons. This is a toy meant for small children, and the dorsal plates can't be large or too jagged as they appear in the movie. This aspect of the sculpt, is quite forgivable - more-so than the obvious screw holes that run down the figure's back. As an added point for safety, the dorsal plates are made of a much softer rubber material too.

It must come as no surprise that this figure, at one point in its production, was originally meant to have a sound effect feature. As to why that feature was removes, most likely at the last minute, has not been revealed by Jakks Pacific. However, evidence of this feature remains in the figure through the speaker openings at Godzilla's crotch and a sealed battery case at the base of the figure's tail (which is hidden when one attaches the tail). Whether or not Jakks Pacific will eventually release the figure with the sound feature is unknown at the moment, but they have done so in the past with their 31-inch tall Darth Vader figure.

Is the Jakks Pacific Giant Size Godzilla a great figure? Not entirely. It has its flaws, but it's still a neat figure to have. I got this figure mainly due to its size. I just had to have a large-ass Godzilla figure for my collection, and it looks great when displayed next to the NECA Pacific Rim 18" Figure Series Gipsy Danger action figure. Despite its flaws, I love it!

The Jakks Pacific Giant Size Godzilla is available at select KMart and Toys R' Us locations as well as online at Amazon.com, BigBadToyStore, Entertainment Earth, and ToyWiz. If you're a sucker for big figures, like I am, then you'd love this. If you're more into size and flawless detail, then it's best to wait for NECA's 12-inch tall (24-inch long) Godzilla coming out in June/July, it'll be roughly half the size of the Jakks figure, but at least it WILL have a sound effect.