After months of waiting, the S.H. MonsterArts King Ghidorah has finally reached my hands.
The box for King Ghidorah, is HUGE! It's at least around the same size as a box for a 25cm X-Plus figure! Based on the photo above, it absolutely dwarves the S.H. MonsterArts Godzilla.
Upon taking King Ghidorah out of its box, I did face several quality control issues, which I will highlight later on in this review. However, after spending 20 or so minutes getting everything properly displayed, King Ghidorah is propped up and looking nice!
As far as the detailing goes on this figure, King Ghidorah's detail surpasses that of any other figure in this line up to date. Each fold of skin, scale, horns, teeth, and eyes are spot on in regards to paint and sculpt.
The detailing on the wings is especially spectacular as it nails down the various folds on the membrane without overdoing it - like with the X-Plus 30cm Rodan 1964 where the wing details were a bit overkill for the figure's own good.
Articulation on the figure is exactly what one would expect for King Ghidorah. The tails can bend any way you want, the necks themselves allow extensive twists and turns. However, it's the articulation itself that I had problems with when first taking this figure out of the box. The center neck, has a tendency of falling off at the slightest jolt. It can hold on its own if left alone, but I was quite disappointed in the amount of time it took me to properly pose King Ghidorah the way I want it. The waist area too has its own fair share of QC issues with the articulation. The joint is so stiff that I had to disassemble the figure in order to move the joint by my own hand. Essentially, King Ghidorah is clearly not mean't to be manhandled extensively.
Despite my irritation with the articulation, King Ghidorah still has some great qualities. The detailing is the first, and the second is his scale compared to Godzilla, and the other figures in the line. Finally, we get a properly scaled King Ghidorah figure from Bandai! It's a long time coming.
When erected, King Ghidorah towers over the Big G. King Ghidorah stands at 10 inches making him the tallest figure in the line - not the biggest. The biggest will be February's Destoroyah.
His bigger size compared to Godzilla does make for some fun diorama poses.
King Ghidorah's only accessories are his trademark gravity beams, and a single plain Tamashii Stand to prop them on. Now, this is another issue that I've had with this figure. While the beams themselves look impressive, it requires a great deal of patience to get them to stay up. The grips at the ends of the stands don't hold onto the beams. Moreover, they're just something to rest the beams on. With that, I hardly got the pose I wanted. Perhaps if I was more patient, I would have accomplished it, but being that I was rushing to get to this review, I had limited time.
Overall, my feelings on King Ghidorah are really mixed. I really love the detail that went into this figure, but the QC issues in the articulation - at least in the center neck, and waist - have slightly ruined my experience with this figure. However, it still makes a great centerpiece to any S.H. MonsterArts collection as long as one doesn't fiddle around with it as much. I for one admit, that this figure is definitely not worth what I paid for when the issues with it are taken into consideration. It does make me question my future dedication to the line when it comes to larger and more expensive figures such as this one. Regardless, I perhaps my expectations were a bit higher for King Ghidorah than usual.
My final rating for it is a 3.5 out of 5. I had hoped better out of it, but after my experience with it and the QC issues that were present in this figure, I had to give it a lower score than I had intended.
