Godzilla's big, "special" brother...

So I went to the mailbox today, and jammed into the box was a manilla envelope that was tied shut with a string.

A string. You heard me correctly: a string.

No adhesive on the flap.

Minimal padding inside the envelope.

Nothing but a badly beat-up envelope with something I have been waiting three weeks to get.

Let me backtrack a bit. Three weeks ago I found a seller on Ebay who was selling 8 inch (standard size) Godzilla figures. He had a lot of them, and they were CHEAP. That only means one thing: BOOTLEGS!!! I did some research and figured out that this was a rather common bootleg that has been popping up now and again from China. It is based on the Godzilla from Godzilla: Tokyo SOS, the movie where he has a rematch with Mechagodzilla and fights Mothra in the process. Great flick. Great Godzilla design. You can tell it's that specific one, because he has the scarred-up chest from his first battle with Mechagodzilla in Godzilla against Mechagodzilla. Anyway, I'm not really a stickler for things being authentic as long as they look pretty decent, and there's no way on earth I'm going to pass up a standard scale Godzilla toy for 13 bucks (with free shipping).

Flash forward to today. Manilla envelope. String. No padding.

I'm honestly lucky I got my figure.



On to the actual figure itself: It is.... FANTASTIC. The mold is the exact same as the Bandai mold, so it's a really good-looking figure. When I got it out of the package it was flat. Flat as a fritter. Evidently the package had been under some boxes during its trip here. I wasn't too worried, because I had heard horror stories about warped vinyl and how to fix it. I whipped out a hair dryer and within about 20 minutes I had a fully restored Godzilla. He was packed in three pieces: the main body and two tail sections. I had to heat those up as well to make them fit the body. The first thing I noticed after getting him was that he was really freakin heavy! He's made out of hard vinyl, which I was not expecting at all. It's rock-hard-- a lot more firm than anything I've ever had. I have an older authentic Godzilla from Japan, and he's pretty stiff, but this guy is like a hammer. It might be crappy vinyl, but I'm not overly concerned. That just makes him more dangerous!





He stands 8 inches tall and is 17.5 inches long from the tip of his nose to his tail. He's pretty darn impressive looking next to my 6 inch Godzilla figures.





He's articulated at the neck, the shoulders, the hips, and the tail. He has the standard side to side arm articulation that my friend Krakit likes to call, "Wiping the bar off." articulation! Hee hee!





The paint is just horrible. He's molded in a mint green colored vinyl and he has a VERY sloppy spray of Pepto-Bismal pink on his dorsal fins. His eyes are not as sloppy, but he has a bit of the Marty Feldman look going on. He has yellow teeth which are painted fairly well. His fingernails and toenails are sprayed bright white. He's so horribly cheap looking that I have to love him. I'll probably wind up painting him how I want him to look, but that's half the fun!



I love the figure, but I'm not very fond of how the packaging and shipping was handled.

I don't think I'll post the name of the seller on here, but if anyone wants to know who to avoid, ask me and I'll give it to you. The figure may be great, but it's a minor miracle I actually got it.

There are some more folks selling these bootlegs on Ebay in case anyone wanted to get one, as it's a very nice figure... with some work.

Cardboard Creation

One of the best sites ever, Toy Break, is running a contest for the Large Martin toy from 3A toys, and all they require you do is submit an original robot made out of cardboard. I just turned in my entry and figured I'd post it here as well:







He stands a bit over 2 inches tall and has articulation in the shoulders, elbows, hips and knees. I named him CBHG-5.5. Enjoy!

Attack of the $5 Robots!!!!

So I was in town today mailing packages (again) and ran across these guys in my local Dollar General:



They're from a line of toys called M.A.R.S. Heroes from a company called Hap-P-Kid Toy. I've purchased a few of these M.A.R.S. figures before, but this is a new kinda deal.

The figures come in a set of 3 with assorted accessories for $5.00



A fiver for all this aint bad at all:



You get 3 handguns, 6 shoulder attachments, and 4 bases that are interchangeable. The bases are soft, translucent vinyl with painted details. The guns are PVC and are a bit harder than the bases, but both are pretty flexible. They are nowhere near as bad as the floppy guns Hasbro has been using with their figures in the last few years.



Each figure is made up of 9 pieces, and each piece is connected by a common ball and socket joint.



This means you can interchange the parts between the figures to make cust9om built figures. The torsos and the upper thighs are made of harder ABS plastic, and all the other parts are softer PVC. This means the joints probably won't wear out as easily as the older M.A.R.S. figures. The only major differences between these and the older figures is the size and the loss of the elbow joint. The older figures' arms were made in two parts with a ball joint at the elbow. These have one-piece arms, but the ball jointed shoulders allow for enough flexibility that the figures can double grip weapons.



They're a smidge shorter than Star Wars figures, but since they could be used as droids it could work out.



They fit in rather nicely with Glyos figures and would look great in a display with them.



As an added bonus, the weapons fit in Glyos figure hands, so you now have cheap handguns for your Glyos guys!



All in all these guys are pretty nice figures!



Even if they were selling for 5 bucks each they'd be a very, very good buy in today's toy marketplace. The fact that you can get 3 of them for that price plus extra accessories is excellent beyond words! Sure they don't have ball jointed elbows, but if that's the biggest complaint I can find with them, then everything's Kool and the Gang, baby.