Figure Review: X-Plus 25cm Godzilla 1966 Ric

My second 25cm Godzilla figure is from the film "Ebirah, Horror of the Deep".  A fun fact about this movie: the main protagonist in this film was supposed to be King Kong, not Godzilla.  But for hopes of a more successful run in the box office, they switched Godzilla into the film.  This explains why Godzilla had some unusual traits in this film, such as being revived by lightning and having some sort of fascination with a pretty girl.  It would have been interesting to see Kong fight Mothra though...

Anyway, back to the matter at hand, here is the review for the Godzilla from said film.  As you can see in the picture above, this is when Godzilla's look was becoming less villainous into a more gentler mold.  He hit an awkward stage in between some of these films, and this might be one of them.  

First, Godzilla has this weird posture in the movie.  It's like this half hunched, almost-about-to-sit-down fighting stance.  It caught X-Plus' eye too because the figure replicates it in vinyl form. 

It's a pretty static pose and out of the context of the film it looks awkward and irregular.  Even in-context, I find it to be a pretty boring pose.  They could have kept the general idea but did something different with the hands or head to help spice it up a little bit.  Everything is so symmetrical it just isn't as interesting.  

Now, before I get into suit accuracy let me first say that I actually really like this figure.  I think it's an improvement on the suit and that this is the look that Toho was going for in the movie.  But this is not their stylistic line, so I have to say that when I look at this figure I don't exactly see the creature that I saw on screen.  The likeness is enough that I know which film it is based on, but it's not as good as the 30cm '62 which truly captures the look.  

First of all the suit in the movie is boxier and beat-up looking.  Maybe X-Plus purposefully geared away from that but this is far more streamlined.  The suit has this square-like torso and really broad shoulders.  He looks more like Frankenstein in a rubber suit.  The eyes generally are rolled up higher into the head (and yet they look better on the figure) and more towards the front of his head not so much on the side like the vinyl.  The snout on the suit is a bit flatter and more sunken in towards the eyes.  Finally, the spines are slightly more elongated and slimmer than they are in the movie.  

While all little small nitpicks, they do enough to throw the precise look off.  A different pose would have helped too though.  Maybe have him walking with his tail in mid-motion and a slight turn so his spines looked like they were flowing and didn't look so stiff and unnatural.  Now, basing everything solely on the figure itself, I think it's a pretty cool entry in the series.  The sculpt is well-done and  I love the texture to his skin but the pose still holds it back.

The paint is pretty solid.  I love his colors.  The dark grey looks great on that skin pattern and I think the mouth and teeth look wonderful even though they weren't that bright in the film.  The eyes look very cool I love the trim of reddish-brown around the black pupils.  I was going to say his claws are too white and I wished they looked more real but the suit did have pretty much those same colors.  As usual, X-Plus nails the color on the spines.  

Not only is this a Ric but this is the set that comes with Ebirah as well.  It also comes with a little Mothra as well as the annoying vulture looking thing that attacks Godzilla when he's napping.  I still cringe when I hear that thing's screeches.  It's a pretty cool set and they display well together--except for Mothra who is far underscaled and not accurate to her on-screen counterpart.  I would have preferred if they gave us a small version of that boat that the communists travel in or even a sail boat for Ebirah.  Still, I'd hate to sound unappreciative--it is a very neat set.  I love having the whole cast to display together.

Overall this figure was one of the tougher ones to review.  In numerous ways it is better than the suit and I don't know if they were done so on purpose or what.  Even still, the pose is a gripe of mine.  I have to give this guy a 3.5 out of 5.  He's neat and overall looks like the Godzilla from the '65/'66 period, but I can't say he is accurate to the source material when I look at, for instance, the Sakai '91.  

Size Comparison:

The 25cm Ebirah cast with the 25cm Godzilla '75 and the 30cm Varan and Sakai '91 below