Illustrator and X-Plus fanatic Ryan Bullard demonstrates the strong aroma of vinyl which fills the room when opening a new Godzilla figure for the first time. The catch phrase “Fresh Vinyl” was popularized by collector and reviewer Rich Eso. This is something collectors actually anticipate and is as true a sign of Box Day as pine is for Christmas! You can see more of Ryan’s work at idiotwindblowin.blogspot.com/.

By John Stanowski Originally posted October 31st, 2013​ on Kaiju Addicts.

​東宝30㎝シリーズ 「アンギラス2代目」
塗装済完成品

​JAPAN ORIGINAL RELEASE: 2009

​JAPAN RE-ISSUE: 2012

​DIAMOND RE-ISSUE: JANUARY 2016

​SERIES: TOHO 30CM SERIES

​MATERIAL: SOFT VINYL

​FROM: “DESTROY ALL MONSTERS”, 1968
怪獣総進撃

​HEIGHT: 7 INCHES / 17.75 CM

​WIDTH: (LEGS) 6.5 INCHES / 16.5 CM

​LENGTH: 20.5 INCHES / 52 CM

​ARTICULATION: SOME IN THE TAIL

​REVIEW AND PHOTOS: JOHN STANOWSKI

One of the very first of the modern X-Plus lines, this figure came out way back in 2009. Needless to say, he’s rare and expensive. It was reissued, I think, in 2012. But that didn’t help the availability and cost on this figure much. There is a very good chance that it will be reissued yet again for release in North America through Diamond Distributors. Nothing has been said on this yet, but it’s a real possibility. 

Wow. Would you look at that? Let’s just pause and look at this thing….

Wow.

Not only is it a great likeness of Anguirus from 1968’s “Destroy All Monsters”, but it’s so… un-toy-like. This thing is sharp! The spikes on the head and back are finely sculpted and quite pointy! The spikes on the tail can be outright dangerous. Like it!

Even though you typically can’t see this figure up close like in this photo, it’s nice to know there’s a whole other level of detail there. Look at all the texture on each spike.

Now THIS is high quality. Each of these tail spikes is individually sculpted and there’s no crude “meniscus” from a substandard sculpt. These spikes look like they actually grew out of the tail.

There’s very good texture detail all over the body. I want to thank whoever sculpted this and paid so much attention to each segment, bump and scale.

The base of the neck and the top of all four legs is a non-glue-seal joint. They can be moved but you’d be hardpressed to find a reason to.

The seam around the neck is very well hidden as it blends in with the segmented folds in the skin. The leg seams are also well hidden as they’re all close matches and additionally obscured by the spiny back plate. It’s not until you look at the belly from below that Baby Wetsy Doll seams can be seen. But that’s okay, most of the time they’ll only be visible to the top of the shelf.

The tail connects to the body nearly seamlessly. And get this: it’s actually FIVE separate pieces, all moveable. This movement gets easier the further away from the main body you move where the tail ceases to be somewhat elliptical and becomes more round. I don’t see any reason to rotate any of these, although the joint between the second and third segment may be useful when trying to coax Anguirus into a confined space on the shelf. Just a word of warning: this joint has become a little loose on my vinyl since I discovered it.

But wait, there’s more. There is a glue seam below each knee, below the left heel and yet another on the lower jaw. I had to look for them in order to find them, so they are well hidden. I’m only mentioning this so you’ll avoid any impacts on the rear legs. (Not that you would be so rough with an X-Plus. But just in case…)

Standard stuff here and I wouldn’t have it any other way. This is how we most commonly see Anguirus so: good show, X-Plus!

Starting from the most obvious, the X-Plus Anguirus is covered in a dark, dull brown base coat which I like a lot. The spines are a sort of dark “cream” color and most of them are gradated with darker shades closer to the body. They did a (mostly) great job feathering this creamy tan into the body. The top of the back plate is a gray which is lighter than the body brown is. It is only here that I could find some sloppiness in the paint. But it still looks good.

The teeth are dark white, or tan. The red in the mouth is a dark shade and doesn’t look toyish. Bravo! The eyes are painted and look good. They’re also coated with a gloss to give them a bit of a… gloss.

Now for the bad news. On my figure the arms and legs were quite obviously painted at a different station than the body at the factory. There is an obvious paint mismatch where the warmer, kind of yellowish brown legs meet the darker, duller brown on the body. You can see this most clearly in the Size Comparison photos below. This paint mismatch is just a natural variation that occurs at the factory and won’t necessarily be the case on your figure, or the figure you plan to get.

The paint scheme on the X-Plus Toho 30cm Series Anguirus almost matches the one on the Large Monster Series version. The three biggest differences are that the brown is duller and darker on the 30, the back plate is a gray as opposed to the 25’s brown and the eyes are darker on the 30.

​Above: The X-Plus Anguirus Toho 30cm series vinyl figure is on the left and the 25cm Large Monster Series on the right.

It was hard for me to detect much of a size difference between these two on most of the comparison photos I’ve seen elsewhere on the web. And this also happened with most of the photos I took myself. But I managed to shoot two that make the difference in size quite clear.

Here the 30cm Anguirus is beside his good buddy, the X-Plus 30cm Series Godzilla 1968. They’re a good match. (Keep in mind, though, that the Godzilla ’68 is noticeably shorter than other Godzilla’s in the line.)

What a space hog! The 30cm Series Anguirus is over 20 inches long thanks to that tail of his. If you had trouble fitting your 30cm Godzillas on the shelf, wait till you get a load of this guy! The tail does curve to the figure’s right which helps out a little when it comes to squeezing it in between other figures on a crowded shelf.

Awesome likeness, sculpt, paint job, details… everything. All I can say is if you get a chance, “get this guy”.

By John Stanowski Originally posted October 15th, 2013​ on Kaiju Addicts.