X-Plus Skydon Giant Series Vinyl Figure Review

FIGURE SPECS

​大怪獣シリーズ ジャイアント 「スカイドン」

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​JAPAN RELEASE: MARCH 2013

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​SERIES: TOHO 30CM SERIES

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MATERIAL: SOFT VINYL

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​FROM: “ULTRAMAN”, EPISODE 34 “PRESENT FROM THE SKY”, 1967
ウルトラマン, メガトン怪獣

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​HEIGHT: 7.25 INCHES / 18.41 CM

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​WIDTH: ABOUT 7.5 INCHES (FOOT TO FOOT) / ABOUT 19.05 CM

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​LENGTH: (HEAD TO TAIL) ABOUT 15.5 INCHES / 39.37 CM

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​ARTICULATION: NONE

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​REVIEW AND PHOTOS: JOHN STANOWSKI

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​SCULPT

THE HEAD
The head is overall a good likeness though I feel it has overly smooth texturing below the eyes. The entire piece is made of a translucent material which allows the lights from the Ric Boy Exclusive version to shine through. Opaque paint hides the light from emitting anywhere except the eyes. Unfortunately, on my figure, there are pinpoints of light visible is some of the cracks in the sculpt. And though light doesn’t emit from the four horns, their semi-translucent quality gives the figure a nice touch.

Overall, the sculpt is a mostly faithful representation of Skydon. All of Skydon’s features are there and are ‘mostly’ in the right place. Multiple textures make this figure visually interesting. There are brick-like armor plates on the back, rough skin on the sides and legs. There is also the combed line texture on the belly left over from when this suit originally belonged to Gamakujira, the pearl-eating kaiju.

​X-Plus’ attention to detail shines for fashioning most of this figure from the actual Skydon suit. The eyes on the Skydon suit were ridiculously out of allignment with each other as his right eye was much higher than his left. The figure recreates this.

However, X-Plus dropped the ball on the tail which is larger than it should be. And to make matters worse, the two spikey horns on the tail seem to be twice as tall as they should be.

JOINTS & SEAMS

The Ric Boy exclusive version of this figure has a removeable head and that features gives you an obvious seam line which runs around the “neck”. From above, this line is only somewhat disguised into the sculpt as it conforms to the shape of the first row of armor plates on the back. The seam is move obvious from below but, thankfully, you don’t really get to seem him from the angle most of the time.

The tail seam is the same as the head. It’s somewhat cloaked on the top by conforming to a row of armor plates and is more visible from below.

The only other seam I can detect runs laterally along both sides above the first row of plates, just above the side spikes. This seam is mostly invisible having been filled at the factory. However, on the figure I have, they “missed a spot” leaving behind what looks like a crack in the body. The seams on the legs are really invisible and you’d have to look really close to find evidence of them.

POSE

​The pose of the X-Plus Skydon vinyl figure is pretty standard stuff. And that’s fine with me. Skydon was a lazy kaiju and basically was seen as pictured here, or flat on the ground taking a nap.

​PAINT JOB

​There really isn’t much of a paint job here on this figure. The teeth are a stark, toy white which probably is appropriate for an early Ultraman monster. The inside of the mouth and the “lipstick” area were painted in a desaturated color that’s sits somewhere between red and pink, but being neither. I like it.

Though not part of the paint scheme, the translucent parts are part of the coloring. The four horns on the head are a bronze color and change appearance depending on the light. The eyes themselves are clear, with black pupils painted on. Inside the domes of clear plastic is a colored material giving the eyes an overall yellowish appearance.

As for the rest of the body from the neck to the tail… It’s brown. Just brown. No highlights, tones, shades, etc. Just brown. There does seem to be some attempt at darker shades here and there, but you need to close out the rest of the world, meditate and super focus on them just in order to see them. So, basically, they’re just not there. And it’s a big blob of brown.

But because this figure has so many deep textures, light plays on it very, very well giving it a ridiculously good amount of highlights. It looks especially good in the sun (though I wouldn’t recommend keeping it there!)

​SIZE

​If you like your figures large, then Skydon delivers. He fits in well with the X-Plus 30cm Godzilla figures and is borderline difficult to manage with one hand because of his bulk. As for scaling with the Ultraman figures: he’s really too big for that. They may look okay next to each other on the shelf (see photo below under Ric Boy heading), but scale freaks will likely be disappointed overall.

A good match for the X-Plus 30cm Series Anguirus 1968.

When sized with another quadroped from the smaller line (Gabora), Skydon is significantly larger. Scale freaks will want to keep their Giant Series figures on a different shelf.

From the front, Giant Series Skydon seems to fit in well with this gang of mostly non-Giant Ultra kaiju.

(Left to Right: Gyango – rear, Gomora, Skydon, Red King, Bemular and Gabora. Only Gyango and Skydon are from the Giant Series.)

​FOOTPRINT

​As with all four-legged figures, Skydon has extra space requirements. His tail goes straight back but is short. His extra Giant Series size though makes him more difficult to place on a standard shelf.

RIC BOY EXCLUSIVE FEATURE

​The X-Plus Skydon Ric Boy exclusive version vinyl figure has a light gimmick allowing his yellow eyes to shine just like they did in the television series. Above he is seen beside the X-Plus Ultraman C-Type Standing figure, also with light gimmick.

To get the magic to work you’ll have to pull off the head, flick the switch and push it back in. Groan. The figures already comes ready to go with two LR 44 batteries already installed. You’ll have to be careful though as the inner workings of the head comes in two pieces. The vinyl head is precariously glued onto another plastic piece which the switch anchors onto. These two pieces promptly divorced and came away from each other the first time I removed the head. Luckily it all went back together again for me with no problems. You can try to avoid this yourself by heating the parts with a hair dryer. Probably more so than you would need to add the tail.

​EMBELLISHED VIEWS

By John Stanowski Originally posted August 11th, 2013 on Kaiju Addicts.