In my time collecting figures, I have had some really great Godzilla figures that I love picking up and play with from time to time and I have had not so great figures that turn into permanent display pieces. Never to be touched again because the figure it is a nightmare to handle. The S.H. MonsterArts King Ghidorah 2019 figure, however, is on a whole other level of bad.
I have seen reviewers say that they can see people being disappointed by this figure and I am BEYOND disappointed. I am very frustrated. When you take the figure out of the box you the first thing you notice is that there is some assembly required. No problem, right? It should take no more than 30 seconds to a minute to put together. I am angry that something as simple as putting this figure together in 30 seconds took me FOUR HOURS! Even after finally getting it all assembled there is no guarantee that they will stay on because it just falls apart at the slightest touch. For an action figure that is going for $175-$200, I feel ripped off.
The reason why it is so frustrating to put the pieces together is because something on the figure whether it is the tail or the right head or the wings keeps falling off. Not only that there is the fear of the figure falling forward. When that happens the whole figure explodes! This happens all because the wings are too heavy! The wings also have an issue of slipping off, but this can be fixed by using masking tape on the joint where the wings connect. The masking tape will give just enough friction to put the wings on and prevent it from slipping off. Yet, this still does not solve the other issue. To prevent the toy from falling, he comes with these stands to hold up the wings and a cradle for the figure to rest on to help it stand. However, don't think the cradle and the stands will keep it from falling forward. If the feet are not flat on the ground or the figure is leaning too far forward...you know what happens. It falls over and explodes into a bunch of pieces that you need to put back together and it becomes an even bigger pain in the butt.
The quality is very much like a bootleg action figure. The paint job looks rushed as it is mainly a tan with dark brown shading in small parts of the figure. It's not even gold like shown on the promotional pictures. They didn't even bother to add any color to the spikes on the necks or the tails or on the nails. There is some splotches of yellow here and there, but it doesn't add anything. I know for certain that the spikes on the tails and the diadems on the heads are silver-ish or a light grey color because that is how they looked in the movie. There could have definitely been more brown on the back of the wings and perhaps on the tips of the wings and on the talons instead of just yellow. It is just there. I will say that the sculpt of the figure is movie accurate. It looks like the King Ghidorah from Godzilla: King Of The Monsters, but that is as far as positives go. The one thing that I did notice is that one of the diadems on the right head is chipped. Many people claim that is to make each head look different since they have different personalities. If that is the case, then why didn't the other heads have their own little nicks or marks on them? This is because this is not a design choice, this is a mishap at the factory. If you look at the promotional pictures they do not show the right head having one of the diadems chipped off. They are all consistent. So yeah, this is a quality control issue and not a design choice. However, the monster in the movie each head had different shapes and different sized diadems. One of the heads had diadems that were more straight, another had very curved and "S" shaped diadems, and the last head had diadems that was more in the middle of how it is shaped like a wavy "U" shape.
When it comes to articulation I like the parts that I CAN play with, which are the left and middle heads. You can move them however you want them to since the necks are like a snake. Otherwise, moving a single inch on any part of the body is a nightmare. The slightest touch can easily set off a chain reaction of any piece of the action figure to fall apart. It is a real shame because I would have liked to pose this with my Godzilla figures like they are in a fight with each other. Sadly, posing this figure is not going to happen. I know that there is a way to fix this issue by using either nail polish or floor polish, but the person paying for the figure should not have to fix this issue especially when it just came right out of the box. It took me an hour just to get King Ghidorah into one pose and each minute when I am trying to pose him a head will fall off or the one of the tails will pop out. Posing this action figure has been the most nerve racking experience in my life. Just to get this out of the way, S.H. MonsterArts King Ghidorah 2019 is a big boy and demands a lot of shelf space. So you are going to need to make a lot of room if you decide to get this action figure.
Overall, I hate this figure. I am livid that Bandai would put out an action figure that is essentially broken and unfinished. I like the sculpt, but King Ghidorah just falls apart at the slightest touch and it is so irritating that I would need to fix it myself. I do not recommend it to any fan or collector unless you are a completionist and need every single action figure. Otherwise, you can spend that $200 on something better or keep it in your savings. Better yet, I would just wait to see if Bandai will come out with a revised/repainted version or if NECA would finally get around to making their own 2019 King Ghidorah figure. If anybody from NECA is reading this, stop with the excuses and just make one already.
Did you get the S.H. MonsterArts King Ghidorah figure? If so, what are your thoughts on the figure? Did you like it or was it a disappointment? Leave a comment on your thoughts of the action figure down in the comment section. If you would like to help support my blog, go ahead and click on the donate button found at the top of the page. Make sure to follow me on my Facebook and Twitter pages to stay up to date for more news, reviews, and discussions.