It's been hard to make up my mind about this one. It's got a lot going for it, but I just feel it could have been more...

Frankenstein's Laboratory was the last diorama I picked up this year and I am torn on whether or not I like it. The stone walled background again offers a nice gothic visual and the laboratory equipment is really appealing, too. But the sculpts of both the monster and his bride leave me disappointed. The facial features are sort of bland and they look too romantic for my tastes. Is this a decoration for Halloween or Valentine's Day, huh?

I like the "wooden" floor inlaid into the "stone", creating a nice layered effect. And the chained mechanism behind the bride looks interesting, although I'm not sure what it is supposed to do. I know one thing it does not do though and that is actually turn, which was pretty disappointing. I know this is only for display, but when you wrap a chain around a set of wheels..... well, it begs to be turned.

Of course, like each of the previous dioramas, this one features a light up gimmick. And here is where it really shines (no pun intended). All of the scientific apparatus behind the characters light up in some way. The effect is really great.

Still, no matter how much I like that, I just feel like something is missing from this piece overall. Something like....an operating table? Eh, probably not enough room for that.

Anyway, I wasn't about to buy two of these dioramas and not get the third. Despite it's shortcomings, I'm glad I have this. It did however cost slightly more than the Creature's Lair and Dracula's Domain, with a price tag of $14.99 instead of $12.99. I guess the extra cost is either for the extra monster or for the more intricate laboratory equipment. Still way better than $55, though!

"Welcome to my house...come freely, go safely and leave something of the happiness you bring..."

Dracula's Domain was actually the first of this series that I was able to locate and by all accounts seems to be the most prevalent. I think this is probably my second favorite of the three available, behind The Creature's Lair, but ahead of Frankenstein's Laboratory. It now carries the same $12.99 price tag as the Creature's Lair, marked down at TJ Maxx and Home Goods stores.

The faux stone masonry looks fantastic and really pulls off the old world gothic look quite well. It's the sort of scenery that just invites the addition of a gargoyle or two along the sides, but I'm glad that they didn't go that route. It would've been too obvious and cliche. Instead, there are some cobwebs molded into the bottom sides of the entrance and in the background. Nice idea, but I look forward to letting this thing sit for a long time and letting some real spiders spin some real webs on it!

Where this piece fails for me is in the sculpt of both Dracula and his victim. The sculpt of both characters does not quite live up to the quality of the rest of the piece. The generic look of each character doesn't bother me so much as the fact that it looks more like Dracula is rescuing a damsel in distress or carrying a Bride over the threshold of their new home more than he looks like an evil creature of the night looking to drain the blood from the living. Furthermore, notice anything odd? For some reason, Dracula is wearing a cross! A CROSS!!!

Where this one has the Creature's Lair beat is with the lights. The bulbs are still visible on the floor, but when lit up, it is easier here to imagine that they are just fallen torches or some other form of fire. Plus the red gives it a more hellish appearance overall and looks quite nice shining against the stone background.

So, this one definitely has it's pluses and minuses. If you're a monster fanatic, by all means you'll want to grab it, if for no other reason than it's so cheap right now. But all others will likely pass.

Y'know, maybe I could appreciate the girly figure reviews more if they were constantly being menaced by classic monsters! I mean, it's tradition.

Perhaps the single coolest thing about being a monster collector is that, for all intents and purposes, we have our own holiday! As a result, every year new things are released in all manner of genre that collectors can sink their teeth into, sometimes even literally in the case of Halloween candy and things like that. Halloween decorations of all kinds offer the monster enthusiast many different options to help enhance their displays. Can you imagine if every year there was some sort of super robot holiday?!

In 2006, Department 56 released a series of Halloween decorations featuring some classic Universal Monsters. These small dioramas were beautifully crafted and included a light up feature, but carried a price tag of approximately $55 each, which put off many potential buyers. Fortunately, these recently turned up at a greatly discounted price at TJ Maxx and Home Goods department stores. This diorama, entitled "The Creature's Lair", now carried a price tag of only $12.99!

Over the course of about 5 days the week before last, I went to roughly a half dozen of these stores and was only able to locate one "Creature's Lair", which would suggest that it was more popular than the others in the series (those being "Frankenstein's Laboratory" and "Dracula's Domain"). It is plain to see why, too. Not only is the Creature generally a more popular character, but the craftsmanship that went into this piece is clearly superior to the others, at least in terms of the presentation of the main character, which is of course the most important thing.

At approximately 6" high, 9" long and 6.5" deep, this miniature scene is beautifully sculpted and painted. The cave walls appear as true rock and there is a clear plastic covering on the sand that magnificently gives the illusion of a pool of water at the feet of the Creature.

Any complaint about the sculpt of the piece would be that the damsel in distress doesn't look exactly like Julie Adams, but it's not bad. It might also have been a licensing issue. And that's not to say she doesn't look good, anyway..

Hubba, hubba...

Protruding from the back is a cord into which you can plug in a power source, containing two separately sold C batteries. Each piece in the series uses the same part so you can swap them out if you like.

With the power cord attached and the "ON" switch activated, the lights add an eerie luminescence to the scene, particularly as it reflects off of the "water". I think it would have been nicer if you could have activated the lights via a concealed switch actually on the display, such a s fake "rock", much like on the Destroy All Monsters Battlezone Godzilla

My biggest gripe with this? Well, the bulbs for the lights are not well concealed at all. It looks like the Gill Man has had some wiring done in his cave! One enterprising collector had the excellent idea of adding some plastic aquarium plants to help cover them up and I think I'll be doing just that at some point.

Still, I can't complain too much. I'm getting monster memorabilia released in the middle of the summer and at a fantastic price. I couldn't recommend this at $55, but for $13 it was a no-brainer for me.

"Every man its prisoner... every woman its slave!"

Beulah hails from the 1956 low budget science fiction invasion film "It Conquered The World", directed by the legendary Roger Corman. In it, a scientist conjures a monster from the planet Venus, which then proceeds to try to take over the world, by way of controlling people's minds. The film was remade in the 1960s as "Zontar: The Thing From Venus".

Last year, Ultratumba Productions released this fixed-pose pre-painted resin statue of the monster from the film. It would be a welcome addition to most monster fans collections since there was not much else released based on this character.

I only know of two other three dimensional representations of Beulah, but both were unpainted and un-assembled model kits. While the piece here does require a small amount of assembly, it is essentially ready to display right out of the box. All you need to do is attach the arms to the body. The connection points might need a little bit of sanding, but basically you can just glue the arms right on. It's so simple, even I managed to do it. ;) There are six parts included in the box; the main torso, 2 arms, the base, a nameplate and a flying "mind control unit".

The completed piece is VERY impressive! The sculpt it beautiful and immensely intricate. I can't even imagine creating something like this. The individual bumps in the face, the eyes, the teeth, the tongue.. all beautifully crafted with no detail left unaccounted for.

When resting on her base (yes, Beulah is female), the statue is approximately 10.5" tall, but seems much bigger than that when you put it on your shelf. With the beet red coloring, outstretched arms and menacing glare, your eyes tend to get drawn right to this piece.

The base, name plate and mind control unit are all nicely made and welcome additions. If I had any gripe at all, it would be that there is an exclamation point after the word "It" in the title. Not sure why that is, but it reminds me of the advertising for the movie "It! The Terror From Beyond Space".

Beulah comes in a full color box with a clear window. The packaging somewhat mimics the original poster art for the movie, but the effect is diluted a bit by the presence of the styrofoam tray that the kit rests in. I wish the box was cut out around her body so you could only see the monster. No big deal, though.

Limited to only 200 pieces, the box is numbered and signed by the sculptor, Paul Schiola. At only $65, Beulah is a great value for monster fans and highly recommended. Incidentally, no QC issues here at all, like I had on my Tingler. In fact, I mentioned that to Paul and he totally offered to make it right, in case anyone was wondering. I'd have no reservations buying from him. In fact, his next project looks very enticing... a pre-painted monster from "Invasion Of The Saucermen"!!

DO NOT PANIC!

but...SCREAM! SCREAM FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!

"The Tingler" was a 1959 movie directed by the legendary William Castle and might be the best example of why I love good old gimmicky 1950s horror and sci-fi movies. They just don't make them like this anymore* and you certainly never see such an effort to get the audience involved like Castle did with "The Tingler".

In the movie, Vincent Price plays a scientist who discovers that the strange tingling sensation that you feel when you are frightened is actually caused by a parasite that grows at the base of your spine. The more frightened you are, the bigger it gets. Screaming relieves the fear and destroys the Tingler. But...what if you can't scream? A mute character in the film actually dies from fright and the Tingler is removed by Price and is shown to be a centipede-like monster.

Now, as if this isn't hokey and preposterous enough, William Castle had to make the movie even more entertaining by introducing "Percepto" to theater audiences. From Wikipedia:

"For "Percepto!" William Castle attached electrical "buzzers" to the underside of several seats in the auditorium. The buzzers were small surplus vibrators left over from World War II. They had been installed inside the wings of air craft and when activated would vibrate to help de-ice the wings by shaking and cracking the ice. The cost of this equipment added $250,000 to the film's budget. It was predominantly used in the larger theaters.

An alternate warning was recorded for Drive-in Theatres, this warning advised the audience the tingler was loose in the drive in. Vincent Price's voice was not used for the Drive-in version."

A friend of mine says that the drive-in version tells you to honk your horn or flash your lights in place of, or in addition to screaming. I have seen this movie at a drive-in, but it was the regular theatrical cut with Vincent Price's announcement.

So, now that you know something about the movie, we can move on to this release of the monster itself. The Tingler was originally released in 2004, but the version I have here is the 2007 second edition. Strangely, the "T" in Tingler is replaced with a "?" on the underside of the Tingler. It comes in a large box with a clear window on the front through which you can see the Tingler inside. The Tingler rests in styrofoam, which is fine, but I wish that there wasn't a large piece of styrofoam going right down the middle of the display.

The front of the box actually lifts up so that you don't have to slide the entire styrofoam tray out of the end to remove the creature. One end of the box shows Price along with a reproduction of the death certificate shown in the above trailer.

The Tingler itself is a fixed pose resin statue measuring about 21" long and about 6.5" wide. So it's a significant piece to add to your monster collection, in terms of size.

I'm not a big fan of resin statues, but I'm really glad to have a Tingler to display. The only gripe I have at all with it is that it appears that on mine the antennae were actually broken off and glued back on before the toy was packaged. I didn't bother to send it back since it's not a huge deal to me. You really can't tell without close inspection, but I think that sort of thing just doesn't reflect well on Ultratumba Productions, who made this. I don't ever plan to re-sell this, but I suspect that if I do, I'll have a hard time convincing my potential buyer that it came that way out of the box. C'est la vie.

* (Then again, maybe they do. There's been reports of, you guessed it, a remake being made.)

"I DON'T WANT TO GROW ANYMORE!!!!!"

Actually, that line happened in the original "Amazing Colossal Man" movie. But I've always loved it and I love this figure from X-Plus, too..

Growing up in Massachusetts, many of us here spent our Saturday afternoons watching "Creature Double Feature", a matinee of back to back classic monster movies. I'm sure each of us has our own fond memories of specific movies, but two films really stuck in my mind. "The Amazing Colossal Man" from 1957 and it's sequel "War of the Colossal Beast" from the following year had a strange hold on me as a kid. It was easy to dismiss many of the other films as pure fantasy, and while I never believed a man could grow to such enormous size, it was the characters mental breakdown as he tried to deal with his unfortunate circumstance that I found chilling. A deterioration of the mind is far more frightening than the growth of the flesh.

Of course, in this day and age, it's harder to take the films seriously since the special effects are laughable in comparison to what we see now. But back then it must have been remarkable, considering that director Bert I. Gordon seems to have made himself a career consisting largely of films about normal creatures grown to tremendous size.

This figure is the last of the "AMC Monsterfest" line from X-Plus that I managed to snag. For some reason, I hesitated on buying it when it first came out and for awhile I didn't see one. But due to the magic of Ebay, I finally got one a couple months backs, and for less than retail, too.

The figure is pretty well done, in my opinion. I think it was a great decision to have him holding the bus above his head. A colossal man is only colossal if you've got something to show scale, after all.

There's been some dissatisfaction with the sculpt of the face, but I think it looks fine. I do think it looks better when viewed from a low angle, but it's not bad overall either.

The base is a great addition, just like it was with the previous entries, The She Creature and Marty, the 3 Eyed Mutant.

But do you notice anything? How about that ad line? "See a sixty foot giant destroyed.....IN COLOR!" Did you see any color in the trailer above? I sure didn't. The fact is, only the ending (which is given away in the tag-line, of course) is in color. Less than 1 minute. Ahhh, I'd say I miss the 1950's and it's cheap marketing gimmicks, except of course, I never lived it. I'm forced to live it vicariously through these toys. On the bright side, kids in 1958 didn't have Colossal Man toys so I guess I can't complain, can I?

When your desire is for old monster and sci-fi merchandise, but your loyalty is to robots, what do you do? WHAT....DO....YOU....DO????

You buy a big old GORT, that's what you do!

I came here to give you these facts. This resin statue of Gort, the alien robot from the sci-fi classic "The Day The Earth Stood Still" was produced in limited quantities by Rocket Pro in 2006. Only 1951 specimens were made, to commemorate the 1951 release of the famous movie.

In the movie, Gort is a mighty robot who stands guard over the flying saucer that the main character, Klaatu, piloted to Earth. According to Klaatu, even though he's somewhat simplistic looking (particularly in comparison to the robots often seen on this site!), Gort had the power to destroy the entire Earth. After being injured, Klaatu instructs Helen to say to Gort "Klaatu Barada Nikto" so that the robot does not do just that. This simple phrase has gone on to be one of the most famous movie quotes ever. It was used by the character "Panhandle" in the first episdoe of the US version of Grendizer when he thinks he's seen a UFO and also by Ash in the movie "Army of Darkness" when he needs to get the Necronomicon from the graveyard. I'm sure there's been plenty others, but those two examples come to mind for me.

This statue is one of the best options out there if you are looking for a 3D representation of the character. Rocket Pro also produced a tin walker and a small diecast, but this statue checks in at an impressive 16". And even though it's just a statue, honestly, there really isn't much reason to need a Gort that can be posed. He barely moves in the movie. Of course, it would be awesome to have one whose visor opens and lights up like in the clip below!

The only other drawback is the material used. I'm not a big fan of resin. I'd much prefer a smoother material that I don't have to worry about breaking. This comes packaged in a two-part styrofoam tray enclosed in a full color box and a numbered certificate of authenticity.

I can't say that this is the greatest Gort that there ever could be, but it's a nice addition to my fledgling monster collection. A remake of "The Day The Earth Stood Still" is apparently in the works and due in theaters about a year from now. It'll be really interesting to see how they portray the character this time around. I suspect such a simple, almost innocent looking design will not fly with today's audiences.

Ouch...well...I suppose they qualify as "toys"...

Metalocalypse fans, you may want to avoid this review. Then again, if ya need a really good laugh...

Wow...what can I say? I write for CDX because, y'know, I like toys. This will be a first for me, though. A review of something that fills me with hate and loathing...

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Folks, I'm a hip hop head, through and through, but I have a few close friends who're devoted metal heads. When they first told me about the Adult Swim show, Metalocalypse, I knew I had to see this! I mean, I loved Spinal Tap (and, of course, the hip hop lampooning, Fear of a Black Hat). Something about subcultures busting on themselves that's just perfect--keeps folks from taking themselves too seriously. Anyway, this show was being done by actual metal fans, and as such, I had a feeling it would be good.

I wasn't disappointed!

The show is about the death metal band, Dethklok (yes, that's right! just based on the name, it's already good!). The band, a mix of US and Scandinavian musicians, happens to be the most popular band in the world, and in fact, the band has so many adherents, that it actually represents the single largest economy in the world! People are literally willing to die for the band. The story simultaneously follows a shadowy organization of extremely powerful individuals who run the government, military, media, and such behind the scenes. This organization is closely watching the band's activities because religious predictions have it that the band will continue to rise in power and eventually bring about the Metal Apocalypse...the "Metalocalypse".

Sounds pretty damn cool, huh? While not the most original plot ever, it definitely has potential. Now, here's the best part: the band is composed of complete idiots! That's right! The meat of the individual episodes focuses on the moronic crap they get themselves into. For example, in one episode, the band decides to write a song based on translated texts from some ancient Finnish book of necronomancy...because, obviously, it's freakin' cool. Of course, when they play the song for the first time in an open concert before the Bay of Danzig, they end up inadvertently summoning a lake troll that decimates the countryside. Classic!

Anyway, if you ARE a metal head or have metal fans in your life, you really need to see this show!

Okay...so obviously I dig the show. This past summer, Shocker Toys made the announcement that they had acquired the license to produce toys from the cartoon. I was freakin' psyched! Apparently, they had them at SDCC07, where Mason and I were...but on the--*ahem*--urging of concerned loved ones, we steered clear of them. Finally, Josh was able to procure the first wave of their figures to give to me for review.

And that's where everything went horribly, horribly wrong.

goh!

Horrendous.

Now, the first thing Josh said to me when he first gave them to me (before I had a chance to unpack them and take a look at them for myself), was that they looked like they had been painted by retarded, left-handed monkeys. I naturally looked at him a bit sideways (being left-handed), but then he assured me that he meant retarded, left-handed monkeys...forced to paint righty.

You know? I think he was right.

I mean, Josh stated clearly and in no uncertain terms that these were the worst licensed toys he had ever seen. He wanted them out of his house immediately. And now, here they are...in my possession.

Anyway, I'm sorta at a loss. You see, I'm used to covering toys I like. Well, let's see what we can come up with... First of all, Wave 1 consists of Nathan Explosion and William Murderface Murderface Murderface, the lead singer and bassist of Dethklok. These are billed as "action figures" on Shocker's website. I simply refuse to categorize them as such on this website. Each "action figure" is a single, static, poorly molded lump of resin. There's NO action here, folks...besides Josh throwing them at me during lunch that day...

So, let's talk about the sculpt. Now, c'mon, people. This is a cartoon--the characters are pretty basic-looking. Would it have killed ya to sculpt the figures to, y'know, at least sorta look like 'em!? Murderface isn't too terrible, but Nathan is just...off. And the detail of the sculpts are just poor--though I don't know if that's a problem with the sculpt or with the actual molding process. None of the surface details are sharp at all. Everything looks smooth, rounded...and sorta doughy. No good.

The worst part is when you really start to take a close look (which this reviewer does NOT recommend). Not only is there little definition at all in the molding, but there are mold flaws everywhere. Gobs of extra material clumsily left in armits or hairlines. It's truly awful. I can see more love going into a small child's very first sculpture in elementary school art class. And more talent, too.

Oh, here's the single worst part. If you notice in the image above, I have the figure of Nathan standing on a CD case...at an angle. Well, guess what. The figure cannot stand on its own. Again, I can't be sure if this is a flaw with the sculpt or the molding process (or with this particular piece...or ALL the Nathan figures). The feet appear fine on the figure--they're just angled too far down at the ankles, causing the figure to fall backwards. To take these photographs, I had to prop up the back side of the CD case with some coins. Way to go, Shocker. Your "action figure" can't even stand.

*sigh*

Let's move on. Next, we have the aforementioned monkey-painting.

Seriously, the paint achieves new kinds of low. The paint scheme selected here is supposed to depict the characters' concert make-up (seen at the end of the opening theme song), which is obviously meant to make them appear dead--their skin pallid and necrotized. The painters have succeeded in pulling off a look more akin to poop smears on their face. I mean, really...what the hell were these guys thinking? Wasn't there someone at some point along the design process who said, "Hey, waitaminute guys--I think we may be f#@king this up"?

Again, if you look at the details (which I must reiterate that I **DON'T** recommend!), you can see how the borders of colors run sloppily into each other, complementing the lack of definition in the sculpt with a miserable lack of care and neatness.

And just imagine: all this bootleg-level quality can be yours for the low, low price of $20 a whack.

All right, seriously, I don't think I can go much further with this review. I'm starting to make myself angry again. Anyway, y'all get the point about these figures. Lemme at least leave you with something postitive about Metalocalypse:

***UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE***

Dateline: 31 January 2008

Well, here's a...*ahem*...shocker!

CDX has recently been contacted by Geoff Beckett, President of Shocker Toys, wishing to enlighten us as to the nature of these items. Much like on the boards erechoveraker linked below in the comments, Beckett tells us that "they are promotional samples for San Diego Comic Con limited to 500pcs each hand painted in 20days and manufactured in 20 days before the show. Some of them were spot on and some were not but again they were hand painted samples made in 20 days for the fact that there was no adult swim presence at SDCC and [Shocker] wanted to make something the fans could walk away with." He goes on to say that "they are resin samples as well not toys not meant to be toys or played with as such" and that they have yet to receive a single complaint from anyone who bought them in person at the show.

Beckett had earlier stated that the set reviewed here comprises "a 1,000pc resin statue made for san diego comic con". So...500? 1000? Either way, it seems apparent that a true Wave 1 is under development at Shocker that will ostensibly not suck. Beckett emphasizes that the set above "has no collectablity nor is playable" and that this article "is misrepresenting the line as [Shocker] tried to do the fans a solid and get something they could grab at SDCC for promotional purposes."

Okay, grammar notwithstanding, I think we get the point.

Whether or not this helps fans sleep better at night, all we know is that when these items were provided to Josh, they were given as "figures" with no contextual data to the otherwise. At the time of the original publication of this article (21 December 2007), Shocker's own website listed them as "figures", and made no mention of any distinction between these and their actual Wave 1 figures supposedly in development. Incidentally, the page has now been updated to reflect the use of the new language (i.e., "exclusives")...and yet right under the "Metalocalypse Wave 1: 5.5" action figures!" heading, unpainted versions of the resin statues above are still shown with no images of any other figures or characters.

At any rate, while I haven't changed the content of the review above, I changed the title to reflect the true nature of these statues.

So...is this a case of Shocker Toys furiously back-pedaling and changing their tune in the face of outraged fans, or is it simply a case of miscommunication...horrendous, horrendous miscommuncation...? Honestly, I'm not particularly interested in exploring the answer to that question. All I know is this: I'm a Metalocalypse fan. I'm a toy fan. I would like some good toys of Dethklok.

For better or for worse, Shocker Toys has promised superior Metalocalypse product in the future. That, alone, makes me hopeful and I will look forward to telling it like it is when they finally come out. Stay tuned!

The first major release from Far East Monsters, Ltd. and the first in an exciting new light-n-sound statue series from the 1968 film, Destroy All Monsters...it's Godzilla!!

Okay, whipped up into a righteous Godzilla frenzy? Perfect!

Folks, it's my pleasure to bring you some exciting news for all the Godzilla fans out there! Yes, there's new product out there to sate your kaiju lust...and it's not the same old thing. But before I get too ahead of myself, I want to talk about Far East Monsters, Ltd. This hot new kaiju collectibles company is based in Cleveland, OH. That's right: in the US...not Japan. How big is this news?

Well, let's see. Bandai America seems to be releasing new Godzilla figures right now. That's cool...but they're not even mentioned on their website. Who knows how long BA will support these toys. And as for the toys, themselves, does the market really need more small-scale $10 Godzilla figures? And what does the near future have in store for the fantastically bloated "vinyl scene"? Will Marusan, M1, and Marmit continue to release quality vintage-style kaiju toys when the bottom falls out of the designer toy market?

I certainly hope so. But with no new Godzilla films planned for production, these may prove trying times for the Godzilla nut! But that's where Bill Kerner and Tom Tvrdik of Far East Monsters step in! With seemingly no regard to the state of the "market", these intrepid designers are presenting us with their vision of what fun, high-quality kaiju collectibles are possible!

I first learned of these guys spending valuable hours at work searching for Godzilla stuff on eBay(!). I ran across their Mecha King Ghidorah floor puzzle. Click that link...I'll wait. Yes, it's a ginormous Mecha King Ghidorah puzzle...complete with the future jerks' flying saucer/time machine. Are you kidding me!? Who has the hutzpah make a product like this??? Like I said, these guys are bold!

I went on to learn more about this company...and fate (and Josh) put me in touch with the man, himself: Bill Kerner. Bill and Tom met at a company they worked for designing Godzilla-related merchandise. When the company decided they didn't want to pursue the license anymore, they got the idea to start their own company and pool their passion for radioactive lizards (not to mention their 20+ combined years of product development, design, and production experience!). They put together their pitch to Toho...and the license was granted!

The first high-end item from Far East Monsters is this first entry into the "Destroy All Monsters Battlezone Series": Godzilla! As the name implies, this is Soshingeki-Goji, Godzilla 1968 from Destroy All Monsters.

Brilliant box graphics!

The figure of Godzilla stands just about 5-1/2" from the "ground"...plus another almost 2" with the base. There's no articulation in this piece, but what you get is a stunning paint job with brilliantly rendered weathering. The dry-brushing used in the paint application adds the perfect contrast to pull out Tom's sculpt. Just check out the texture on the skin:

The detail paint apps on the head are pretty much flawless as well. Nothing to complain about here. Even the base is nicely done in a very natural looking scene--great for stomping 3-headed dragons! When taken as a whole, the look of the piece is beautifully faithful to the film that inspired its creation.

Okay, so I've talked about the quality of this Godzilla statue a bit. Words, of course, don't do it nearly as much justice as pictures. But there's much more to this item than a pretty paint job. First of all, Bill and Tom have set out to make unique collectibles--stuff we haven't seen before. This statue doesn't just look gorgeous...it comes to life! At the touch of a discreet button, a crystal-clear roar-n-stomp sound clip lifted directly from the movie cranks out of the base. And if that wasn't enough, a blue glow emits from inside his mouth and from the fins on his back! (the three required LR44 batteries are included, ya hobos!)

Again, a picture's worth a thousand words...but I'm thinking a little video couldn't hurt either! ;)

And if that wasn't enough, check out Far East's own YouTube promo vid of this item!

Lastly, as I mentioned before, this piece is part of a "Series". That's right: there will be more. A total of eight of these statues will be produced, comprising all eleven kaiju from the film. The bases of each statue will fit together to produce a complete diorama of the apocalyptic final battle in Destroy All Monsters! Yup, it's gonna be hot!

And the next monster in the series? None other than King Ghidorah! Watch for it in '08!

Finally, I would like to take a moment to mention something that goes beyond this passion for Japanese robots and monsters we all share. Bill and Tom obviously started Far East Monsters because of their love for this hobby...but they are also working to provide for Tom's son, Tommy, who is autistic. Among their goals is to raise awareness about this disorder that affects so many children. Please check out Tommy's Page for more information. Thanks!

This is one of the most beautiful vinyls in my entire collection.

Since my last Matango review, I finally got around to actually watching the movie. I thought it looked beautiful, but tended to drag to much for me. For some reason, it just didn't really speak to me. Strangely, I went on a bit of a Matango buying binge anyway and picked up this amazing M1 limited release of Mami.

This is a somewhat difficult to categorize toy. It's not quite kaiju really, but I wouldn't consider it exactly a girly figure either. Whatever it is, it's exquisitely done. The soft vinyl figure is about 7" tall and the feet are molded to fit into the resin base. It is articulated in four places, the neck, waist and both shoulders.

The paint job is simply breathtaking. Every detail is meticulously attended to. Not only does the color perfectly match the clothing in the movie, but the eyeshadow, lipstick and nail polish is has been very delicately applied. Her right pinky finger is curled in to that you cannot even see the nail from the front, but if you tip the figure back and look, even that's been painted.

The base features a small patch of mushrooms around her feet with the name of the movie written on the front in red lettering. The toy comes packaged in a box with some nice imagery from the movie. The box measures approximately 8.5"x2.5"x4.75".

A figure of this quality is enough to get me on board, but if you are loathe to buy something that isn't out and out monstrous, well they've included a little mini Matango too. This guy is about 2" tall and molded in pink vinyl with blue, yellow and red paint sprays. And you can wear him wherever you go since he comes on a long gold, plastic necklace!

This figure was released as a limited mail-away exclusive in conjunction with the 1999 release of the Matango laser disc. Another figure of a transforming Matango was also released at that time.