Baragon’s paint job is subtle, but good. He’s molded mostly in the brown color he should be, but there’s also a nice darker brown and black wash over him to highlight his scales, warts, and muscles. His claws have a metallic, harder look to them, the way claws should. One thing I really like is the horn on his head. It’s difficult to capture in photos, but it’s actually a translucent yellow. This gives it a nice glowing look in person.
For such a squat little guy, he’s packed full of articulation. Baragon’s got a hinged jaw and ears. His upper neck, lower neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, ankles, and tail are all the ball-jointed revolver joints. On top of that, his tail is bendy. All these combine to give him a pretty large range of movement. His arms and legs can be positioned to stand on two and four legs, which the character does regularly. Plus, the double neck joint allows him to look straight forward when on all fours. There are a couple problems though. Because of where some of the joints are inserted, his articulation is limited by his body in certain places. This isn’t that big of a deal because it keeps him from posing in unnatural ways, but it does limit a perfectly good ball joint.
Since Baragon is a lesser known Toho character, they’ve given another reason to buy him: his accessories. He comes with an A-frame house, a horse with stand, a large tree, a smaller tree, and a name plate, along with the usual orange accessory box and 10-coin. The trees, horse, and building all make appearances in Frankenstein Conquers the World. Baragon is seen destroying the house, and later on chowing on some livestock. The house is as nicely detailed as the monster. It’s got a rundown look to it with crooked steps, broken glass in the window, and the door falling off its hinges. The horse is also good, although it’s perpetually stuck in a running-for-its-life pose. One nice thing about the horse is that he can be removed from his little base and plugged into the base that the house sits on. I love it when companies throw in those little details. One of the silly things about his accessories is the little orange box that’s meant to hold them. This is a normal thing for Revoltechs to come with, but it’s kind of a waste here. Only the horse and his stand fit into the box, everything else is too big.
Being an import, Baragon’s is on the expensive side. If you can pick him up for under $30, you’re doing well. Personally, I think that’s a fair price. I really enjoy his accessories. And even though I didn’t know who he was until recently, the figure is pretty nice also. It gives me good reason to look forward to the future of this line with Gamera and Mothra just down the road. I can’t wait until they show us Godzilla.
I still don’t why they started with this guy. He may look cool, but it’s akin to DC Classics doing Kamandi first.
I think Revoltech is doing the same thing Mattel did with Martian Manhunter. It is kind of silly they didn’t start with one of the many versions of Godzilla, but I can see the benefit of them wanting to know how the lesser characters will sell.
That’s a good point. I thought Gamera was going to come first, which would be more of a draw into the series. I betcha that once the better known guys start rolling out this one will become highly sought after and expensive.
Thanks for the rundown and the scale shot. I was curious what these will be sized at. I really hope they are all in scale with each other. And it’s good to see that the quality on these is starting off high.
I think you’re right. There might be a lot of people going back to get him after the line gets bigger.
I’m hoping the scale stays mostly relative also. But that means King Ghidorah is going to be HUGE.
i can’t help but say i think revoltech missed the boat here badly… IF these figures were MUCH larger, let’s say 13 inches tall, they wouldn’t be “in scale” w/ other revoltechs… but they look like it. they’d tower over revoltechs and look like the monsters they’re intended to be. it’s hard to justify, as a collector, buying “a giant monster” that’s not in the least bit giant. that’s one thing about some of the godzilla toys out there, they may not have great articulation, but at least other action figures have to look at at them. to me, that, moreso than fancy articulation, is the essence of the toku monsters.
in thinking about the recent tytus figure for motuc, i never once complained there on his scale, cuz any more than about double the standard motuc height is about right, he’s huge compared to the other guys… that left me free to complain there cuz the line did have an established construction & design aesthetic that he didn’t meet.
Clearly, you don’t have a model train set to terrorize. 😀
i quite do, in fact, but it’s not a micro machine train! 🙂
Having big ones would be cool, but would run out of room to quick if it were this line, lol. As long as they are all in relative scale with each other, I’m good.
Damn, beat me to reviewing this guy. Anywho, pretty sure the box is for your Revoltech joints. Not necessarily the other accessories. Without a lot of the normal extras, it does seem like a waste, but I thought that was the original plan for the boxes.
Maybe you’re right, I’m not really sure.
Can’t wait to see your review.
Goddamn, I want that Big O soooo much.
He’s pretty cool.
Arrgh! I have to be angry with you, Noisy! You just made me order Gamera! And of course, I’ll end up ordering Godzilla! Great review… again.
These are the monsters I grew up with! These guys should be paying you for these reviews… Or I at least they should be giving you free toys! 🙂
You can’t blame me! This ones all on Vault! 😀
Yup, this one’s my review.
Free toys, I’m all for that. If any of you toy companies are reading this, Vault would like free toys in exchange for a review. Sounds fair to me. 😀