Even though the end of the year is coming up, there are still plenty of great toys making their way in under the wire.  One of my favorite lines this year has been Bandai’s SH MonsterArts and they’re definitely going out on a high note with their newest figure, Burning Godzilla.

For those of you who don’t know, Burning Godzilla is the super angry version of the character from the end of Godzilla vs. Destroyah.  The epic brawl with Destoyah pushes Godzilla’s anger and power over the top and he goes into a meltdown faze.  Godzilla’s energy boils out of him, making his skin melt and body glow in a red hot intensity as the military hopelessly tries to cool him down in order to prevent massive nuclear destruction.

I really didn’t expect much from this figure when he was first announced.  Previous Burning Godzilla toys were mostly just repaints or remolds in various translucent colors, and there was no reason to think Bandai would do much more than that this time.  I’m very glad I was wrong.

I’ve been pretty impressed with how Bandai of Japan has responded to collector’s complaints.  The first Godzilla figure was good, but had a difficult time pulling off dynamic poses.  This issue was fixed with the release of Space Godzilla, who was a bit bulkier but could still pull off action stances that Godzilla couldn’t.  Space Godzilla was the new and good standard of articulation, but Bandai wasn’t done improving yet.

Burning Godzilla was made with posing directly at the forefront.  This figure has an entirely new torso, which is now made up of three parts.  Not only does this allow him to do things like bend forward, down, or twist, but it also makes him taller than the first MonsterArts Godzilla.  It’s not by a lot, but it’s definitely noticeable and now Burning G is equal in height with Space and Mecha.

Bandai also improved poseability by widening the spaces between the figure’s skin and ball joints.  This is particularly helpful with areas like the hips and shoulders, allowing them to move with a fuller range in all directions without the outer sculpt getting in the way.

Speaking of sculpt, Burning Godzilla has a few new body parts too.  There are the three new torso pieces I mentioned above.  He also has new hips and shoulders, which are much wider than the original’s.  I want to say his biceps, knees, and shins are new also.  He also comes with an alternate pair of new hands.  They’re still open with the claws out, but they’re in a much more natural pose than the original’s.

Unfortunately this new poseability has its downside.  Some of the spaces created for these joints to move are a bit too big.  There are a lot of gaps at the articulation points.  This isn’t too big an issue except for his hips.  When looking at the figure from the side, you can see straight through to daylight where the hips join the torso.   Continue to page 2…