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With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound
He pulls the spitting high-tension wires down

Helpless people on subway trains
Scream, bug-eyed, as he looks in on them

He picks up a bus and throws it back down
As he wades through the buildings toward the center of town

Oh, no, they say he’s got to go
Go, go Godzilla
Oh, no, there goes Tokyo
Go, go Godzilla

-Blue Oyster Cult

I’m on your side!  I hate Godzilla!  I hate him too!  I hate him!  He destroys cities!

-Alan Garner

Greetings, Comic Attackers!  Welcome to another astonishing edition of Gotta Have It! Figure Edition.  I can’t stay long, I gotta get the hell out of here!  He’s coming!  If you were smart, you’d get the hell out of here, too!  He’s almost here!  He’s gigantic!  He’s incredible!  He’s terrifying!  He’s awesome!  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…GODZILLA!

Product Line: Classic Godzilla Figures: 1968 Godzilla
Company: Bandai
Released: October 2009 (Reissue of 2007 edition)
Packaging: Cardboard half-carton.
Where to Buy: Toys R Us is the only place I’ve seen these besides online.
Price: US $11.99 (Toys R Us)
Points of Articulation: 5
Height: 6 1/2 inches.

Paint Job: Godzilla is made of a black or a very dark charcoal gray plastic.  The claws on his hands and feet are painted a lighter shade of gray.  His knees and the tips of the spikes all down his back and tail are painted the same shade of gray as well.  His eyes are painted with white and black.  The inside of his mouth is painted pink  and highlighted with white, sharp teeth.  It can’t really be said that the colors bleed to where they aren’t supposed to be, because the painted parts all fade from black to gray.  There is, however, a little dot of pink on his right shoulder.  An even smaller pink dot is on the back of his head.  I’m not going to try to explain how the pink got from his mouth to his shoulder and head.

Durability: He’s super lightweight.  He’s squishy.  I half expect him to squeak and rile the dogs when I squeeze him.  Since he can be squished, he’s obviously hollow.  All of his joints move loosely and always stay where you put them.

Poseability: Dumb.  You can move his arms, legs, and tail.  Why move his tail, though?  It doesn’t even look natural once you’ve moved it into a different position.  You can’t lift his leg to stomp something, because he will just topple over in the direction of the lifted leg.  His head can’t turn, either.  That’s probably the biggest bummer concerning his poseability.  Basically, even though his legs and tail can move, his arms are the only thing poseable.  Move them up.  Move them down.  Knock yourself out.

What’s Awesome: Godzilla has been an international success in both film and comics.  Let’s face it!  Godzilla kicks ass!  This one is not too gigantic, but he’s also big enough to scare the crap out of average sized action figures.  I get to keep this one because my son said he looks too scary.

What Sucks:

The things I hate worse, on action figure packaging, than twist ties are their ugly cousins the zip ties.  His head should have been poseable, too.  Other than those, there isn’t anything that I could realistically complain about.  It’s a good piece.

Overall: 4 out of 5.  I give this 1968 version of Godzilla four thumbs up.  I came upon this action figure by accident while looking for some sweet superhero swag.  Toys R Us had this sucker on the bottom shelf.  Well, guess what?  He’s top shelf in my book!  Bandai’s 6.5″ 1968 Godzilla…gotta have it?  That’s a stupid question.  It’s probably the coolest action figure you never considered.  Coming in at only 12 bucks and some change after tax, there’s no reason not to snatch one up.

Aron White
aron@comicattack.net