MEGALON - Y-MSF Vinyl Figure Review

I remember my Saturday afternoon treat, growing up, was watching insane Kung-Fu movies or monster battle epics, and chief among them was "Godzilla vs. Megalon". There was a little boy's weird peddle duck thing getting sucked into a pond-swallowing crack in the earth, a mute robot who could change size at will named Jet Jaguar, and a titanic 2-on-2 monster throw down at the end. As a kid, what wasn't to like? As an adult, I can recognize that this is one of the worst Godzilla films in the franchise, but that doesn't keep me from thinking that Megalon is still one bad-looking dude. Even now, he may be my favorite kaiju design ever. But, I must be in the minority, because it's really hard to find toy versions of this guy. There's a Bandai 9" (I don't like the drill hands on that one), an X-Plus Large Scale (it's beautiful, but REALLY expensive), a couple of "deformed" or "gashapon" mini versions, and then there's this: Y-MSF 6.5" vinyl Megalon. I've never owned a Y-MSF figure before, so I really had very little to go on when I decided to purchase this, other than that IT'S MEGALON, and it was less than $100. So, is this guy worth the cash and effort it takes to get him? Let's find out...

I'll say this for starters: I think they nailed the sculpt. This is exactly how I remember Megalon. He stands 6 & 5/8 inches tall to the top of his star, and measures about 6 inches from the points of his drills to the end of his tail. He's made of an incredibly lightweight vinyl. It's striking how feathery this figure feels. He weighs in at 3 oz. (compare this to the Bandai Godzilla '68 in the picture below, who's 4.3 oz). He just feels...thin, I guess is the word I'm looking for, and not really up to hard-core play.

That said, he looks fantastic. The proportions are spot-on, and the entire sculpt exudes a variety of textures. His smooth star transitions to a fine pebble-grain for his head. The yellow markings on his torso and wings are sculpted, and the mouth looks like a separate piece (I believe there's an "open-mouth" version of Megalon out there, as well). The arms and legs have large overlapping plates/feathers/scales, and the drill hands look great both on the interior and exterior. Megalon's tail has fierce thorns atop it, and completes the pebble-texture begun at the head, though here it's rougher and more...icky.

The wings have some additional raised lines to suggest overlapping transparent pieces, while the feathered armor continues down his legs until the feet become pebbly again and end in 2 wicked claws on each foot. The paint is good, though not exceptional. The yellow on the wings is muted and inconsistent in coverage, while the body fares a bit better. The eyes suggest the honeycomb texture with a light gold spray over top, The drill hands, tail thorns, mouth and toenails are silver, and mostly very clean. The toes are the exception, with some overspray onto the foot, though it seems that may have been intentional. There's a bit of tan on the antennae and a hint of silver to the star and horn. Megalon himself is a sort of dark charcoal with a light greenish tint. In all, he's a great looking figure with plenty of neat detail and a sufficient paint job.

Megalon's pose is interesting. He's kind of leaned forward from the waist up. I wish he could be raised up a little more upright, but it's not possible despite some limited articulation. There's cuts at the shoulders and crotch which allow the arms to be raised a bit, and the legs adjusted just enough to get the feet to lie flat. The tail has 2 cuts, I believe and the head can be adjusted a tiny but, but I don't think either of those are really meant to be posed significantly. So, he's relatively static, as most vinyl kaiju are. Which means his look depends largely on whether or not you like the sculpted pose. The Bandai Megalon stands much more erect, and I don't much care for it. The X-Plus Megalon looks as though he's in the midst of a battle swing. This Y-MSF version is somewhere in-between. I like the general look, but he really needs to be displayed at eye level or higher to be appreciated due to his hunch.

On a side note, he seems to be posed slightly asymmetrically. His stance is just a shade deeper on his left that his right, which causes him to lean slightly to his left. It's a small thing, but it does bug me a bit.

Foot and toe details

Drill Hands

Y-MSF's Megalon looks great on the shelf. Whether it's beside his baddie ally Gigan (shown is the Bandai America 6.5" Gigan), or facing off with Godzilla. I don't personally have an in-scale '73 Godzilla, but he looks pretty good opposite Bandai's Godzilla 1968. I have no regrets about purchasing him, and would gladly do so again. I may try to track down a reasonably priced X-Plus Megalon, but until that happens I'm happy to have this version terrorizing my shelf. In fact, I'm so happy with him that I'll be keeping my eyes out for more Y-MSF Godzilla toys to add to my collection.

On a side note, I understand that there is another version of this Megalon done in a brown color scheme. I'm not sure how the color variants and the mouth variants match up, but I believe the sculpts for the rest of the figure are the same.