GODZILLA 1954 - NECA Godzilla figure review

The last NECA Godzilla I bought was the 1995 "Burning Godzilla" version 5 months ago. However, this week saw the release of the fifth Godzilla in the NECA line: Godzilla 1954, from the original film. It's an excellent figure - maybe the best release in the line thus far - and more than makes up for the disappointment I felt over those last two releases (1995 and 1984/5)!

The package remains the same. The good news about that is the uniformity across the line for MIB collectors (they do look pretty cool hanging on the wall in a group). The bad part is that it's hard to discover a new release among the older pegwarmers, since nothing about them "stand out", so unless you are specifically in search of a confirmed new release, Godzilla 1954 might be easy to overlook.

Godzilla 1954 does so many things right, where previous versions might have stumbled. The sculpt is flat out terrific. It evokes the original suit in terms of proportions, and (while the original looked pretty awkward in a couple of scenes) the NECA figure looks great from all angles. Unlike the 1984/5 figure, he just looks "right" to me. He stands very upright, rather than hunched, and I feel like the articulation serves the sculpt, rather than just being in place for the sake of it. There's a joint at the base of the neck, and another at the top, but it works better than on the 1994, because there's no "sheath" on the outside. There's a great range of motion in the two combined, allowing the figure to look nearly straight down or straight ahead.

The mouth opens incredibly wide, and though the roof is absent of detail, there is a smooth tongue inside. The teeth are perfectly individually sculpted and painted, and the mouth closes exactly as it should.

There's an upper torso joint with a fantastic range of motion, allowing for swivels, twists and tilt (it's a ball). There are joints at the shoulders, elbows, wrists and fingers. The elbows are the only spot where the movement is restricted. The rotate well, but do not have much bend, despite the hinge being visible. The finger(s) joint works well, but only expect a twist at the wrists. The hips have some in/out motion, and move forward and backward a bit. There's another joint at the knee, and a twist at the ankle, but these all work together more for fine tuning, rather than providing for exciting kung-fu moves. The feet are huge, and provide plenty of stability, though NECA did see fit to include peg holes under the heels.

The paint is simple, but excellent. The figure is done in a grey scheme: dark grey for the body, light grey highlights along the spines, fingernails and toe nails, with a very faint lavender dry brush over everything to bring out the details. The teeth are clean, and the eyes are appropriately "googly". I did feel like the left pupil was noticeably larger than the right when I first opened the package, but I've gotten used to it and it looks right.

1984, 2014, 1954 & 1994

NECA's Godzilla 1954 "Goji" figure is a home-run on all counts. The sculpt is perfect, as is the paint and articulation scheme. It's easily my favorite NECA Godzilla so far, and looks wonderful among his other versions. Keep in mind that NECA isn't paying attention to scale with these figures, so their 1954 will not match up alongside, say, SH MonsterArt's tiny 1964 version. In fact, 1954 is their largest figure to date, period. We haven't heard any news about releases beyond this one from NECA, and Tamashii Nations seems to be winding down their Godzilla line, so I don't know what the future holds, but I certainly hope NECA will keep at it. This guy is that good...