SH Monsterarts Fire Rodan Review

Originally I was going to get the old Bandai Fire Rodan, but when I heard that this thing would just be $43, I couldn't resist. So I ended up pre-ordering this a few months ago. The pics looked really, really great. The detail looked sharp, bright, and amazing. Now, surprising as it sounds, this is my first figure from the SH Monsterarts line. I was considering getting the Godzilla, but I ended up buying the Heisei Movie Monsters one. (The Movie Monsters was $15, I couldn't justify spending $60 on the Monsterarts one.) I would have bought SpaceGodzilla, but I had a Bandai Creation one already, so I didn't want to spend around $70 on it when it could go toward a whole new monster. (Didn't bother buying Mechagodzilla II cause I also had a Bandai Creation one.) I had a Showa Rodan and a Final Wars Rodan. What was missing? Fire. Today it arrived straight from Tokyo. (Wow, shipping from Ami Ami is awesome, only took a few days.) After opening up the very pretty box, I discovered a cute, highly detailed, but slightly disappointing figure.

First off, this thing is small. Maybe you were expecting that, but I was expecting it to be a little bigger. It looks tiny next to a 6 inch Bandai vinyl. Sadly I don't have any of the SH Monsterarts to compare it to, but I've seen pictures. The Godzilla one isn't much bigger than a 6 inch Godzilla vinyl. Scaled next to the Bandai Movie Monsters Godzilla Heisei, Fire Rodan should be a little bigger. The head looks so inferior when compared to the head on the Godzilla. Size aside, the figure has a high quality feel. The detail is of course great, better than the Bandai ones from what I've seen of those. Though honestly I gotta say the pictures online look better than what it is in person.

Doing the stand is not too bad of a process, but getting that beam in is pretty painful. It's cool to look at, but I don't know, I wish they could have made it easier to do. You're going to want the stand, cause it's nearly impossible to stand him up without it. Plus being so little he may get lost in a large collection without it. The paint job may just be the greatest aspect of the figure, it's matches his movie counterpart 100%. The Monsterarts line is famous for it's articulation, you can pose the figures whichever way you like, Fire Rodan is no exception. Every which way you could pose the figure. Stuff like that doesn't really matter to me, I just stand up the figures on the shelf, but I know articulation is important to a lot of collectors.

So was I disappointed with the purchase? Well, it's not worth over $43 let me tell you. It'll grow on me as the months go by, they always do, even if you might be disappointed when you first view it. It's a fun little figure, the detail is great, and it's Fire Rodan. It's too small however, and attaching the beam and putting it on display isn't really worth the work and space in my opinion. $43 is a bit much, I think it should be $33. But in the end, it's a great figure, just too small.