NECA Godzilla 1954 figure

There are some things in life that, while not essential to your survival, you still feel a burning, uncontrollable need for, one of those things for me was a 1954 Godzilla in my collection, I adore the film and the franchise that followed it was a huge part of my childhood, so it only makes sense. After a while I finally got one when NECA released a figure based on the classic 1954 design, I bought it without hesitation during my Hanley Haul, and now, continuing the catch up reviews, I'm having a close look at one of the newest prides in my collection. So right away you know I'll say this thing looks incredible, NECA is at this point fairly respectable in the quality of their sculpts, but this one really needed to be perfect, at least for me, and I think they did it. The head sculpt on this guy is marvelous, very much representing the look of the original design, complete with the eye brows and the pointy little ears, the spinal plates on the top of his head are also very well sculpted and fit seamlessly with the plates going down his neck and back, and the mouth is also very cool. Going down the back are the Spinal plates, which, while not done as perfectly as the head, are still done extremely well, and look very much in the style of the original design, and the lower body and legs, just like in the film, are comically chunky, and riddled with very nicely sculpted creases and scales, that detail continues all the way down the tail with a cool segmented look. Now, paint, normally I'd be unimpressed with the colour scheme of this fella, but in reality, it's just another thing I love; he's entirely monochromatic, no colours used in his paint scheme other than greys. Again, normally I'd see this as lazy design, but this is in fact a very nice respect to the film, with was of course in black and white, so the monochromatic scheme really adds to the figure's look. The paint work, as ever, is extremely well done, the eyes are very good, and the spines have a nice blend of shades to them. Long ago, about 6 years ago to be more specific, I never expected a NECA figure to have better articulation than a McFarlane figure, but this guy has very sweet articulation, a with hinged mouth, a full range of movement at the base of the head, base of the neck, and at the waist, as well as in the thighs and shoulders, the elbows knees. Wrists and feet can also all be posed, though with a little less freedom, the finger are hinged, and the tail has various points of movement, including a bendy wire that does come dethatched in the packaging and needs assembling. in total that's over 20 points of articulation, allowing for some cool poses. All in all I have no issues with this figure, at all, he is, in my opinion, perfect. A fairly predictable response in all likelihood. I love the sculpt, I love the simpler colours, and I like the good number of points of articulation, this is the 54 Godzilla I wanted, and he's absolutely a must buy.