Sci-Fi Revoltech #033
Legion
5 Inch Scale
By: Kaiyodo
$50 (price varies)
What's this? Yes it's the 12th Day of Gamera... Better late than never. This is my final Gamera review for now and with this review, we at Infinite Hollywood can claim to have more Gamera toy reviews than any website on the net! Or at least English speaking websites. This Gamera is the Revoltech version of 1996's Gamera 2: Advent of Legion.


This Gamera figure is similar in many ways to the original Revoltech Gamera and yet, quite a bit different too. Kaiyodo continues to find new ways to make these figures stand out. As much as I love the 1995 design of Gamera, I must admit that the 1996 design and by proxy this figure, are quite awesome too. The 1996 design is a perfect marriage between the original Heisei Gamera and the final Heisei Gamera.


Is this Gamera big and bad enough to take on Legion?!

Packaging:
This comes in your standard Revoltech adult collectible packaging. It's quite nice and the picture of the Gamera figure on the front is pretty stunning.


The back shows off the details and has your only instructions.


The inside panel has plenty of details in Japanese along with photos from the film. I hope you can read Japanese!


Everything is nicely packed in the velcro fastened window box. Perfect for display if you're a MOC guy.

Sculpt/Paint:
Watanabe Yuuki is sculpting again and I was quite shocked to see how much this sculpt mirrors the 1995 version of Gamera. Don't get me wrong, there are some serious differences, but there are actually more similarities than I was expecting. However this is not a repaint by any means, any parts that look similar are in fact different but similar sculpts.


The face, head and elbows are the main areas where the design is different. I'm really digging the look on the face and the added bone claws in the elbows just help round the figure out. His hands are more like the Creature from the Black Lagoon than before.


The shell is slightly different and oddly rnough this time Revoltech have given him a rubber tail. It has only one Revoltech joint where it connects to the shell.


The paint is darker, richer in som easpects, but also a bit flatter. It helps set this Gamera apart from the previous ones and is a nice color tone, somewhere between classic Showa and 1995 Heisei. These are some great paint details on the claws and elbow spikes.


He's just a tad bigger than the first Revoltech Gamera. Gamera was supposed to have grown a bit, but this isn't a huge deal. I thought for sure he would be bigger, but he's nearly the same size. He's thicker however, which makes him appear bigger.


It's hard to say which I prefer.


Both are excellent!


The big difference of this Gamera is the Guyver-like Mega Smasher which he uses in the climax of the film. This is recreated here, with a detachable chest cavity piece that shows his chest open.


The details are sharp and the paint vivid and bright.


The front of the shell is removable, while the center "hole" is always there. You either chose to expose it or cover it.


Swapping the shell pieces is easy enough.

Articulation:
The articulation is largely the same as the previous Gamera.


The amount of joints is more than enough to allow you plenty of poses. The key differences would be that he has Revoltech joints in the writs (which are mostly negated by the sculpt) and the aforementioned lack of joints in the tail. I can't decided if the tail is bendy or not, but I'm thinking perhaps not.


That said, he moves really easily and if there are missing joints, you won't miss them too much.


Everything moves naturally and fluidly.

Accessories:
G2 Gamera is packed with accessories, although they aren't as useful as some of the previous Gamera accessories.


To start you get seven more mini-Legions. These appear to be the exact same sculpt and if anything the yellow stripes on them may be a tiny shade different. These are still super small accessories and bound to get lost.


Flying Legion
You also get three of the flying sculpt Legions. This is the second form of Legion.


The paint work is quite nice on these and they all get their own stands.




You also get the Legion nest thing. It looks really nice.


In the film Gamera shoots like a super fire by nearly unhinging his jaw to spray the flaming blast. This is replicated by removing his jaw piece.


And then threading the fire blast through the Revoltech joint in the jaw. Unfortunately I had issues reconnecting the jaw back in with the fire attached. I'm sure I could have gotten it if I messed with it long enough, but it wasn't worth it to me.


The G1 fire works well enough attaching the normal way.


You also get the nameplate and the orange box to round things out.

Value:
While this Gamera is the newest Sci-Fi Revoltech on the market (and thus more expensive than G1) it's still a great figure. There's enough that's different to make you want to have both versions. I suspect a lot of people will use this as their default Gamera, even though it doesn't have some of the perks of the first version. I too am finding myself falling in love with this design.


Score Recap:
Packaging - 8
Sculpting - 9
Paint - 8
Articulation - 8
Accessories - Name plate, 7 Mini Legions, 3 Flying Legions, Fire Blast, Legion Egg Flower, Orange Box
Value - 8
Overall - 8.5 out of 10


I'm giving this guy an 8 1/2 out of 10. He could be a 9 really, but I feel the G1 had a few more neat perks that should make it rate a bit higher. This is still an excellent figure, especially if you prefer this Gamera design.


This is definitely a Gamera figure worth owning, even if you have the 1995 version. I hope you've enjoyed the 12 Days of Gamera as much as I have.