Gamera: Guardian of the Universe
Guilon (Guiron)
4 Inch Scale
By: Trendmasters
$13.99 (price varies)
We're 5 days into the 12 Days of Gamera and what better way to show that than with the fifth Gamera villain, Guiron! Guiron is perhaps the most inspired design of all the Gamera foes, as he's really not like anything else. He's part dog, part shark, he can walk on all fours or stand up, he has a huge knife for a head and he can shoot throwing stars out of his head. He's all kinds of awesome.

The protector of a race of brain-eating aliens, Guilon massacres the enemies of his ravenous masters with his cleaving butcher knife head and firing shuriken stars! Even the most devistating blasts of Jiger, Gyaos, Zigra and mighty Gamera are deflected by the gargantuan blade of the saber-beast! As a battle of monstrous proportions rages, Guilon seeks to split Gamera's portective shell and bury his blade!

That's the actual bio from the back of the package and it does a good job of explaining Guiron's story, even mentioning the crazy brain eating aliens from the film. It adds a little bit, talking about battles we haven't necessarily seen and it's done with some great language. Kudos to you Mr. Trendmasters bio writer.


For some reason, perhaps the pronunciation, Guiron's name was often spelled "Guillon" in the United States. Trendmasters has went with the spelling "Guilon" to confuse things even more, I suppose. Gamera and Guiron do battle on the frozen planet of Terra in the movie and they actually have some snow scenes. It's a perfect compliment to Christmas!

Packaging:
The Trendmasters packaging is nice, if not a bit too dark and simplistic. I really appreciate the cover though and I know that Trendmasters didn't have much to work with. At the time only one new Gamera film had been made.


The back of the package is universal, which is also pretty sweet. It includes bios for everyone and I also approve of that. It should be noted that Trendmasters has listed his name as Guilon, sort of splitting the difference between his American and Japanese names. However, I will refer to him as Guiron.

Sculpt/Paint:
I've mentioned this before in my other Trendmasters Gamera figure reviews, but in case this is your first one, Trendmasters had to make up their own Heisei designs for these characters. As Guiron never appeared in any Heisei films, Trendmasters just recreated them how they thought he might look.


Trendmasters was also trying to make these toys perhaps a bit more appealing to kids. So they gave Guiron a big dose of bright green paint. It's a mixed result, as it's just too much green in my view. I think if the eyes had been a different color, maybe that would have helped.


It's still a pretty nice design and it's definitely one that they've taken some liberties with. That said, it's not a massive amount of change. He still has his tusk teeth and almost goofy grin.


He's not as unique as the Figumate Guiron, but he does have a firing blade in his head. That might seem a bit silly, but it's not a terrible idea. Sadly there are no removable stars in his head, but they are sculpted on.


I NEED THAT LIKE I NEED A HOLE IN MY HEAD!
Plus it was the 1990's and every toy had some sort of rocket launcher. The only problem is that messes with the sculpt from the front.


He looks okay with the blade in, but I kind of like how he looks without it in. I guess it's up to you how you want to display him.


Speaking of sculpt issues, these are the non-electronic versions of the figures. That means they do not "roar" but they still have all the switches, speakers and battery compartments sculpted into their design. It's a bit of a bummer, but it's not too distracting I guess. Heck the 4 Horsemen are scultping that crap into MOTUC figures these days. The nice part about these non-electronic versions is that their buttons aren't bright red.


Of course the best part about these figures is that they are perfect scale with the Revoltech Gamera, instantly allowing you to recreate classic battles in new Heisei forms!

Articulation:
Although he's able to fight Revoltech Gamera, he's not going to match up in the articulation department by any means. He has just a few simple cut joints, but it's still not too bad.


All four of the legs are on a simple cut, but they have a decent range of motion on them. The head looks like it's one a cut too, but it does not turn. I'm assuming that has something to do with the rocket mechanism.


His tail does turn though. So there's that.

Accessories:
You don't get much with this line, but these dudes were like $8 when they first came out, so I wouldn't expect too much out of them anyway. It's not like Guiron normally wears a hat or something, so it's not much of a loss.


You get his firing blade and that's it. My blade was a little warped, but it's been in a package since 1996ish, so I guess that's to be expected.


It's a decent little piece and the rocket element fires really well. Check out the video below! Sorry for the seizure inducing flashing.


You could definitely put your eye out with this thing. It's got some power behind it.

Value:
I'm really not sure what these retailed for originally as lord knows I never saw them in the store. I'm thinking $8-$10 for the non-electronic versions and maybe up to $15 for the electronice versions? Or pehaps even half that. Who knows. What I do know is that you'll pay at least $15 for these (assuming you can even find them) in today's market. They're rare and don't come up too often. I am super stoked to have them in my collection as they're really special pieces.


Score Recap:
Packaging - 7
Sculpting - 7
Paint - 6
Articulation - 6
Accessories - Missile Knife
Value - 8
Overall - 7 out of 10


A seven isn't the strongest score in the world, but this isn't a perfect toy either. However, that's not really the point with these guys. They're one of kind in the sense that they're the only Heisei versions of these characters and they're fairly rare. They're awesome in that sense and definitely neat pieces to have in the collection.


Their compatibility with the Revoltech figures is just bonus icing on the cake as far as I'm concerned. Keep coming back for more 12 Days of Gamera with many more neat things to come!