Godzilla Mystery Minis - King Ghidorah review

Funko Friday

The Joker to Godzilla's Batman, the Red Skull to his Captain America, Ghidorah is one of Toho's "Big Five" and possibly the second-most famous kaiju of the Godzilla series. He's so evil, he made Godzilla the hero in a movie for the first time! The early English dubs pronounced his name "Geed-rah," which is closer to the Japanese version (itself based on their word for the hydra, hidora). But if that's the origin, why's the name always been said with a short I sound ("gih-door-uh") and not a long I sound ("guy-door-uh")? Because if the name had sounded more like "hydra" to begin with, I probably would have caught on to what this monster is all about sooner. The first of Godzilla's alien enemies, "Monster Zero" attacked Venus 5,000 years ago, destroying its advanced civilization, and in the modern day arrived on Earth in a comet. He had one outing acting under his own motivations, and then four more where he was being controlled by various alien races.

Ghidorah is fully gold, with red paint for the eyes and black pupils. There are clusters of scales sculpted ar random all over the body, and there are ridges along the back of each neck. I confess, I was never able to "read" Ghidorah as anything other than a man in a suit with his arms serving as the extra two heads - it wasn't until the Monsterverse version that I finally figured out we're supposed to think of his wings like a bat's, that those are his "arms" and he can walk on them. Like a Game of Thrones dragon. That's definitely not clear on this original design, which looks like he just had wings on his back like a butterfly! Ghidorah's three heads are all in slightly different positions, and his two tails curve around his right side.

Befitting his status in the Godzillaverse, King Ghidorah is packed in a 1:12 ratio, available somewhere in every case.

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