The one thing I want to know is "how?": how did he sculpt something as beautiful and intricate as The Thinker with these weird monster hands?
Legends collide as Godzilla, Kong and Rodan, the most powerful forces of nature, clash in a spectacular battle for the ages! The monster war rages on the surface and deep within our world as the secret realm of the titans - known as the Hollow Earth - is revealed!
Although American audiences know him as "Rodan," this monster's original name is "Radon," a contraction of "pteranodon" - they changed it so you don't think of the gas that seeps in through your basement. Though it would be funny to imagine a bunch of middle-class homes all having kaiju detectors plugged into their outlets. If you need one of those to tell you Rodan is on his way, you may already be lost.
Since debuting in his own eponymous 1956 movie, Rodan has always been connected with volcanos and lava. The Monsterverse version
really ups that, with the official materials revealing that Rodan, in addition to nesting inside a volcano, has liquid hot magma instead of blood and that his skin looks scaly beauce it's covered with congealed volcanic sediment. Dang! Monsterverse Rodan has two spikes on the back of his head, a jagged beak, and a very short tail - those features tend to vary from version to version, and these are the markers of the modern version.
Rodan is the third figure in this particular line,
and he brings articulation to an all-time low! Those big wings are solid plastic, so the sum total of the movement are swivel hips and a potentially balljointed head. Nothing else. Godzilla vs. Kong was the first to walk on four limbs rather than two, but this toy will always have to be as upright as the Toho version. His tail acts as a nice tripod, keeping the toy stable despite his weird shape and stance.
A slip of paper inside the package lists the steps
to convert him: open the back and flip the back armor out, flip the chest aromr over and lay it against the chest, flip the panel on the chest and the ones on the front of the wings, open the thighs to get at the shin armor, then open the back of the wings, rotate out all the various pieces of armor and spikes, and close the wings again.
You would expect that his transformation would be even less extreme than Godzilla's, but this is quite a change! Rodan's Titan Tech gives him fitted greaves, a bit of armor along the leading edges of his wings, and a full vest that covers his entire torso! I don't really get what's up with the red panels on his wings - they just look like more of the same, in a different color.
The major theme of this mode is "blades." Blades on his shoulders, blades in his elbows, blades in front of his fingers. The chest is heavily armored, with a Monarch group logo in the center and several round elements that look like lights - you can pretend they're navigation lights, like any other aircraft would require!
My figure is missing one of the silver hooks on his shoulder: the stock photos show him with two, and there's a conspicuous spot where one should be glued in, but isn't. There's no way of telling this before opening the toy, but thankfully it doesn't bother me too much; he's hardly the first of these beasts to have asymmetrical weapons.
It's been a year since the first two Monsterverse Titan Tech figures were released, so getting Rodan now is surprising to say the least. Could there be more on the way? Titan Tech King Ghidorah, as a stand-in for Mecha Ghidorah? Titan Tech Mechagodzilla, for sheer poinlessness? Titan Tech Mothra, to be very cute? Titan Tech Skullcrawler, to finally show the Kong side of things some love? There are plenty of possibilities.
-- 10/31/23
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