Gargantos

Marvel is also lying to you about who this is. A giant cephalopod monster with tentacles, Gargantos brings his enormous size and strength into battle. Yeah, neat. That's not who this is. Robert E. Howard died in 1936. In 1967, one of his short stories, "The Curse of the Golden Skull" (probably written in the late 1920s), was published for the first time. In that story, a character "cursed humanity by the fane of the Black Gods, the tracks of the Serpent Ones, the talons of the Ape Lords and the iron bound books of Shuma Gorath." That was the entire appearance of the character until Marvel started using the name, with the words first being spoken in Journey Into Mystery #1, and then the name appearing a few more times before the character was formally introduced in Marvel Premiere #10. But here's the thing: you can't copyright just a name. Copyright covers the expression of an idea, not the idea itself. The Howard estate has no legal claim to two weird words that appeared next to each other in one sentence, especially since his appearance, personality, and role were all invented by Marvel Comics. Yes, even if it was obviously based on those two words, it doesn't matter: Marvel owns the character. Outright. Heck, for all anyone knows, the "Shuma Gorath" in Howard's story was a location, not a being. So Marvel's insistance on trying to make "Gargantos" happen is perpetually embarrassing, and anybody - whether professional or fan - who plays along with them is an embarrassment as well. That said, Conan himself has been in the public domain for years, though Conan Properties, Inc. obviously disagrees with that fact and is highly litigious; it's possible Marvel just doesn't want to have to deal with putting down a nuisance lawsuit. One they would handily win, since Shuma-Gorath is, legally, their character. Part of Hasbro's new legally-not-a-Marvel-vs.-Capcom-as-long-as-we-don't-say-those-words Gamerverse series, Shuma-Gorath is large enough that while he's sold in a box like all the rest, he doesn't get an enemy to fight - it's just him in the tray by himself, waiting to be assembled. Like MODOK or Mojo, he has to be put together after opening the box; like a Build-A-Figure, once he's put together, he's staying together. So if you're the type of fan who likes to put toys back in their packaging for storage, you'll be out of luck unless you're willing to break it. And even if you're not, you'll still need to be mindful, because those tentacles are about 11" long, so he's going to be tough to deal with no matter what. Pro tip: the three tentacles with the curled ends, on the top tray, are his "feet," while the three with the wavy ends, in the bottom tray, are his "arms." Shuma-Gorath's central body is about 3¾" across and 2¾" deep. In addition to the six "main" arms, there are several smaller tentacles growing off the face. The front of the body is sculpted with wrinkles, while the back just has a gently lumpy texture. The tentacles themselves have a definite front and back, with skin on one side and thick pads on the other. This would be an utterly crap figure of Gargantos (too much detail), but it's a wonderful Shuma-Gorath. The best part is the eye in the center. Taking a cue from the work done for Power Rangers' Eye Guy, the eye is not simply painted on, but is a separate, moveable part. It has some sort of balljoint connection back there, meaning you can move it through the full range of motion a human eye would have. Have him roll his eye at you like a surly teenager! Have him look shiftily side-to-side, like a guilty dog! Doing Eye Guy one better, though, he has not one, but two moveable eyelids, which allow you to give him lots of different expressions. Both of them are hinged and molded large enough that they don't have to meet in the middle - you can have the upper lid go all the way to the bottom, or the lower lid go all the way to the top. Bring just the lower lid down a bit, and he looks exasperated; bring just the lower one up, and he looks excited; close both of them part way, and he's suspious; close them fully, and... honestly, he kind of looks like Audrey II. For a solid lump of plastic with nothing but an eye and two eyelids, there's really a ton of expressiveness to be found here. The tentacles themselves have a swivel/hinge joint where they snap permanently into the hub of the body, but then the rest of their length is bendy. I've never been a fan of bendy limbs on toys, but I recognize that's the best way for a mass-market company to do appendages like this. If we can agree that Shuma-Gorth's popularity is due entirely to Capcom's videogames, then Shuma-Gorath's popularity in those videogames was due to his inhuman shape and thus unique fighting style: he could walk, and cower, and pose, yes, but he could also convert his entire body into a drill shape, spike all his arms forward for a quick sequence of hits, scuttle along the ground like a bug, throw his eye across the screen and then teleport to where it was, convert himself into a blob of goo or heavy stone... there were tons of options. The toy isn't quite that free, but as Hasbro's stock photos showed off when he was announced, you can get him into his cocky, cross-armed, boastful pose, twist the limbs around like he's stalking forward, have him flailing about... if you're willing to try, the toy is willing to try with you. That said, I'mma be honest with you: I do not know how Hasbro got him into the poses they did for the stock photos. I tried my best to duplicate them and can only get close, not exact. I'd swear they have one that's bendier than what we got. The photo up at the top of the review? That's my best attempt at duplicating this one on the left. As you can see, my best isn't good enough. And that's why we're showing you their pictures instead of our own. (Because of shame.) The figure is mostly one solid shade of green - they didn't paint the underside of his arms yellow or anything, so this is his MvC3 colorscheme. Quite frankly, I'd have preferred purple, since that was his default character color in Marvel Superheroes (and his original color in the comics), but if they did that, it would be harder for them to propegate the lie that this is Gargantos. Because Gargantos was only ever green and nothing else. Because the eye is so big, there's lots of room for paint there: a red iris that gets darker out near the rim, thin, bloodshot lines, and light wash of pink out at the back of the eyeball. That entire thing is covered by a clear plastic dome, to add to the realism. Entirely unexpectedly, Shuma-Gorath comes with an accessory! One of his moves in the game was the Mystic Smash, which saw him transform himself into a spiked ball and fling himself as his enemy. The set includes the spike-ball version of him, sized to match the way he was scaled in the game (judging by the size of the eye in the center). There's a hole in the bottom to accommodate a flight stand, but you know what isn't included here? A flight stand. This is just like blast effects: if you're going to make a toy that's supposed to be compatible with something, you need to include that something. For crap's sake, Hasbro. Fortunately, the hole is close enough in size to the stands Diamond Select Toys used (R.I.P.) that you may have something useful already. I wanted a Shuma-Gorath toy badly enough that I once bought a HeroClix mini just to have a stand-in for him. So I was definitely looking forward to this release, even if Marvel's too cowardly or too dense to let Hasbro call it by the right name. Even if he's green instead of purple, it's amazing to see an official Shuma-Gorath Marvel Legend. -- 10/13/25 Are you ever going to call Shuma-Gorath by the wrong name? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.