KFC E.A.V.I. Metal Phase 10A – Kingzilla

These days, when Keith’s Fantasy Club unveils the prototype for a figure, you can be certain that the actual release will not be far behind. Shortly after the recent Kingorilla (the first Masterpiece-scaled Horrorcon) comes Kingzilla to complete the duo. Kingorilla was pretty spectacular and Kingzilla looks to be even better from the promo photos. Let’s take a look!

BUILD QUALITY, PLASTIC QUALITY & PAINT APPLICATIONS

RATING:          4.5 / 5

Kingzilla spots the same grade of plastics used for Kingorilla, so yes, the swirly grey plastic that bothers some of the collectors is still being used. That aside, build quality of the figure is pretty impressive. The figure is generally made up of molded-in colour plastics with some painted parts.

 

AESTHETICS & PROPORTIONS

RATING:          4  / 5

Let’s start with Kingzilla’s bot mode. Just like Kingorilla, Kingzilla is heavily referenced from his G1 counterpart, right down to the two holes on the figure’s chest. Strangely, KFC opted for a light grey colour instead of using the white colour used on the G1 figure. It doesn’t make the figure undesirable, but it does feel “less complete”, if you get what I mean. Nonetheless, he cuts a pretty mean figure with the right proportions.

Kingzilla’s jet mode is a winner. It actually looks like a jet, unlike Kingorilla’s more abstract version of one. I would have preferred a more muted colour for the cockpit canopy though.

I didn’t quite like Kingorilla’s ape mode, but man, Kingzilla’s dino mode may be my favourite mode for this figure.  There’s commendable effort to make use of the jet mode’s proportions to compliment the dino mode’s. The end result is a very believable dino mode in my opinion. Quite fun to pose too.

Kingzilla stands a little taller than his Horrorcon buddy and scales well with other Masterpiece-scaled figures as well.

DESIGN, ENGINEERING & ACCESSORIES

RATING:          3.5 / 5

Inspired by the G1 toy, Kingzilla’s transformation is intuitive, fuss free and also feels smoother than Kingorilla’s. However, this is marred by one aspect of the figure which irks me quite a bit. Because of the ratchets used for his hip-thigh joint, he stands in a wide A-stance. This will lead to some frustration when trying to stand him with both legs side-by-side. They will be either too close or too wide apart. The consolation is that this can be avoided by simply not standing him in such a static pose.

Kingzilla comes with Komodus (Headmaster), two blasters, two thruster blast effect pieces and a KFC flight stand. His cockpit can be lit up with the in-built LED, which is ingeniously activated when you lift up the cockpit canopy.

The Headmaster power meter gimmick adopted from the G1 toy is included as well, activated when Komodus is plugged in.

 

JOINTS, ARTICULATION & BALANCE

RATING:          3.5 / 5

Kingzilla is well-articulated (aside from the earlier mentioned A-stance ratchets) and has strong joints which are able to hold up his 815g mass. It also comes with the standard KFC-styled articulated fingers.

Kingzilla also has a good range of motion in dino mode.

The release of the two Horrorcon-inspired figures has made 2017 an amazing year. KFC has made a good calculated choice in putting Kingorilla and Kingzilla in a currently uncontested market. This move will no doubt allow KFC to reach out to some naysayers and possibly change their mind with these two figures. Yes, these are not perfect, but I feel that they are sufficient…at least for now.