Background

Kaiju is a Japanese word that means "strange beast".  Specifically, it is used to refer to a genre of tokusatsu TV shows and movies.  Tokusatsu had a huge influence on both Uglydoll creators Sun-Min and David since they were small children, so now they wish to honor their fond memories with genuine Japanese Kaiju!

After releasing their first Uglydoll Kaiju based on the popular Ice-Bat character, David and Sun-Min decided to go with the original Uglydoll – Wage.  You’ll probably realize that these are not exact replications of the plushies, they’re what the characters would look like in a monster movie.

The Wage Uglydoll Kaiju edition we are looking at is the San Diego Comic Con Exclusive Solid Orange.

Packaging

The Uglydoll Kaiju line is packaged in similar fashion to the traditional kaiju vinyl figures.  Secured in a double plastic bag, the figure is bagged with a header card.  It also contains a rear support card that contains additional information about the line.

The Figure

The SDCC Exclusive Solid Orange Wage Uglydoll Kaiju vinyl is approximately 6 ¼” tall with 5 points of articulation (neck, arms and legs).  The piece is made of high-quality rotocast Japanese vinyl and produced by intheyellow.  It’s a San Diego Comic Con exclusive, although some of the total run of 100 pieces will go up on Uglydolls.com the day of SDCC for those who can’t make the trip to the show.

As far as the actual figure, the front of the head looks nice and smooth.  But once you look at the rest of the figure, you get a glimpse of all of the little scales and bumps.  The piece is also painted in traditional kaiju style…spray paint silver and yellow.  It’s almost as if the cute, cuddly Wage was mated with Godzilla.

Our Opinion

The Uglydoll folks and intheyellow have yet again produced a high quality vinyl piece.  It has to be the Japanese vinyl, right?  It’s a little softer and super smooth.

This line is really different from most of the Uglydoll products out there.  While the plush is cute and for children of all ages, the Uglydoll Kaiju line is more for the hardcore collectors.  With David and Sun-Min being kaiju fans, they wanted to meld that style with their own…and it’s definitely working.

So far, there have been four different Wage Kaiju versions announced: Solid Orange (SDCC and Uglydolls.com), Clear Orange (Regular), Solid Green (SDCC) and Clear Green (Uglydolls.com).

You can pick one up at the following:

Frozen Empire Toys: $68.50 (Clear Orange)

Strangekiss: $69.95 (Clear Orange)

Uglydolls.com: $75.00 (Clear Green)

Vinyl Fallout: $69.95 (Clear Orange)

Yoyashop: $70.95 (Clear Orange and Clear Green)

Solid Orange Wage Kaiju Grades:

Quality: 10/10
Paint: 9/10
Packaging: 7/10
Durability: 8/10
Hype: 8/10
Fun Factor: 8/10
Value: 8/10
Overall: 9.4/10

Have this figure?  What do you rate it?