You may have not heard about HIYA Toys but they are the new kid on the block providing highly-articulated action figures and they are more like the rival for the big guy who owns most of the market share for highly-articulated Godzilla figures, S.H. Monsterarts. And to add on to this, HIYA has the seal of approval from both TOHO and Legendary which makes it as official as it can be! With this new entry into the collectors group, it has been making big waves with the latest entries from the film, Godzilla Vs. Kong.
Godzilla Vs. Kong (Basic Series):
Update:
As you can see, these are the first couple of figures released from HIYA Toys during the release of Godzilla Vs. Kong. At that time, there was no NECA release of Godzilla Vs. Kong figures their license expired and probably the declining sales did not encourage them to renew the license and gave up in the super-articulated figure market of Godzilla, until HIYA Toys came around.
HIYA Toys blew out every figure in the market with their highly detailed and accurate design, almost as if jumping off from the film to your hands, with impeccable articulation and most of all the price. The price was set around 51$ which is unbelievable because the reigning brand, S.H. Monsterarts would set their prices, if you were lucky, around 80$ and the sky is the limit for the prices.
This is not the only negative of S.H. Monsterarts but there are several more like terrible distribution with high shipping prices, terrible quality control as some pieces would just pop off and not stay in place, and most importantly, the detail and design accuracy to the films. Monsterverse figures suffered the most from this with inaccurate sculpts and awful paintwork. Recent Godzilla figures look like it has toothpaste all over his mouth.
While the articulation being the saving grace of S.H. Monsterarts, the negatives weighed a lot more than the negatives of HIYA Toys with it just being not highly articulate-able like S.H. Monsterarts. I was a big supporter of S.H. Monsterarts when I first found them but I got only the Monsterverse figures but after seeing HIYA Toys, I could not help but switch sides immediately and the future releases would confirm my allegiance to this brand.
A small update, it seems like HIYA Toys is back again to Godzilla Vs. Kong and releasing a Skull Crawler seen in the film which was in the film for a brief moment and was instantly killed by the menacing mechanical Titan, Mechagodzilla. Is this the sign for the long-awaited HIYA Toys Mechagodzilla, let’s hope it happens soon.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (Basic Series):
Well, I do not have to tell you anything but look at how beautiful all these figures. The coloration, the details and the articulation is jaw-dropping. The Rodan by HIYA Toys has so much more color and vibrancy and a gradient as well and not just but the wings can bend like that one scene in the film where Rodan just turns in mid-flight, destroying the fighter jets. You can replicate that pose now.
Mothra is looking beautiful as well and mind you, this figure is a lot smaller than the others, so do handle with care. And finally, the main star this time is the King Ghidorah and man oh man! This guy is looking absolutely amazing, I am literally speechless because look at the coloration, so much shading and depth and look, the wings can articulate. You can now create walking poses for King Ghidorah.
It was impossible for S.H. Monsterarts with to make articulate wings but just look at it. And best of all, it is half the price of S.H. Monsterarts. This was an instant snag for my collection. Definitely worth the wait of not buying the S.H. Monsterarts and I am so relieved for someone like HIYA Toys to swoop in.
Kong: Skull Island (Basic Series):
With a lot of the main Monsters released, HIYA Toys looked into more of the neglected side of the Monsterverse, starting off with Kong: Skull Island was one of the highest grossing Monsterverse film yet surprisingly, the action figure was super barren.
There was not a single S.H. Monsterarts figure of Kong or even the Skull Crawler. Well now, in the year of 2023, we got 2 collector figures of the 2 main Titans to grace the screen, Kong in his teenage years and a Skull Crawler figure. Both of the figures look splendid and the fun part of Skull Crawler is that is has a bendable wire tail and so you can pose it in anyway you want, maybe wrap it around Kong like the film. This is a great addition to the line and I cannot wait what’s next or will they go back to the final previous film?
Godzilla (Basic Series):
And now finally, we are at the beginning of the Monsterverse with the Godzilla 2014. Godzilla 2014 was an unconventional Godzilla film with the amount of realism and mystery to the character that has not been seen before. Godzilla was a force of nature and this film clearly demonstrated that by showing him take down 2 Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism, or M.U.T.Os.
The actual species classification is Titanus Jinshin Mushi, and it translates from Japanese to English to Dragon Beetle. For now, HIYA is making a 2014 version of Godzilla where the spines are a lot more straight and jagged but a little short too and also more stumpier feet along with a Female M.U.T.O. Female M.U.T.O is a lot larger than the male M.U.T.O but there has been no new on a male M.U.T.O figure but let’s hope that the sales of these figures allows a male M.U.T.O figure to be made.
Honestly, hands down, I wanted something like this for so long. I have always wanted official figures of the M.U.T.O but they would be either very small figures with no articulation or a high end custom figure for which I do not have a budget for but HIYA Toys making these figures are such a ‘God’send (no pun intended) that I cannot believe that I have something like this in-hand. I would suggest anyone to get these figures, fans or not.
Godzilla Repaints (Basic Series):
Of course, a figure line cannot exist purely with just one time releases and HIYA Toys is no different but even though they repaints of the main 4 TOHO Kaijus in the Monsterverse, at the very least, they are an upgrade from the original release.
Starting off with Rodan, this is a great improvement with a lot more fire details and darker wings as just came out of the volcano. Mothra is looking much more nicer with a Blue-Green coloration and it gives off a more ethereal feel to it. King Ghidorah looks as golden as ever and it looks like he is made of gold because of how shiny it looks and not just but he now comes with Gravity Beams as seen in the film.
And then comes the Big-G, with a lot more blue glow than ever and he is the Godzilla Vs. Kong version but the spines are translucent, so it looks a lot more blue and when placed under light, it looks like it is glowing. Awesome new repaints and a second chance if you missed out on any of the previous ones.
Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire (Basic Series):
And now we are here at last, with the release of the latest film, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, comes a new whole wave of action figures and this is not even all of them. The New Empire had tons of Monsters, never shown before, just like the King of the Monsters. For now, what we have is plenty and be sure to save up your funds for what we have now.
Starting off with Pre-Evolved Godzilla, this is the one we see in the film in the Rome scene fighting with Scylla. He looks a lot more brown than usual mixed in with his usual dark scales. This one is pretty much up to you, depending on your want but for me, as a collector, I am getting all anyway.
Then we have Energized Godzilla from the scene where Godzilla breached a nuclear power station to Energize himself and destroy the French military, pretty cool. An actually cool looking figure with the vibes of Burning Godzilla but blue.
Then we have the Evolved Godzilla, the more powerful Godzilla after his quick fight with Tiamat and harnessing the energy. This one obviously looks amazing but there will be an even more better version of this, so be ready for the update.
Then we have our Kong. Kong is looking as ferocious as ever and ready for a smack down with his axe. This is, by far, the best looking Kong HIYA has cooked up and there will be a release with the B.E.A.S.T Glove soon.
And at last, but not least for sure as there are some monsters missing from being into a figure, we have Shimo. This version of Shimo is looking so cool and frosty and accurate to the film than compared with the S.H. Monsterarts Concept Art design. I like the variations of cool she has going on her and the crystals on her are looking impeccable. I would honestly recommend getting all of them if you can.
With this, we have come to the end of our blog but this is not the end for the Monsterverse line made by HIYA Toys. There have been rumors that HIYA is cooking up more Godzilla action figures for Monsterverse as well as TOHO. I will make a separate post about the TOHO monsters but there are some rumblings that Mechagodzilla is gonna come soon and that monsters from the comic books are not in mind right now but if we pressure them enough, they might just make it. I hope this post was helpful to you in collecting Monsterverse figures and I hope to see you again soon in the next post.