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Hiya Toys Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire Exquisite Basic Evolved Godzilla Heat Ray Version
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00:16When he took out Tiamat, his powers weren't the only thing that changed.
00:19Here's your look at the brand new Hi-Toys, Godzilla X-Kong, The New Empire,
00:22exquisite, basic, heat ray Godzilla, evolved version.
00:31The evolved version of heat ray Godzilla as seen in Godzilla X-Kong, The New Empire,
00:36joins Hi-Toys, exquisite, basic series, with stunning upgrades and screen-accurate details.
00:41The evolved version of Godzilla features improved proportions, a sleeker silhouette,
00:46and newly engineered double-jointed neck for expressive posing,
00:50enhanced dorsal fins with sharper translucent textures,
00:53and multi-jointed tail for fluid movement.
00:55Layered paint applications over the translucent body recreate Godzilla's glowing energy of fat when backlit.
01:02He needed an upgrade in order to battle Shemo.
01:04But do collectors really need an upgrade when it comes to a brand new Godzilla?
01:07We're going to be answering that over the course of this review.
01:10First, I'd like to thank the folks over at Hi-Toys that did provide this sample.
01:13The Godzilla evolved version of Godzilla X-Kong, The New Empire,
01:17is slated to, in fact, ship this month, September 2026, $54.99.
01:22That's, by the way, the asking price of what online sites are currently listing him for.
01:26We're also going to take the tape measure, and also in a second I'll bring back in the previous Godzilla
01:30we've gotten from The New Empire so you guys can see the differences there.
01:34First, the 411, from the end of its snout to the end of its tail,
01:38you're looking at the evolved version of Godzilla being 12 inches in length, about 30 centimeters long.
01:43Then, to the top of his head I go, you're looking at it, let's make sure we've got it in
01:48inches,
01:48about 6 1⁄2 of those.
01:50The figure's also working out to be about 16 1⁄2 centimeters tall.
01:54So I guess the biggest talking point of this is whether this figure is really worth getting an upgrade
01:58if you already happen to have this Godzilla here.
02:02Size-wise, though, if you're looking at them length to length,
02:05the evolved version doesn't really look that much longer than the previous Godzilla.
02:09It kind of gets down to the details of how the things they've changed the figure.
02:13Most notably, and it may be even harder to see this right now until we get kind of closer into
02:18it for inspections,
02:19but Godzilla actually has more of a tapered-off torso, a little leaner.
02:23This one was a little bit stockier, though, of a build.
02:26He also has brand-new upgraded dorsal fins.
02:29Again, we'll kind of talk about that more in a moment.
02:32Being, of course, we've also just recently looked at the Scar King,
02:35we can bring him in for comparisons as well.
02:37We can also bring back in Power Glove King Kong.
02:40One thing also I wanted to go back and talk a little bit about as well for the Scar King.
02:44Something I didn't really necessarily point out in posability that I'll mention right now.
02:48Scar King does also have drop-down legs and a little extra mobility there.
02:53Just simply pop those back in place.
02:55But yeah, size-wise, though, the evolved version of Godzilla really isn't that much different than the previous one.
03:01It, again, really kind of goes more down to the details and the things that they've improved upon on the
03:06figure.
03:06Something, though, while the lizard's looking the other way, he does now include some additional accessories that the previous Godzilla
03:11didn't have before.
03:13Sure, expectations would always still be there that the figure's going to come include with gripping hands or slightly different,
03:18varied hands.
03:19And this Godzilla does have that as well.
03:20I'm going to just reach off and grab the one from the previous Godzilla.
03:24I mean, it's really only just coming down to the color.
03:28Something, though, that you'll see as we look at the two Godzillas is that the new one is slightly more
03:32of a darker, almost, I would even say, like a blackish gray, where, like, the original one would have been
03:38more of a lighter or medium gray.
03:41I did think, though, and I still kind of feel this way, that the previous Godzilla may have, I feel,
03:45the better skin color.
03:47I kind of think I like this color of gray a little bit more.
03:50This one also seems to have a little bit more brown in the gray.
03:53Now, that's, again, entirely up to you which one you would prefer.
03:55But, yeah, again, like the Godzilla is going to come include with, again, some swappable hands.
04:00One thing he also comes with this time around is actually a swappable face sculpt.
04:05This time around, though, much like previous Godzillas, he does actually have a blast effect.
04:10The effect works essentially the exact same way.
04:12If you've already picked up a few of these Godzillas that have now the Breath of Fire, this just attaches
04:18inside his mouth.
04:19You want to make sure, of course, you've got it facing the right way.
04:21No, I don't.
04:22I didn't have it facing the right way.
04:24Okay, that just plugs in place like that.
04:26I did have it the wrong way.
04:28You have to kind of, like, look at this.
04:30And, no, no, I didn't have it the right way.
04:32It's supposed to tab in.
04:33There we go.
04:35I had it facing the wrong way.
04:36He has a blast effect now.
04:38That was something, though, that the original Godzilla never had.
04:40So you get at least the benefit of now him breathing his atomic blast.
04:47This, of course, you're not just going to have this levitating around.
04:50We'll be swapping out the head sculpts shortly.
04:53First, though, let's look at the other things about the figure.
04:56Now, one thing that's also really cool about Godzilla, about specifically the fact that he powers up like this, is
05:01Tiamat.
05:02We're also going to be getting a Tiamat that, I think, is coming out at 2027.
05:07Can't wait for the release of Tiamat.
05:08Now, he's going to be a little bit smaller than Godzilla.
05:11But, of course, you need, in order for it to get the upgrade, King of the Monsters need to be
05:15able to battle Tiamat.
05:16And I'm so glad, though, that Hayatois is going to be eventually releasing a figure of him.
05:20We'll move those out of the way, though.
05:22Let's get a closer look now at Godzilla now.
05:24Now, the thing, again, about this is most notably, I guess, from a cosmetic standpoint, one of the things, obviously,
05:30is the fact that the colors now are much darker on the release.
05:34If we were to, say, look at the original one that we've got, see how this one would have been
05:38kind of more of a medium gray, where now the new evolved Godzilla has more of a slightly...
05:44I still feel like I would want to describe this as a brownish gray.
05:48Some would probably be looking at that and say, I don't even see a bit of brown.
05:51But he definitely does have much more of a darker complexion going for him.
05:57Now, you could go back and obviously look at the movie again.
05:59I love, like, the team-up, recent team-ups between Godzilla and King Kong.
06:04I would say, though, I still feel like the color of Godzilla would likely be more color closer to this.
06:10I feel like maybe this could be maybe too dark of a skin color.
06:13But, again, mileage may vary. Opinions may also vary as well.
06:17Head sculpt-wise, it does, of course, have still the opening and closing mouth.
06:21It has, of course, the tongue also in there as well.
06:23With the newer Hollywood King Kong, certainly Godzilla.
06:27One of the things about it, though, is he has much smaller eyes.
06:30They're a little more harder to make out.
06:32But to show you guys again, like, here's the other Godzilla.
06:35Yeah, this one does also have the open and closed mouth.
06:39I would say maybe, again, just it's probably more boiling down to the colors between the two.
06:44I don't think they've done anything different, necessarily, to the head sculpts.
06:48It's kind of more to the rest of the bodies.
06:50So, head sculpts, short of maybe, again, being slightly darker.
06:53And also, now they've added some more of those pink highlights,
06:58where the previous Godzilla maybe didn't have as much of that going for it.
07:02The torso really is, again, like the biggest thing to take away from this.
07:06You can see that, in fact, they did take a lot away from him.
07:09He's got, actually, a little bit more of a tapered-off tummy.
07:12The previous one had a little bit more of a stockier section here in his abdomen area.
07:16I don't know.
07:17Hopefully, though, you guys can even see the differences between the two.
07:21Likewise, though, I think the legs are about the same.
07:23I feel, perhaps, maybe like the arms are a little more narrower.
07:27The hard thing about this, though, is when you start to look at things like this,
07:30you feel like after a while, you start, like, second-guessing yourself.
07:33Is he getting maybe more thinner-looking forearms than the previous one?
07:38I don't think there is a difference, necessarily.
07:41I think more so it's in the torso, the abdomen area, and it's definitely in the dorsal fins.
07:46The dorsal fins have now been newly sculpted.
07:48Of course, they've also got themselves more of a translucent pink plastic versus the previous dorsal fins.
07:55Again, if you look at the sculpting between the two,
07:57it does seem, though, like the dorsals are a little bit meaner-looking, a little sharper, more serrated.
08:02Of course, they also are very more obviously a translucent pink plastic versus these ones that were painted pink before.
08:10I think that's about the only thing that's really different between the figure and also, too,
08:14now they've incorporated some much more movement when it comes to Godzilla's tail.
08:19I wouldn't say, really, that the previous ones were difficult to turn the tail and move them around,
08:24but I do feel like there's a little bit more mobility with the way that they've now designed these tails.
08:29There's more that I feel you can really do with these tails.
08:32Also, to look at the dorsal fins, I don't think that they're much different, really, between the two,
08:37at least when it comes to the tail, but it's definitely more on the spine of the back.
08:41Like, even just to put them two like this, you can probably even see.
08:44The fins do seem like they're longer.
08:47They do seem, again, like they're a little bit more sharper than the other one.
08:50And again, the colors are very much drastically changed when it comes to the main body of him.
08:55Okay, so if we want to change out the head,
08:58this would be one issue that I have, really, with the figure,
09:01is the way that the ball joint's designed.
09:03You have to take, first of all, the head off.
09:05And again, we already know the fact that this does have movement in his mouth.
09:08Pop the head off the ball peg and put the new head in,
09:12because this one is going to be the one that's going to support the atomic breath.
09:16Sometimes, though, you'll find, like, the neck collar pieces do come off as well.
09:20Just to look, though, at the length of how much post you have to work with,
09:23you're probably going to have, the first time you do this,
09:26a struggle to get the head attached properly.
09:28I found one thing that worked to my help.
09:31I mean, I don't know if it necessarily will help you.
09:33It's just take the top, take the first collar piece off.
09:36Now, I'm going to come back to that.
09:37I'm not just going to neglect it being over here.
09:40But with having a little bit more post to work with,
09:43I find that you can have an easier time getting a good grip on things
09:47and work the ball joint into the head.
09:50Now, it's still going to get at times where the post is going to move on you.
09:54But without having now that extra collar piece in the neck,
09:57you might find it's easier.
09:59You might even just find it easier to take a couple of them off.
10:02Something, too, you can also do is heat this up in hot water,
10:06just to make sure, of course, you get it onto the ball joint.
10:08Now, this looks awkward, I know, right now.
10:10The point in this, though, is what you want to do
10:12is you want to be able to break in that ball joint,
10:14at least the socket that's going to hold the ball joint.
10:17When you think the head's all the way on there,
10:19then, yes, go back and just add the collar pieces.
10:23I looked at this and I thought,
10:24would there maybe have been a way
10:26that they could have made the post a little bit longer?
10:28Because, again, like everything is so close together like this,
10:31you're going to be struggling the first couple of times that you do this.
10:34Even with doing this, I think now a dozen or so times,
10:37I still find it a struggle to get that ball joint to stay properly in place.
10:42I didn't want to suffer anymore.
10:44So, in fact, what I ended up doing was going and heating the head in hot water,
10:47then was able to properly attach it onto the post.
10:51As I have attached it onto the post,
10:53you may just need to go in there and adjust the neck accordingly
10:56just to make sure that you're not crimping and pushing all of them together here.
10:59But now that that's in place,
11:01let's go back and revisit the atomic breath here
11:04and make sure this time around we're actually going to attach it on the side.
11:07That plugs into Godzilla's mouth.
11:10Open wide.
11:12And then, of course, you can adjust accordingly.
11:14It will make things, to be honest, a whole lot heavier
11:18but you want to make sure, of course,
11:19there you can get Godzilla in a breathing pose.
11:22Whether he's blasting towards the Scar King
11:25or, again, like he's just destroying the cities around him.
11:28It's good.
11:29I mean, one thing that always will go with things like this
11:32is you're getting a lot of extra plastic weight in front of the head.
11:36So, sometimes, though, it will end up dropping Godzilla's head down.
11:39Now, again, you could also bring the legs up just a little bit.
11:43But there really isn't, this time around, enough allowances, I feel, to the neck.
11:48It's not necessarily a case, I've noticed,
11:50where you'll be able to bring the head all the way up.
11:53Even then, when you do, it feels like it does want to pull the head down.
11:57And maybe it just doesn't work necessarily as well with this design of Godzilla.
12:01Godzilla, it's nice that they include things like this.
12:04But just with the amount of weight in plastic that adds then onto the front of the neck here,
12:09I just feel like this version of Godzilla doesn't really properly support that kind of weight.
12:14Okay, let's run through the articulation here.
12:17Obviously, one thing I have done away with now,
12:20which would have technically been counted towards posability,
12:22would have been the mouth.
12:23The mouth does open and close on the stock head sculpt.
12:27That's the ball peg, by the way, the ball socket.
12:29But open and close the mouth, it goes.
12:32Now, since I've 86'd that, the head, this head's not going to have that.
12:36It's not going to have the hinge in the mouth.
12:37But, well, it will have, though.
12:38As you saw me deconstruct Godzilla here,
12:41I still feel like I haven't brought the neck collar down enough.
12:44There we go.
12:45The head is going to be on a ball joint.
12:47Now that I've securely attached it in place, it does move up and down.
12:51But there is a lot of, honestly, there's a lot of neck here.
12:54So you will kind of find yourself, a lot of times,
12:58readjusting things, bringing these out just a little bit
13:01once you've popped the head in place.
13:03Now, these don't necessarily have their own individual points of posability.
13:07They're actually just being essentially colors that go over top of a post.
13:11So there's a post here.
13:12There's one here.
13:14And then there's one at the base of the neck.
13:15Between all those, there is movement.
13:18Although, being just with this design of Godzilla,
13:21there's not as much as maybe some of the earlier Toho Godzolas
13:25that we've looked at also from the company as well.
13:28I feel like I'm also pinching.
13:30Maybe I did go in there and pinch the collar.
13:33It seems I think it's okay.
13:35But, yeah, there is movement there.
13:37There just isn't a whole lot of it.
13:38But I think, honestly, the original Godzilla also...
13:41Just go back and look at this guy again.
13:44And it's really about the same.
13:45I don't think that they've necessarily made things more streamlined here.
13:49The neck is going to be about the same.
13:51For his arms, his arms do rotate all the way around.
13:55There is also that hinge there as well.
13:57I wouldn't be able to say that the king does be able to pull off
14:00a 90-degree angle bend.
14:01I mean, far from that.
14:02It's only really being able to pull about 45 degrees.
14:06There is also a swivel here in the forearm,
14:10or I guess where the elbow would be.
14:11And there is also a hinge there as well.
14:13So there is a hinge and a hinge.
14:16So you get two.
14:17But then you also get the benefit of the rotation that happens there as well.
14:21Hands do rotate all the way around.
14:22You can see that they've also gone in there and painted.
14:25Now these, these aren't translucent plastic
14:27in the same way that the dorsal fins on the back would be.
14:30These have just only been painted in pink.
14:32But at least it's a detail that wasn't overlooked.
14:35The waist, now tapered off, does still rotate back and forth.
14:39It isn't so much limited here.
14:42Where it's limited more so is up here.
14:44Even though they have allotted for a space section right here,
14:47there's technically also a dorsal fin that also moves independently on its own.
14:52Even though with having that space in the top there,
14:54you can move it up and down.
14:56Twisting it back and forth is where you'll notice
14:58it's going to hit against things around it.
15:00So you may want to just move the torso down first
15:04before you start turning things around.
15:07Once that's done, you can easily rotate the torso with no issues whatsoever.
15:11The legs, much like the original one, did rotate back and forth.
15:15These do the same.
15:16They also split out as well.
15:18Swivel there at the top of the thigh.
15:19Double hinge on the knee.
15:20Now I noticed with the Evolution Godzilla
15:23that it does seem like he's got a little looser in the knees here.
15:26There's a hinge.
15:27There's a hinge.
15:28So between those two, it moves quite well.
15:31But I did notice, though, it does seem like they are a little looser.
15:34The previous Godzilla, I'll just put this guy down here for a second.
15:38Previous Godzilla also had that exact same thing as well.
15:41This one actually does feel tighter.
15:43And I've had this one for a little bit longer of a time.
15:46For its feet, the feet do move forward and back.
15:49I should say forward and back this way.
15:51Up and down as well.
15:52Bit of a rocker there as well.
15:54And again, you've got now much more mobility when it comes to the sectional links to the tail.
16:00I wouldn't really spend the time to go in there and count how many links he actually does have.
16:04There's quite a lot.
16:06I think in the past we've counted, what, 14, 15 of these individually.
16:10I'm not going to spend the time to go through and count them all individually.
16:12But there is quite a bit of movement forward and back, up and down.
16:18I think, again, like when you look to that and you compare it to the previous Godzilla,
16:23maybe it was the fact that maybe this one had less of them.
16:26And you can see that there's a little bit more visible gaps where the tail would...
16:30The tail moves freely.
16:32But I think with this one too, it's almost like they've been able to make a more seamless looking tail.
16:38Less gaps in there.
16:39And it still pulls off just as much, maybe even more posability as the previous Godzilla.
16:45So in the end, the question really is, is this one worth picking up if you already have this one?
16:52There's things, again, that I like about this original one that I think isn't as good on the newer one.
16:58Maybe this could have probably used a few more paint applications when it comes to the overall skin color of
17:03its body.
17:03But I do think, though, I like the gray more on this one.
17:06But I like the dorsal fin and the fact that they're using translucent pink plastic on this one.
17:12The newer one, the heat ray, does also benefit, of course, from having the atomic blast.
17:17It does also have the swappable heads.
17:19And, of course, you know, it does have changeable hands.
17:22The thing about it, though, is while I do like the atomic breath,
17:25we've seen this with releases before from Hayatours where they've done a Godzilla.
17:29And then they usually release like an atomic version of that Godzilla that does this thing already.
17:35And I find that it varies depending on how well those are always successful.
17:39For example, this particular design of Godzilla, I find that even if you do put the atomic breath in his
17:44mouth,
17:44at times you'll find that the head does drop down.
17:47And it's just going to work that way.
17:49It might also benefit from having a slightly tighter joint.
17:52But if you have a looser joint, and I've noticed like the neck is,
17:55even though it is a stubborn point to pop the head in place,
17:59I find like the neck area of it is a little loose.
18:02And maybe that's probably one of the reasons why attaching the atomic breath to the end of Godzilla in his
18:06mouth
18:07does cause then the lizard to drop his head down.
18:10It's a little bit of extra weight.
18:12In the end, though, I mean, the colors are one thing.
18:14It's very much different between the two.
18:15And I guess the biggest thing, probably the main reason why you would pick up this one over this one
18:20is because, again, it's got a little bit more of a leaner silhouette to it.
18:23It's not as chunky, not as bulky.
18:26Godzilla does look like he's been running laps.
18:28He's toned himself down, got rid of at least the water weight.
18:31But this one does benefit from looking better and more closer to Godzilla
18:35as the way he appears in Godzilla X Kong, the new empire.
18:39If you like what the new Godzilla inherits,
18:41then, of course, you may want to get the Heat Ray Godzilla when he eventually gets released this month.
18:45Dropping this month, 2026, the Heat Ray Godzilla is going to be selling online for $54.99.
18:51Now, I've got the figure displayed with this atomic breath.
18:54I more securely attached it because I noticed I was struggling a little bit to properly get it inside of
18:59his mouth.
19:00But it's in there.
19:02I wouldn't say it's not going anywhere.
19:04It's not going where in the sense it's going to be falling out of his mouth.
19:07The thing still, unfortunately, about it, though, is that the head is too weak, I feel,
19:11to hold the weight of the atomic breath.
19:14But it could be, again, the leverage that you need, the reason that you need in order to get this
19:17figure,
19:17if you already have the previous Godzilla, you could say at least,
19:20as well, this one has darker colors going forward.
19:23It's got the benefit of using translucent pink dorsal fins this time around instead of the painted pink.
19:29And it's also got more of a tapered torso.
19:32Hai has been clearly listening to collectors that have said,
19:35OK, we really like the Godzilla, but this is the things that we probably would have changed this figure.
19:39Hai seems to be listening and making those necessary changes.
19:42Did the changes, though, make this figure better than the previous one?
19:46Again, I think there's still things that I like, again, about the original one over this one.
19:51I think primarily it's the gray.
19:52I feel like maybe, again, the colors on this one could be a tad too dark for my liking,
19:58but that's only, again, my own personal preference.
20:00What it does have, though, is the benefit, whether you'd like the idea of displaying it with it or not.
20:06It does at least this time have two different head sculpts.
20:08It's got the atomic breath.
20:10Yeah, again, it's got the swappable hands.
20:12I can't see myself ever really saying to myself, well, I need to go in there.
20:16I need to change Godzilla's hands because I don't like the hands that he currently has right now.
20:19They're not that much different.
20:21It's just that he's got fanned out fingers in the stock hands,
20:24and you're just changing them out to gripping ones instead.
20:28The benefit, again, of this one is, yes, it's got the atomic breath.
20:31It's got the translucent dorsal fin, and it's got the tapered torso.
20:35Enough more of a reason I feel like even if you already have the original one,
20:39you could pick this one up.
20:40You could display this one with the atomic breath,
20:42and there's more reasons why they would look different on the shelf
20:45than simply just the same lizard again in a slightly different color scheme.
20:50Big thank you again to the folks over at High Toys that did provide the sample
20:53of the brand new Godzilla X-Kong, the new Empire.
20:56Today, we were having a look at the Heat Ray evolved Godzilla.
21:00Do you think it's evolved enough?
21:01Let me know what you guys think of the figure down below in the comments section,
21:04and if you have plans to pick this one up for yourself.
21:07Tiamat is also one I've got definitely on my radar.
21:10That one's dropping the first quarter of 2027.
21:13Tiamat's actually going to be selling a little bit more than the Godzilla,
21:15whereas this one's selling for 54.
21:18Tiamat's selling for 79.
21:20It's going to be slightly larger.
21:22I would imagine it's probably going to be having some sort of support stand,
21:25considering it's a sea monster after all.
21:28Definitely looking forward to having Tiamat on my shelf as well.
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