S.H.MonsterArts Godzilla (2014) Review: The Kaiju Fever Is Back

Revisiting Bandai Spirits’ 2014 MonsterVerse Titan and building a miniature ruined city in the studio to make a 6-inch figure look 350 feet tall.

Every time a wave of kaiju fever hits pop culture, I find myself looking back at the modern design that restarted the global monster boom over a decade ago. Walking around Taipei recently with my son, from spotting a massive foliage-covered Godzilla with glowing blue eyes inside LaLaport Nangang to hunting through vintage Toho shelves at the Syntrend collector market (where a kind booth owner helped him score a retro blue three-headed dragon), it was obvious that giant monsters connect every generation of collectors.

The Figure: A Classic 2014 Mold Reissued

To see where this piece fits into the S.H.MonsterArts lineup from Tamashii Nations, it helps to look at the history of the 2014 tooling. Sculpted by legendary kaiju artist Yuji Sakai, the original figure debuted back in 2014 alongside the film, followed by the Spit Fire Ver. (2015) and the Poster Color Ver. (2019).

Rather than a brand-new tooling, the Movie Graphic Plus edition is a reissue of that original 2014 sculpt with a few practical additions for collectors who missed the earlier runs:

• Scale and Shelf Footprint: Standing roughly 150mm (5.9 inches) tall, he scales right in line with standard 6-inch S.H.MonsterArts figures. Between his bulky, grounded proportions and the long segmented tail, he commands serious depth inside a display cabinet.

• Movie Graphic Paper Craft Card: Inside the box, Bandai Spirits included a paper-craft graphic display stand featuring the official 2014 theatrical poster artwork. Placing this graphic card behind or beside the figure inside a Detolf adds instant visual context without eating up shelf space.

• Adjusted Matte Paint Wash: Compared to the original 2014 release, this edition adjusts the coloring with a dark charcoal finish and a dusty, matte shading pass designed to match Godzilla’s ash-covered appearance in the final San Francisco battle.

Sculpt Details and Articulation

Even years after the mold was first engineered, Yuji Sakai’s sculpt still does all the heavy lifting. In hand, you can really appreciate how much character is packed into the surface texture. The thick, tree-trunk legs and heavy crocodilian armor plates down the chest give the figure a sense of real physical weight, while the smaller scales around the neck and gills capture his amphibious MonsterVerse origins. Because the Movie Graphic Plus finish stays completely matte, the figure never looks like shiny plastic under studio lights.

Articulation relies on the classic S.H.MonsterArts system of internal ball joints hidden beneath floating PVC cowl rings around the neck, torso, and hips. When you get him onto the table for posing, two traits of this toy immediately stand out:

• Rock-Solid Balance: Between the wide, flat feet and the heavy, multi-segmented tail acting as a third point of contact, this figure holds aggressive forward-leaning stances without toppling over. You can spend your energy dialing in your poses and camera angles instead of constantly catching a falling figure.

• Expressive Head and Jaw: The neck joints let you tilt his head back for that iconic Honolulu airport roar or tuck his chin down to glare at smaller figures below. The hinged lower jaw opens wide and features sculpted teeth and gums inside, though just like earlier runs of this mold, you want to handle the jaw gently when posing so you do not put pressure on the small inner tongue piece.

Behind the Lens: Bringing San Francisco to the Studio

One of the most memorable visual signatures of the 2014 Godzilla movie is the way the filmmakers used darkness, smoke, and deep red light, especially during the famous red flare HALO jump and the burning streets of San Francisco. I wanted to capture that exact cinematic mood in the studio.

To make this 15cm figure feel 350 feet tall, I built a ruined city block on the tabletop. I arranged weathered miniature buildings in the foreground and midground to frame Godzilla’s body against a smoky city skyline, and spaced out broken pieces of dark slate over a bottom light panel so the ground looked like it was cracking open beneath his weight.

To recreate the fiery atmosphere of the movie without losing the dark charcoal sculpt in the shadows, we kept the lighting focused and practical:

• Wrapping Him in Red Light: We placed red lights underneath the cracked floor and on either side of Godzilla. Having the red glow hit him from the bottom and both flanks wraps around his chest, thighs, and roaring jaw, bringing out every ridge in Yuji Sakai’s sculpt like he is standing in the middle of a burning city.

• Reflected and Supporting Lights: Because dark figures can easily swallow up light, we used reflected light along with soft supporting lights around the set to fill in the darker areas. This naturally lifts the details on his face, eyes, and jagged dorsal plates while keeping the smoky skyline visible in the background.
Once the camera was dropped down to street level to look up at the figure, we brought the shots into Lightroom and Photoshop for a final polish, blending the low-lying smoke and enhancing the glow on the cracked ground so the final frames look straight out of a movie poster.

Final Display Value

Whether you missed out on the earlier 2014 releases years ago or you want an imposing MonsterVerse centerpiece to pose and photograph, the S.H.MonsterArts Godzilla (2014) Movie Graphic Plus proves how well this classic sculpt holds up. The dusty matte finish and heavy, prehistoric proportions give it a presence that works from every angle.

Make sure to watch the full YouTube video to see the ASMR unboxing and behind-the-scenes studio shoot in action. Which Godzilla design takes the top spot in your collection?