BATTLE ARMOR KUMONGA (Godzilla Doom Island, Trendmasters, 1997)

 

Last time, we looked at BATTLE ARMOR ANGUIRUS from this line (for those who don't know, Doom Island was to be the third Trendmasters Godzilla series, but the company unfortunately folded), and today, an even more mysterious figure.  Known to most Americans as Spiga, here is the first and only Kumonga action figure!

But, let's start at the beginning.  Here is the Trendmasters concept art, as well as schematics, for this cool figure:

Here is what the painted prototype looked like in the Trendmasters 1997 catalog.  Note that it's completely different from how the final figure turned out!

The Battle Armor line was a continuation of the "Power-Up" armored line that had begun in GODZILLA WARS the year before.  Godzilla and Mecha-King Ghidorah were carried over, and two new figures (Anguirus and Kumonga) were devised.  Here are the other three, which all got made (albeit not in their own boxes):

Which brings us back to this cool figure.  For years, fans have wondered what he really looked like; did he even have eight legs?

Well, due to the magic of the passing of time (meaning, the tape has fallen off!), we can now look INSIDE the box and get up close and personal with Kumonga!

And here he is.  Note that his head armor really isn't gold, it's just that for some reason, that particular plastic piece has yellowed a bit.

Turning him around, we discover our first revelation.  Not only would he have fired two missiles from the launcher on his back, but there would've been one large missile that........uh, came right out of his bum! Shocking! 

This view confirms for us that he did, in fact, have eight articulated legs, as the concept art showed us!

Some of his legs have serrated blade shapes at the knee joints.  These would've been covered with armor that we will see in a moment.  This photo also gives us a better look at his powerful jaws.

We talked about this last time, but the trading cards in existing Doom Island merchandise are often mismatched.  In this case, a Kumonga card doesn't exist, so Varan is included instead (carded examples of the Varan figure do exist).  

Beneath the platform where the figure stands is a packet containing more armor and the aforementioned missiles.  You can see that the "backside missile" was super-long, and came to a formidable thorn-like point.

Besides our up-close look at this cool figure, I took advantage of a chance to get some high-resolution scans of the box, and here they are!

Here is the bottom of the box, with a great example of the awesome Doom Island logo. Which would make a sweet T-shirt, come to think of it.

Finally, here is the best look at the back panel of a Doom Island box that you are going to find, anywhere.  Lots of these items were made, but some didn't get past the prototype stage.  Check out our complete Trendmasters checklist page to see exactly what's out there!