Action Figure Spotlight: Varan (Trendmasters, 1996)

 

Today we take a closer look at the last of the 3 hardest-to-find Trendmasters Godzilla action figures [any time you talk about Trendmasters Godzilla figures, you have to add "I mean ones that were sold in the United States from a line that wasn't cancelled"].  As I mentioned last time, after preparing for these posts, I realized that this is really the best figure of the three, and probably the most accurate...which was a surprise.

Varan is a strange creature in Toho's cosmos, and a weird design.  If it wasn't for his quick cameo in DESTROY ALL MONSTERS, I'd say he was forgotten about.  Especially in the United States.  His movie is unusual too (both versions, in fact, with the English dub being all but eradicated these days, which is unfortunate).  It began as a co-production for television, which Toho ended up expanding to a theatrical film.  Basically, Varan comes out of a lake, causes a bit of trouble, and gets straight up murdered.  Perhaps his 1968 cameo was just to show us that none of these guys (like celluloid heroes*) ever really die.  

There are really two poses that you normally see him moving around in [not counting "flying squirrel mode," which was a model anyhow]:

Crawling, and...

...standing.  This figure can't crawl of course, but they pretty much nailed the second one:

As you can see, they added unnecessary spikes on the sides of his arms and legs, and his muzzle should be a lot shorter, but otherwise pretty faithful.  Adding the webbed "wings" was a nice touch.

The back is probably too purple.  It at least transitions well though;  obviously accomplished by overspray, but it works.

It's easy to judge this from the era of super-articulated SH Monsterarts-type figures, but it does share one thing in common with those:  this figure is prone to breaking quite easily.  It's not uncommon to see one with broken limbs--especially arms--and especially the one that was hanging out of the package (they shouldn't have placed him completely sideways).  This of course inflates his rarity and value.

All in all, a solid 7/10.  I'd remove the spikes, thicken then arms slightly to prevent breakage, shorten his snout, and tone down the purple slightly.  This and some swivel & knee joints would elevate it to a solid 10.  Honestly, I'd never given this figure enough attention, and after comparing and contrasting, I firmly believe he's the best of the three, and that's said even though I'm a huge Baragon fan.  If you are still hunting for him, keep searching, because he's out there! Maybe in a lake!

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*for any Kinks fans out there