S.H. Figuarts Shinkocchou Seihou Ultraman Showcase

The Ultraman series has a long and storied history dating back six decades. Like most tokusatsu series, toylines have been an integral part of the franchise. In this feature, I’ll be taking a look at the development of Ultraman action figures that culminated in the Shinkocchou Seihou line.

On July 10^th, 1966, Ultraman debuted on Japanese TV with the special “The Birth of Ultraman”, with the TV series premiering 7 days later with “Ultra Operation No. 1”.

In the years since, Ultraman has become a household name in Japan and various parts of the world, spawning a successful franchise of shows, films, toys and much more. In 2016, the “ULTRA-ACT” line, a line of stylised Ultraman figures was retired and replaced with the S.H. Figuarts Ultraman line, which started off with a figure of the original Ultraman. This figure brought in a new body type for future S.H. Figuarts to use, however, in terms of accuracy, it was far from perfect.

Pictured: Old S.H. Figuarts Ultraman, by Bandai of Japan

For starters, the head felt squished, to the point that later reissues of the figure actually had warped heads. However, as the line went on, more emphasis was put into screen accuracy and the proportions improved. Eventually, the Ultra Series would join the Shinkocchou Seihou line with Ultraman Tiga Multi Type, which was followed by Tiga Power Type. When the S.H. Figuarts Ultraman line was set to release its 100^th figure, a new Shinkocchou Seihou was revealed, an updated Ultraman figure modelled directly after the original suit actor, Bin Furuya and, let me say, it was a massive improvement over the original: the proportions, the sculpt, the paint, everything was improved upon, but, without further delay, why don’t I just show you?:

Unlike the Shinkocchou Seihou Kamen Rider boxes, the Ultraman boxes have a black lid instead of a white one, and display a classy looking image of the figure. The left and right sides of the box have the name “Ultraman” written in silver.

The back of the box has images of the figure in various poses, such as throwing the Ultra Slash and firing the Spacium Ray.

Lifting off the lid, we get the figure and an instruction leaflet for how to attach the alternate hands to the figure and such. Removing the plastic tray that the figure lies in, we see a second tray beneath it which houses the accessories.

The figure is put on a plastic-like sheet to protect it. Taking it out of the box, it is an amazing figure in-hand, with the sculpt perfectly replicating the C-Type suit. The 360 view of the figure perfectly captures everything, even the suit wrinkles on certain parts of the figure, like the shoulders.

You may have been wondering why there was a plastic-like sheet protecting the figure. Well, it’s because the chest, abdomen, hip and shoulders are made of a rubber-like material, which makes it even more accurate to the real suit.

It adds an air of realism to the figure, capturing the hero we all saw on screen.

Let’s now move on to the accessories, Shinkocchou Seihou Ultraman comes with the following:

• Two chopping hands
• Two relaxed hands
• Two grappling hands
• Two chopping hands (thumbs out)
• Two handshake hands
• One Spacium Ray hand
• One Ultra Slash hand
• One Spacium Ray effect hand
• Two stand beams (small and large)
• One stand base
• One colour timer (red)
• One Ultra Slash Effect
• Two fighting hands

With these accessories, you can get the figure into a variety of action poses. We haven’t discussed the moveability yet and I’m sure you were asking how would you pose the figure without articulation. This release features an unprecedented amount of articulation. Let’s talk about that now.

Articulation:

• Ball jointed head, neck, chest, waist, arms and wrists.
• Shoulder hinge
• Shoulder swivel
• Knee bend
• Ankle pivot
• Toe bend
• Elbow swivel
• Elbow bend
• Drop-hip joint
• Thigh swivel
• Hinge at the neck fin
• Bend at the ankle
• Wrist hinge
• Knee/Shin swivel (?)

With this amount of articulation and accessories, you can get this figure into various dynamic poses such as those below:

In conclusion, S.H. Figuarts Shinkocchou Seihou Ultraman is an amazing figure, and in my opinion, the quintessential Ultraman figure, but you didn’t just hear it from me, here is a testimonial and some pictures from a good pal of mine.

Testimonial

Honestly, Shinkocchou Seihou is by far the definitive S.H. Figuarts Ultraman. It renders the original release of Bin Furuya’s suit and Eiji Tsuburaya’s masterpiece useless. This is the one you should aim for and he will fit in amazingly with any Tamashii Nations tokusatsu action figures you may have in your collection.

But what do you think? Will you consider picking up a Shinkocchou Seihou Ultraman to add to your collection after reading the review and testimonial? Let us know your thoughts. I’m Sean, your Shin series and Showa era tokusatsu enthusiast, signing off for now.