Gizmo is the cute and adorable Mogwai creature from both Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch films. Unlike the other Mogwai’s spawned from Gizmo when he touches water, Gizmo is very kind in nature; whereas all other Mogwai’s tend to be mischievous or vicious.
Name: Gizmo
Line: Vinyl Collectible Dolls
Manufacturer: Medicom Toy
Released: 2011
Price: Then: $220. Now: $450 MISB Minimum.
Scale: 1:1
Accessories: None
I found out about this particular Gizmo figure a while ago and after learning about how cool it looked I wanted to get one. Checking out eBay they were quite expensive and I could not justify the heavy price tag of at least $450 for this particular figure. So I decided to wait until I went back to Japan and hopefully buy one from the source. As luck would have it I managed to find one at Mandarake Shibuya for a great price and unopened too. Needless to say it was an instant buy for me. I’ve finally got around to reviewing Gizmo after having him in my collection for a few years now.
SCULPTING
Even though Gizmo is covered in a fur body suit, parts like the face, ears, hands and feet are sculpted. The sculpting is quite detailed and looks very faithful to the source material. He definitely looks cute and cuddly. The fur body suit is great too; the fur looks and feels really nice and not cheap at all, which you would think it would, considering this is meant to a high-end recreation of how Gizmo looks in the movie. I feel the look of Gizmo is based more on the second movie then the first.
PAINT
What paint we have, mainly on the sculpted parts, is excellent. It looks really good and mimics the fleshly parts of Gizmo not covered in fur, really well. I can’t fault it at all, it’s top-notch.
ARTICULATION
Gizmo does feature a bit of articulation, but by no means is he super poseable. Gizmo has a ball jointed head, swivel arms, swivel wrists, swivel crotch and swivel feet. The head and arm articulation is great and you can achieve a good number of poses suitable for Gizmo. The leg articulation is pretty pointless and really just helps make Gizmo not feel like a statue, from the waist down. It’s nice it’s there, but it’s not necessary. Gizmo also features moveable eyes as well, a small lever hidden at the back of the head when moved either left or right, move the eyes either left or right, it’s a pretty cool feature, even if a little limited, but adds a lot to Gizmo, in my opinion.
ACCESSORIES
This particular version of Gizmo doesn’t come with anything, unlike newer releases like the Santa version (2012) or the 3D Glasses version (2013). But that’s ok, because I like Gizmo just the way he is – without gimmicks, he doesn’t need.
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
Nothing I can really think of. However, just me careful with the fur, perhaps it might deteriorate if it’s not looked after properly.
PRICE
I paid around the original retail price of 25,000 Yen, I was lucky enough to find one on my second trip to Japan and my wife went halves with me, because she loves Gizmo too. It’s going to be very hard to find one at that price anymore as they have skyrocketed quite a bit and rightfully so. If you can get one below $400 you are doing all right.
OVERALL
I really feel this is the most perfect version of Gizmo any company is going to make as it looks incredibly close to the source material and looks very impressive due to its 1:1 scale size. Nothing else out there comes close to being this good! If you can find one at a decent price, I highly recommend picking it up, even more so if you are a big Gremlins fan! Medicom definitely have the market cornered when it comes to the best Gremlins figure, no one else comes close to making anything this good.
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