Gatchogon (Metallic)

Real x Head is a small Japanese vinyl company started and run by Mori Katsura in 2003. Mori’s first figure was the Oni-Head, but he saw much more success with his second figure, the Mutant Head, the start of the iconic Mutant Zone series. The Mutant Head sculpt was borne out of Mori’s love of classic 80’s toys, especially Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Taken from the Super 7 Mook and the new Encyclopedia of Kaiju, the Mutants are an invisible race that lives in the forests and mountains in natural harmony, existing outside the realm of human perception. The evil Mutant organization Akrobat is led by the militaristic Akro-Kaiser, and the Mutants dislike humanity because of the damage we do to their natural habitats, and so cause accidents and natural disasters to punish us. During an engagement, Mutant Head is injured and loses his ability to stay invisible. Mutant Head is found by a young boy and nursed back to health, showing Head that not all humans are evil. When Mutant Head returns to confront Akro-Kaiser about their aggression towards humanity, a schism erupts within the Mutant world over how to deal with humans, leading to what amounts to a civil war among the Mutants against Akrobat, with the human-defending Mutants being lead by Mutant Head.

Gatchigon is part of the Lord of Jujin subset of RxH fight figures, designed to be similar to the Mutant Zone line with a heavier classic Kaiju flavor. Gatchigon is described in the new Encyclopedia of Kaiju book as being an underground creature based on a bamboo shoot motiff. Gatchigon features an entirely original sculpt featuring a big, sort of abstract head, a big claw, and much heavier-looking carapace of a body that features much more texture than the regular mutant body. Gatchigon also comes with a bonus figure: a baby! Made of two parts and articulated at the neck, the baby uses the same body texture as the adult, which makes the baby look like it is in swaddling clothing. For the first Gatchigon release, clear smokey vinyl filled with GID vinyl shards, the baby was unpainted hunter green vinyl, but for every other release the baby has matched its caregiver.

The Gatchigon sculpt is my favorite fight-figure size RxH figure (this statement will make more sense in a couple of reviews). The sculpt features a texture similar to beaten iron, and it takes all sorts of different paint applications in a cool and unique way. I have just about every Gatchi release (which is a much smaller number than say, the Chaos releases), and each version takes advantage of the sculpt. The figure used for this review features some glorious metallic paint on lustrous black vinyl, and it is awesome. Aside from a couple of specific releases, most Gatchigons are actually pretty easy to find, so if you’re interested in seeing what Real X Head s all about, you could not go wrong with a Gatchi!