Deluxe King Kong "Illustrated" Figure by NECA - Toyark Photo Shoot - The Toyark

NECA is releasing a repainted version of the Deluxe King Kong Figure. The King Kong “Illustrated” Version 7″ Scale Figure is based on Basil Gogos artwork for the cover of a 1974 issue of the Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. The paint scheme has a heavy, colorful, hand-painted look to it. Like the original release, it includes two portraits, and two sets of hands. The figure will be released between February and March. It will start off as a Walmart Exclusive. However, it will then come to general retail after the exclusivity period is over.

Our friends at NECA have sent over the figure. Read on to check out our thoughts and photo gallery for the Illustrated King Kong.

King Kong “Illustrated” Version 7″ Scale Deluxe Figure

Pros

Sculpt is still solid
Good articulation
Easy to swap out parts

Cons

I do wish the hand painted look was carried over to the whole figure to better match the Poster Godzilla

Overall
The figure comes in a box that is similar to the original release. The photos and art were updated to use the new figure. It’s a flapped window box. The figure includes a modern style portrait, a vintage style portrait, a set of open hands, and a set of fists. For the most part, this is the same enjoyable figure we got last year. The sculpt is still strong, and there’s plenty of good articulation. Double jointed knees and elbows, a ball jointed torso, etc. I didn’t run into any quality control issues here. The joints were strong, but not too tight, there was no paint chipping, and none of the joint connections are loose. The portraits and hands swap out fairly easily, and didn’t require any heat to snap into place.

The big change here is the paint scheme. The portraits, shoulders, and upper torso feature a near perfect match for the Basil Gogos artwork (seen here) that inspired the release. The main downside is that the paint deco isn’t carried down to the rest of the figure. While the body has washes of greens and yellows that slowly fade out from the top to match the colors used on the portrait, it’s not applied as heavy or in the same way. For me, the cel-shaded style paint decos work best when the whole figure is like that. When it’s only on a portion of the figure, it doesn’t look quite right.

If you’re a fan of more colorful decos, Basil Gogos, or just King Kong in general, I’d say give this one a look. I think the initial release is better suited for most collectors’ tastes, and wouldn’t be surprised to see a monochrome release in the future, as a call back to the black and white films. Check out some select photos below, and the full gallery after that.