Review – Secret Base Honey Bee

NOTE: I’ve seen this toy identified as both Skull Bee and Honey Bee. My inexperience with kaiju is showing again, because I’m not completely sure which is the correct name. I think Skull Bee is right, but I’m going with Honey Bee because I can.

Okay, what’s with the conspiracy? Are you guys trying to get me to get a second job to cover the costs of addictive Japanese vinyl toys? Because if it’s not a conspiracy then it’s just a bunch of people having a good time watching me slide down a very slippery slope.

I’m at PAX East this weekend for work (mentioned here), and last night I was lucky enough to get 15 minutes with Ben Mininberg’s (blog, Twitter). We chatted toys, including Ben’s work over at CollectionDX, and during the discussion Ben presented me with this creepy Secret Base Honey Bee toy. Damn you, Ben!

A Skull-Headed Bee Monster

Standing roughly three-and-a-half inches tall, this bizarre blend of a bee with a skull is immediately a much better toy than the Secret Base Skull Brain toy that I reviewed last year (review here). What makes this guy so much better than the Skull Brain? Two things jump to mind when I ask myself this question:

1. The Skull Brain is much smaller, and with less articulation, and just didn’t grab me once I started playing with it.
   
2. I’ve been taking slow steps down the kaiju toy path and I’m more open to this type of toy today than I was when I wrote the Skull Brain review last year.

The sculpt is fantastic, with every surface as smooth as glass and just one tiny blemish at the back of the neck which looks like a bit of plastic that ran over and cooled. And it’s a seriously tiny blemish that I only found by staring at every inch of the toy. And the mixture of insectoid features with the skull look so cool that I can forget that one slight mistake on the toy.

Articulation

The Honey Bee features five points of articulation, not counting the wings, but the guy’s articulation looks like it’s more for the manufacturing of the toy than it is actual play value. Simple mushroom-headed plugs in holes makes every joint a simple swivel, and that means the leg articulation isn’t all that useful while the head can only swivel a tiny bit before it completely restricts the arms from raising.

None of this is terrible, but if you’re a fan of lots of articulation on toys then you’re going to be really upset with this Honey Bee. I think that something to keep in mind, though, is that these kaiju toys are more about the sculpts and colors than they are articulation; I don’t know if there are any Japanese vinyl toys with tons of articulation, but if there are then they just can’t look as cool as stuff like this; the more articulation you give a toy the more restricted you are in the sculpt.

Speaking of Color

As you can tell, this Honey Bee is completely green and unpainted. When Ben gave me this guy it was with the understanding that I would customize it; deal, Ben! I might pop the arms off and build up new arms out of Glyos (Onell Design) bits and make it a mash-up. I’ll know more once I get home and have time to figure out a good way to remove the arms from the toy.

Closing Thoughts

Green vinyl shaped in the form of a skull-headed bee makes me very happy. The toy feels great in hand, has just enough articulation that I can pose him in different positions, and the fact that I get to paint him — and maybe even chop into him and build off of him — makes it even cooler. At about $40 online — if you can find one — this guy is pretty damned expensive compared to mass-market action figures and toys, but as a kaiju toy he’s priced pretty fair.

Thanks for the toy, Ben! I hope the work I do to it doesn’t ruin a very cool, stylized toy.

Philip Reed promises to post photos of this guy once the customization work is complete.