he 1933 film classic King Kong, with its story of an expedition to a mysterious island and the subsequent discovery of the "eighth wonder of the world" in the form of a giant gorilla, was a technological marvel. Its quintessential images, culminating in the ape's world-famous climb up the Empire State Building with helpless victim Fay Wray clutched in his hand, all the while being shot at by biplanes, have never left the public consciousness.
Now comes a remake, directed by Lord of the Rings master Peter Jackson and starring Naomi Watts and Jack Black, that could be even bigger than the original and is likely to wipe the 1976 version off the map. Playmates has taken up the challenge by releasing a series of toys based on the film. One of these is the 11-inch Roaring Kong.
Packaged in a large window box, Kong is made of hard plastic that is much harder and less pliable than in most action figures, with the exception of the shoulders and head, which are molded from an incredibly soft, flexible rubber material. This allows for solidly jointed movement of the shoulders, elbows, wrists, thumbs and hips. A lever at the back can be used to make Kong pound his chest.
Furthermore, Kong is electric and lives up to his title of Roaring Kong. When it's activated, the roaring sound continues for about 10 seconds; it includes ambient noises other than the actual roar of the huge ape.
Kong can grip the three tiny figures that come with him—an armed man in a white suit, a native islander and Naomi Watts' character, Ann Darrow. Oddly, no mention of these figures makes it to the box they come in.
Chest-pounding action
The solid plastic of Kong may make him unwieldy to some. But it allows for a free-swinging chest-pounding action that may not have worked as well with a softer plastic, especially in the arms. The shoulders can be pivoted, but there is no outward articulation. Once positioned, however, the loose elbows freely swing back and forth through the use of a lever sticking out of Kong's back.
During the pounding, Kong lets out a 10-second roar that includes not only the ape's vocalizations but the screams of his human victims, native drumming and, a little sickeningly, the obvious crunching of bones.
Kong's hard-cast body is molded fairly well, with white paint in the grooves to set off the fur effect. Red-painted scars adorn his body.
One of the nicer features is that at the end of rotating wrists are very ape-shaped hands, which are jointed at the common knuckle joint, allowing his hands to close around his small victims. His thumbs pivot down a bit to help out, but not that much. The hands are different from human hands, accurately reflecting a gorilla's fists.
The best feature is the rubber head. From the shoulders up, Kong is made of soft rubber over a plastic frame. The ape's jaws open freely, and the fleshy rubber stretches quite realistically over the teeth, with no sign of overstretching or tearing. Operating this jaw pushes the nose up a bit, forcing the whole face into a vicious scowl.
The pectoral muscles are a separate piece, which is actually a push-button that activates Kong's jaws, again triggering the sound sample.
The hip joints are a bit disappointing, with just a 30-degree range of movement or so, not allowing for many different poses, and the non-articulated feet don't help much there. Though modeled from separate pieces, the "joint" does not even allow for the feet to rotate.
Grooves on the stomach that flow with the hair grooves allow the sound to escape the speaker. A switch under the left arm has ON and OFF painted conspicuously in white paint.
Roaring Kong requires two AA batteries, which are included.
