I first bought a X-Plus figure long ago before they have their mainlines they do now (around mid 2000). A 10" Gamera 3 figure (branded under Sega) as a UFO Catcher machine prize. Little did I knew back then that you have to blow dry the parts squishy soft for the assembly, so all I did was xacto some of the excess and superglued all the parts (head/arms/legs/tail) when they are still hard, leaving a lot of ugly gaps and residue. Fortunately, that figure was pretty cheap (around $30). The paintjob is minimal and rough, but it was a really nice sculpt for the price.
Fast forward a good number of years, the upcoming movie got me into Kaiju stuff again, and I also got into X-Plus 30cm line recently. While I won't go crazy collecting a lot, I did pick up a couple of my favorites the past couple months. A Gamera 1999 (Ric Boy ver.), and a Godzilla 2001 GMK (Daimond Re-issue). While I like Gamera more (those clear vinyl claws and fangs are so lifelike, and the flaming hand is so awesome), the GMK Godzilla turn out much nicer than expected. I heard people complain about it being too fat, and the Re-issue has the lower lip painted red instead of grey (which I fixed with some acrylic paint), its much nicer in person than photos suggested. So glad I picked up these two and can imagine their ultimate showdown on my shelf, even when that is not likely to ever happen on the silver screen.
For those that have high expectations on the paintob, don't be too suprised these X-Plus figures to have some hiccups here and there, as expensive as they are. Both of mine came with some flaws. Felt that the figures went through quite a few layers of airbrushing and touch up process to get all the nice realistic details. But all it takes is one of those steps with a mistake or heavy handed brush line and it will look messed up. Like my Gamera's teeth dark shading was not aligned when airbrushed, so it looks more like it hasn't been brushing for a long time. Or the grey lines on the toe claws of GMK were painted very sloppy and some a bit crooked. Still look very awesome, but you'll see bigger hiccups than what we are used to in Hot Toys stuff, even if X-Plus sometimes costing more than the HTs.
Now I got that to go with my G64 when that comes out. Can't wait for G68.
