Sticky Godzilla babies !

 

Godzilla, Livins Stationary Corp, Taiwan, 1970's ?

Another FDL find... these guys are glue dispensers... paper sticker eyes... just so cute as a group !

Colorful Lizards !

Godzilla, maker and date unknown, Peru

In my eternal search for the weird and ugly and kitsch, these ones I could not let pass... It kind of shows how a Japanese cultural icon is translated in South America. Blown plastic. Cheap. But really... who cannot enjoy a fluo Godzilla ?

Here in battle with its Japanese M1GO counterpart

Rubber Suits of Monster's legend...

Microman Godzilla / First Monochrome version, Takara, Japan, 2006

Japan always had a thing with their monsters... Radioactive mutations were a popular subject after the horrors of the second WW and what better subject to make low-cost movies that would thrill young and old movie-goers...

But far from the special effects of Ray Harryhausen stop-motion, Japan went the other way around and used real actors in latex suits... A process George Lucas would use some years later for lots of the monsters of the first Star Wars trilogy, before CGI kicked in and filming was made more like computer programming than acting...

Please read more about it here.

Haruo Nakajima, the real actor that did Godzilla "suit" acting

It's a robot ? No ! It's a freakin' walkin' radiator !

Kaiju Radiator Monster (?), ?, China, 2000's

Some Kaiju designs are so extreme you kind of wonder what the creators were thinking about (or smoking) when they came up with these ideas. This is a monster of some sort (maybe from Ultraman ? or others ? please help me out).

Rainbowy atomic head

This is another version of a character called Matango (see previous post). I just like the colorfull treatment it got (not a lot of pink monsters in my collection, so this one kind of stands out !)

Matango (Hawai version), M1Go,
Japan, 2010's

Atomic monster - MATANGO !

Japan, as the first country hit be the horrors of Atomic explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has included this threat both in film (Godzilla - grown lizard due to radiation), manga (Barefoot Gen, for example) and popular culture. On the other hand, they also regarded atomic energy as a source of everlasting power for the future - power that could be used for the good of humankind (Astroboy = Tetsuwan Atom/Mighty Atom). This duality has come once again to surface with the latest Fukujima incidents.

This had of course also repercussions in the toy-world. From robots called "Mr. Atomic" to "Atomic rayguns", it was everywhere. In the Kaiju world, the Matango monster is the closest it gets. Even though it is a "fungus" monster - it strikes a cord to anyone who saw the atomic "mushroom" clouds.

Matango, Marmit, Japan,
1999

Flying Godzilla !

Kaiju, Bullmark, Japan (reissue),

2010

This is the one item that defined my first trip to Asia. This Godzilla - type figurine (or is it another monster ?) travelled between my feet from Hong Kong to Lisbon.  Just a situation that made a friend smile... Happy B-Day GNB !