“Up from the depths, 30 stories high…” Remember the theme song to the Godzilla cartoon from 1978?
It was hokey and barely seemed connected to the movie Godzilla. (Godzooky didn’t help.) Still, I ate it all up because I just couldn’t get enough of the fire-breathing behemoth.
The Godzilla movies from Japan’s Toho studios would air on Saturdays when I was growing up in Ohio. I’d tune in to every broadcast, forcing myself to sit through boring scenes of people, eagerly awaiting the money shots: Guys in rubber dinosaur suits fighting, demolishing miniature landscapes and setting off sparks that looked way off-scale, even to a kid.
Godzilla Toys
I so wanted to recreate the action, but Godzilla toys were hard to come by in 1970s Ohio.
From what I can remember, there was only one toy released in the USA—the jumbo, 19″ Shogun Warriors Godzilla produced by Popy of Japan and released stateside by Mattel.
There was also a model kit by Aurora that had a glow-in-the-dark head and hands.
I’d have to make do with these two versions, neither of which the most accurate depiction of the king of monsters, until I moved to California and landed this baby in LA’s Little Tokyo.
This 6” vinyl Godzilla figure was released by Bandai in 1984. It has articulated arms and legs, and its tail swivels at the joint. Even by today’s standards, the sculpting and paint job on this toy is impressive.
Godzilla wouldn’t be complete without some kaiju foes to fight. First, I got Mecha-Godzilla, which also has articulated limbs and a tail that rotates slightly.
I later bought this King Ghidorah, which has articulated wings, legs, tail, and center head/neck. It appears to be slightly out-of-scale with the other two figures I have, and the production stamp on its foot doesn’t match theirs. Unfortunately, I can’t read kanji and don’t know who produced this toy.
The 1984 Bandai vinyl Godzilla is supposedly rare both here and in Japan, going for several hundred dollars on online auction sites. I still have mine, in pretty good condition after sitting in a dark storage box for over thirty years.
Should I sell it or keep it as a piece of history—not just of movies, but of my childhood? Let me know what you think in the comments!
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