Buy Now - Mecha Godzilla
Buy Now - King Kong Deluxe Action Figure
There are 28 Godzilla films created by Toho, all of the in Japan. This does not consider the 1998 Hollywood movie, which shows a monster different from Godzilla that fans did not approve. The third movie in the 28 list was King Kong vs Godzilla, and happened at a very interesting time for Toho (the Japanese company that created Godzilla) and Japanese children.
At that time, Toho was thinking of giving its main character Godzilla a less terror-type mood. At the same time, the King Kong toys (which first appeared in US films in 1933) were becoming more popular among the Japanese children. As a result, the film King Kong vs Godzilla was more a humor movie than a terror movie. Unfortunally, when the movie was translated to English in Hollywood, as usually happens with Godzilla movies, the producers didn’t like the humor part and edited the movie in an intent to make a straight science fiction movie.
Regarding Godzilla action figures after this movie, there is interesting information. As it is with Bandai, the figures are very realistic and similar to Godzilla film appearance (the Godzilla monster in the films were always an actor in a rubber suit). When the movie The Return of Godzilla (1984) was announced in 1983 and the announcement started Bandai Godzilla line with 1962 Godzilla.
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| 1962 Godzilla (movie suit) vs 1983 Bandai King Kong vs Godzilla release | Rare Bandai King Kong action figure released in 1993 |
As it is common with Bandai’s Godzilla action figures, the sculpt was quite god. Godzilla is bulky without looking fat, and they did a fair job in capturing the unique, almost frog-like face of this particular suit, though the eyes are a bit bland and the mouth could have been bigger. That appeareance was given to Godzilla by Toho to make him look less frightening.
As for King Kong toys, this character is among the hardest to find. Good Hunt!
