Monsters Attack! Number 4

A recent posting by Stan Hyde at Facebook Monsterland prompted this recollection.

Following Terror of Mechagodzilla in 1975, Toho Co., Ltd. put Godzilla on a long hiatus. During those years, all was quiet on the Godzilla front.

Then, out of the blue, Toho released Godzilla in 1984 (renamed Return of Godzilla and released here (heavily edited) with Raymond Burr reprising his Steve Martin character as Godzilla 1985). The movie, although well-done in its original Japanese form, received a lukewarm response here. The movie was a direct sequel to the original 1954 Godzilla and ignored all of the prior sequels.

Then, following that movie, Godzilla disappeared again, at least as far as the United States was concerned.

In Japan, Toho finally decided to produce a sequel to the 1984 movie, based on a story-writing contest, in 1989. The result was Godzilla vs. Biollante. Unfortunately, not too many people in the U.S. were aware of this movie and it received no stateside theatrical release. It seemed that Godzilla was gone again.

However, the following year, Monsters Attack! (no. 4) was published. The cover date was September 1990, The magazine featured Godzilla on the cover by John Severin. The magazine contained an article on Godzilla that recapped his cinematic career and featured the first word (and images) about Godzilla vs Biollante that many U.S. fans received. It was the first time I was made of aware of the movie. To me, in seeing those images, this was the best-designed Godzilla suit in a long time.

I remember buying Monsters Attack! at a local comic book shop and bringing it along to read on a camping vacation to Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone National Park in the summer of 1990. I still have the issue (somewhere around here).

Today, Monsters Attack! no. 4 is a much sought-after Godzilla collectible for being one of the first (if not the first) source of information Americans received about Godzilla vs. Biollante. It ranks up there with Famous Monsters of Filmland issue 114, the special 100-page all-Japanese monsters issue.

Godzilla Beer Lawsuit Settled

Above, the Mecha G suit from Terror of Mechagodzilla. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Toho Co., Ltd. won another one.

This case involved a beer that was named "Mechahopzilla" with an image of a robotic lizard on the can. Toho filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against the brewery and it was announced that the two sides settled the case.

The Japan News (Yomiuri Shimbun) reported:

LOS ANGELES (AP)—A New Orleans brewery has agreed to change the name of one of its beers after it was sued by the Japanese company that owns the rights to the movie monster Godzilla. 

Attorneys for Toho Co. announced Wednesday that it had settled a trademark infringement lawsuit with the New Orleans Lager & Ale Brewing Co. 

The deal requires the brewery to change the name of its Mechahopzilla beer by the end of the year.

Above, a close-up of the MechaGodzilla suit. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The brewery will change the name to "Mecha" and still use the robot lizard image. Toho will have to approve the changes.

To read more, go here.

"Terror of Mechagodzilla" Suit

Back in 2004, in celebration of Godzilla's 50th anniversary, an exhibit of Godzilla memorabilia was put on display in Eiji Tsuburaya's hometown of Koriyama, Japan.  The exhibit was entitled, "Since Godzilla."

While touring Japan with G-TOUR in 2004, we visited the exhibit and I shot a video of it.  The two accompanying photos are snapshots from the video (Hi8 format).  It was said to be the Mechagodzilla suit from Terror of Mechagodzilla.

According to Wikipedia:

Terror of Mechagodzilla, (released in Japan as Counterattack of Mechagodzilla (メカゴジラの逆襲, Mekagojira no Gyakushū^?)) is a 1975 Japanese science fiction kaiju film produced by Toho. Directed by Ishirō Honda and featuring special effects by Teruyoshi Nakano, the film starred Tomoko Ai, Gorō Mutsumi, and Akihiko Hirata. This film was the 15th and final film in the original series of Godzilla films, before the series reboot in 1984.

A thread on old monster suits was started at the Classic Horror Film Board forum and I made these snapshots to post there.  But here they are for your viewing pleasure.