Godzilla/Bandai

## Godzilla Series

* Mecha Ghidorah and Anguirus
* LittleGodzilla
* 1954 Gojira

Japanese toy company Bandai has been doing plenty of Godzilla figures for 39 consecutive years, though in later years, their American operations have been taken over by Playmates and many planned figures, before and up to that point, met their fate from the "Oxygen Destroyer" that is cancellation.

## Summary

In 1983, Bandai released the first figure, a depiction of Gojira as seen in *Godzilla vs. King Kong*, in what would be later known as The Godzilla Collection: a series consisting of 8-inch scale action figures that depict both the King of Monsters and his fellow friends & foes. The series lasted all the way up to 1995, which was the year *Godzilla vs. Destoroyah* was released as the final *Godzilla* movie of the Heisei period.  There was also Godzilla: High Grade, a line of two-inch tall collectible gashapon figures that began in 1994 and usually coincided with the latest film;  Godzilla: Memorial Box, a box set of 14 8-inch tall figures that began in 1995;  Godzilla Forever, a limited toy line released in 1996;  Godzilla Island Monster Series, a line of 6-inch soft vinyl figures released in 1998 as a tie-in for the TV Tokyo show of the same name, which made near-exclusive use of Bandai action figures to portray the monster cast;  the Toho Kaiju Series, which came out around the same time;  Movie Monster Series, which began in 2001 in conjunction with each new Millennium film;  the Godzilla 50th Anniversary Memorial Box, which was released in 2005 less than a year after the original film celebrated a turning point milestone;  and Kaiju Out of the Laws, a line of high-quality kaiju figures that were started by Premium Bandai in 2017.

In 2002, Bandai's Western subsidiary, Bandai America, released the first wave of *Godzilla* action figures for a North American audience, reaching brick-and-mortar stores as 13 more waves would be produced up until the late 2010s, along with miscellaneous tie-ins like play sets, Tokyo Vinyl, chibi figures, and the occasional exclusive for high-end comic conventions. In addition to the classic Toho Daikaiju, Bandai America also released action figures for Legendary Pictures' *Godzilla* remake in 2014, featuring both the titular monster and MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism), the latter of which was an original creation for the film. Despite the love *Godzilla* (2014) was receiving, Bandai ceased releasing new figures of the Toho characters, instead reissuing prior figures or imports from Japan; much to the complaints of hardcore collectors. In 2019, Bandai America stopped releasing *Godzilla* figures as Playmates Toys began filling its former role by both re-releasing BA figures and creating new ones; both based on Toho and the Monsterverse. However, Bandai America resumed selling *Godzilla* merch in 2023, listing five Movie Monster Series figures on Amazon, along with receiving the master toy license for the *Ultra Series* and the upcoming Netflix animated *Ultraman* film in 2024.

Other Bandai subsidiaries that have dabbled into the *Godzilla* franchise included Bandai Namco Entertainment, a video game development company who published the 2014 *Godzilla* game for the PlayStation 3 & 4; and Tamashii Nations, a Japanese company that specializes in producing highly-detailed articulated figures of *Godzilla* characters since 2011, in which they are released as part of their S.H. MonsterArts subline.

## The Follies of Bandai

Most of the cancelled *Godzilla* figures from Bandai can be pointed back to Bandai America, starting with the Creation line at Wave 2, which was released in 2005 at least three years after Wave 1 first hit the shelves. It had the GMK versions of Gojira and King Ghidorah, SpaceGodzilla, and Heisei Mechagodzilla. When the line was first shown at toy fair conventions, figures of Mecha-King Ghidorah from *Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah* and Anguirus as seen in *Godzilla Raids Again*, the first ever sequel to the series, were shown yet ultimately removed from the final series. Like the past two waves before it, Wave 8 of 2012 consisted entirely of reissues (Showa Gigan from Wave 1, Godzilla 1968 from Wave 4, and Showa Mechagodzilla from Wave 5). To rectify this, Bandai America planned to include a new figure of LittleGodzilla as he appeared in *Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla* and it wa shown again for the 2013 Toy Fair. However, after they learned of how low the character's popularity was amongst *Godzilla* fans, LittleGodzilla was indefinitely scrapped from the series.

For the second wave of the Fusion Series released in 2013, Bandai America planned a variant of the FS Burning Godzilla made of bright orange vinyl, representing his "meltdown" during the climax of *Godzilla vs. Destoroyah*, which would have been released alongside Millennium Godzilla, Rainbow Mothra, and "normal" BurningGoji. Though for whatever reason, this vinyl variant never came to be.

In 2012, Bandai America began a line of smaller stylized vinyl figures known as Tokyo Vinyl, which included the *Final Wars* and Showa versions of Godzilla and Mechagodzilla respectively. More stylized figures were shown at the 2013 New York Toy Fair for the original 1954 version of Gojira, the Heisei version of King Ghidorah, and Manilla - who was introduced as the son of Godzilla in the Showa series. All three of them were arrested from development due to poor sales of the first two figures.

From December 2014 to February 2015, Toho Kingdom hosted a Bandai-America poll for fans to weigh in on which non-Godzilla monster they want the company to produce next. The top six candidates voted in were Anguirus, Megalon, Biollante, Titanosaurus, Female MUTO (often abbreviated as Femuto), and Varan the Unbelievable, who only ever briefly appeared in *Destroy All Monster!* beyond his solo film. To date, Bandai America has yet to fulfill any of those promises. On a follow up interview on the same website in 2015, Bandai America expressed interest in producing figures of Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidorah for *Godzilla: King of the Monsters*, as well as toys for *Shin Godzilla*, but neither of them came to pass, save for 3.5 vinyl figures regarding the latter movie.  Much of the licensing for KOTM 3” 3/4 figures went to Jakks Pacific instead, though Bandai did fully articulated figures of the Four Titans for their S.H. Monsterarts subline.

## Verdict

To date, neither of the prototypes for Bandai Creation's Anguirus, MKG and LittleGodzilla, the Fusion Series Burning Godzilla variant, and the cancelled Tokyo Vinyl figures have yet to resurface. While they are possibly deep within Bandai's archives, they are currently: **LOST**.

## External Links

* Bandai. (Retrieved July 26, 2023). WikiZilla. Online article.
* Bandai America. (Retrieved July 26, 2023). WikiZilla. Online article.

## References

1. ↑ https://wikizilla.org/wiki/The\_Godzilla\_Collection
2. ↑ https://wikizilla.org/wiki/Godzilla:\_High\_Grade
3. ↑ https://wikizilla.org/wiki/Godzilla\_Memorial\_Box
4. ↑ https://wikizilla.org/wiki/Godzilla\_Forever\_(toy\_line)
5. ↑ https://wikizilla.org/wiki/Godzilla\_Island\_Monster\_Series
6. ↑ https://wikizilla.org/wiki/Toho\_Kaiju\_Series
7. ↑ https://wikizilla.org/wiki/Movie\_Monster\_Series
8. ↑ https://wikizilla.org/wiki/Godzilla\_50th\_Anniversary\_Memorial\_Box
9. ↑ https://wikizilla.org/wiki/Kaiju\_Out\_of\_the\_Laws
10. ↑ https://wikizilla.org/wiki/S.H.\_MonsterArts
11. ↑ https://www.tohokingdom.com/interviews/bandai\_usa\_07-2015.html