Godzilla Island Series Figures

[Goji]

The only one of these I have is the King Ghidorah from '98. The rest just never appealed to me because I already owned all of the 8 inch versions by the time these started coming out.

The only figures from Bandai's 6 inch line that I have are the ones that don't exist in any other form; Titanosaurus, Hedorah, Jet Jaguar, MG 2, and the various Showa Godzilla's (though I still need a handful of those).

[Legion1979]

The only one of these I have is the King Ghidorah from '98. The rest just never appealed to me because I already owned all of the 8 inch versions by the time these started coming out.

The only figures from Bandai's 6 inch line that I have are the ones that don't exist in any other form; Titanosaurus, Hedorah, Jet Jaguar, MG 2, and the various Showa Godzilla's (though I still need a handful of those).

Bandai DID make a Jet Jaguar and a Hedora in the 8" line, Goji.

[JVM]

Lost my chance at KC. Swore I've been told before if you're outbid in the last thirty seconds eBay automatically adds another thirty seconds. Panicked to submit the bid before the auction ended and didn't end up bidding high enough to beat the guy.

[Goji]

The only one of these I have is the King Ghidorah from '98. The rest just never appealed to me because I already owned all of the 8 inch versions by the time these started coming out.

The only figures from Bandai's 6 inch line that I have are the ones that don't exist in any other form; Titanosaurus, Hedorah, Jet Jaguar, MG 2, and the various Showa Godzilla's (though I still need a handful of those).

Bandai DID make a Jet Jaguar and a Hedora in the 8" line, Goji.

*face palm* The hell is my problem. I'm sorry, I should have said "sculpts that don't exist in the 8 inch line". I never did get that original Jet Jaguar, actually. The 90's Hedorah was one of my first though. I love that figure.

[RedZillaKing]

The new Jet was pretty good. You aren't missing much.

[robert Troch]

BTW......Ultraman is (and has been for a LONG time) much more popular in Japan. Go there and see for yourself, because both times I have been there (2001 and 2006) the Ultra stuff far outstrips any Toho stuff. Plus the value (what people actually pay) on those old Ultra Marusans are WAY over the Toho stuff, plus Bandai as a corporation puts their money into what people want and what sells. They haven't been around this long by ignoring that old rule. PLUS the exposure in Japan of the Ultra universe compared to Zilla is TREMENDOUS. Countless TV series (spread over 47 years) compared to 28 movies (spread over almost 58 years if one moves ahead to this year).

Also I love Marmit too but how much "respect" (strange word to use for a company that sells collectors toys) can I have for a company that goes WAY over the top with all the variants they have?

Robert T.

[Cimmerian Dragon]

Also I love Marmit too but how much "respect" (strange word to use for a company that sells collectors toys) can I have for a company that goes WAY over the top with all the variants they have?

Robert T.

Who cares how many variants they release? No one has to buy them. Seriously, I love having the option to pick and choose from various color schemes, taking what I like and leaving the rest. If I already have a mold and they come out with a version I like better, maybe I'll buy it, though probably I won't; Marmit isn't twisting my arm either way.

[robert Troch]

Also I love Marmit too but how much "respect" (strange word to use for a company that sells collectors toys) can I have for a company that goes WAY over the top with all the variants they have?

Robert T.

Who cares how many variants they release? No one has to buy them. Seriously, I love having the option to pick and choose from various color schemes, taking what I like and leaving the rest. If I already have a mold and they come out with a version I like better, maybe I'll buy it, though probably I won't; Marmit isn't twisting my arm either way.

Well sure....but that's not the point. Obviously no one is twisting anyone's arm to buy ANY of this stuff. Bandai, Marmit, Bullamrk...any of it. Marmit (like Bandai) try to milk as much as they can from many of their figures so in the long run......... not much of a difference there. Marmit just crams them in a smaller time span. The bad part is that you usually have to grab them when you see them or they may not be there next time you look. So you grab one and then a month later a variant comes out that you may like even better. So then you grab that one and you got two of them. Or you don't but whether you do or not it over fills the collectors market with too many of the same figure. Not really special any more.

Robert

[RedZillaKing]

Yeah, we're practically tripping over the Marmit variants around here. They're so common!

[Jomei]

Yeah, they've overdone the Burning Godzilla a bit. Still, they're highly desirable, and it's not like Bandai hasn't overdone variants and theater exclusives in the past... with less desirable results.

But yeah, Ultraman is more popular, especially since Final Wars. lol

[RedZillaKing]

Ultraman is far more popular now. That's abundantly clear. That was not the case in the early 90s however. Most of the ultra figures released atound that time period weren't too much better than Bullmarks in the accuracy department.

[JVM]

BACK TO THE ORIGINAL TOPIC...

I'm curious, do you guys prefer Movie Monsters or Toho Kaiju/Godzilla Island paintjobs?

[Destroyer]

Well it's thanks to the Movie Monsters ones that I started collecting. Looking at the comparison pictures, the Movie Monsters ones usually look better. The only original G Island one I have is Anguirus, what a cute little thing.

Movie Monsters Gigan is one fantastic figure.

[JVM]

Vinyl Maddness has excellent comparison photos.

[Destroyer]

Hmm, it looks like the Movie Monsters Anguirus has a more fierce look when compared to his nice little G Island counterpart.

[Petezilla]

Agreed. Goro, Varan, and Baragon would've all been excellent additions.

Gorosaurus and Baragon were in Godzilla Island too.

Yes that's what I meant with my post on page 1. I wished that BANDAI would have released at least every character from the show, including e.g. Goro Baragon, Hedorah, etc. (although a Varan would be very nice to have in the 6" line, I'm not on the fence about him missing as he only plays a 3-second-role in the whole Godzilla-verse). Well, they've thrown in some collectors' sugar with the Hyper Hobby set in 2007. Still, where's Mecha Ghidorah with three robot heads from the show...? An easy tweak one would assume.

It would've made for better variety. [...]

[...] I'm GLAD Gorosaurus and Baragon didn't appear in the 6" line. I'm certain they just would have downsized the 8" molds, and I like the fact that the classic standard Bandais of these guys are the only ones. It makes them stand out among so many toys that have been reissued a zillion times.

RZK's variety argument is true. Legion's reissue-madness argument is true, either. For my personal taste one or possibly two reissues are OK, so everyone get's a decent chance to own a particular character figure. When there's a super limited clear event version, good, I'm fine with that, too. But 5 reissues with even very similar paint jobs (e.g. 6" Heisei G, Heisei KG & Heisei SG) can be a blow for collectors who prefer CHARACTER variety over color variants (like me). But although never reissuing several of the classic 8" figures makes them unique and very collectible, it's still bothering me that BANDAI never reused these characters properly (like scaling them down from 8" to 6" or just making new 6" models for them, so that the old ones could stay unique in a way for the lovers of them) for two main reasons:

1) New(er) collectors without a giant purse (like me) are f@*ked.
2) You never get the pleasant feeling of having the opportunity of gathering a really complete lineup of figures that actually FIT with each other (say being from the same lineup/toy series).

Reason #2 results in the need to get items from various different lineups (or even comapnies) if one wants to have all the franchises' characters together, what itself may easily result in an optical mess on the collection shelf, due to completely different toy styles, color schemes and - of course - sizes, which may build up to total out-of-scale-ness, which can be a major drawback, at least for myself and it's the main reason for my love of the S.H.MonstArts line for BANDAI finally seems to be getting this issue right this time. However, what I wanted to say can be accumulated to "personally I don't need several reissues, but I'd wish for a broader pool of matching characters instead." Well, that might not be everyone's point of view and I respect that.

Then, on the other side, BANDAI actually DID small run editions with special molding in the past for a little more money than the regular retail mass produced versions and they also presumably got their money from that. So I do believe that many collectors would buy them BANDAI figures like hell, if only there was more variety in character supply, especially if in smaller quantities and due to their realistic look and comparatively cheap price. I think BANDAI just plays too uber-save with their decisions sometimes and it's bothering sometimes.

[RedZillaKing]

Exactly. The funny thing is... Gorosaurus, Baragon, Manda, and Varan are among my favorite monsters. I like them because they're all T&C and there's a lot of variety between them. Yet none of them made it into the 6 inch line. The Memorial box was a missed opportunity. Instead of exact reissues of King Ghidorah and Heisei Godzilla, why not scaled down Goro or Baragon or give us a new Varan or Manda? Granted there were a lot of new sculpts but that in and of itself proves that Bandai will do things for the collector on occasion.

[Goji]

The new Jet was pretty good. You aren't missing much.

I know, personally, I think it's awful, which is why I always passed on it back in the day. I'll have to get it at some point. I have almost all of the large scale Bandai's from the 90's, and Jet is one of the ones I still need..

[JVM]

I think rescales would be nice to see - scale up some of the better 6" molds and down some of the better 8" molds - everybody can be a little happier.