What Godzilla movies do you own?

[Angilasman]

What Godzilla movies did we all have recorded off TV on VHS?

I had plenty before upgrading them to official releases througout the '00s...

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, Godzilla vs. Gigan, Godzilla vs. Megalon, Godzilla vs. Hedorah, and King Kong Escapes off of the Sci-Fi channel. All from '00 and '01, I think. The Godzillas were all in widescreen, which was a big deal at the time.

Mothra off of TCM. Mid '00s. Nice Robert Osborne intro.

The X From Outer Space recorded off of one of the seemingly hundreds of digital cable movie channels in the mid '00s. Before MGM's rights to this expired they showed it on TV all the time... for a window of a few years. We haven't seen the original American version since.

Frankenstein Conquers the World off of AMC. Probably '00. Stan Winston intro!

Mothra vs. Godzilla off of some local channel, hosted by local radio personalities offering a chance to win tickets to G'98. This was terribly edited, maybe to fit into a short time slot? Not a great first exposure to this film.

I had Gamera GOTU and Godzilla vs. Gigan (under the 'Godzilla on Monster Island' title) taped off premium cable (Showtime?) In '97-'98 and my Dad taped over them with sports. I still remember how mad I was!

[Terasawa]

Godzilla vs. Hedorah is the only Godzilla movie I had to record off TV to possess, because by the late '90s I just couldn't track down a copy of the Orion or Simitar tapes for sale anywhere. (And some jackass stole the copy of the Orion tape I used to rent.) I recorded the letterboxed export version off Sci-Fi in September 2000 (and actually recorded DAM before it for fun, although I had that one on VHS already), but I promptly lost the tape and re-recorded it in December and again the next year (on a higher quality tape).

After that, I became aware that there were different versions of Godzilla movies on TV than what I already owned, so I started recording whatever I could. Those included practically everything SciFi premiered (letterboxed and uncut versions of Gigan, Megalon, and MG74; dubbed versions of RoM3, GxM, and GMK). I recorded Rodan, FCtW, WotG, and Last Days of Planet Earth off AMC in 1999/2000, and those were my main viewing copies of those films for several years. I still watch a DVD-R copy of my recording of LDoPE because the screener VHS I later bought is copy-protected and thus I've never been able to digitally preserve it.

I still have all of the above recordings (except the SciFi Gigan for some reason) and I've made DVD backups. I have tons of other off-air Godzilla and tokusatsu films, but I acquired those through trades and whatnot.

Incidentally, the only Godzilla movies I saw for the first time on TV as opposed to on video were Godzilla's Revenge (which was my introduction to this nutty hobby) and Ghidrah. The latter was on the Disney Channel during a night that saw KKvG and either Sea Monster or SoG running into the wee hours; unfortunately this was already long after GRA disappeared from TV. I didn't record any of these at the time because I was too young to have that kind of control over the VCR. (I did eventually acquire a recording of Ghidrah which I'm fairly sure is from the same night.)

[Rando Yaguchi]

^That backstory explains your current wealth of knowledge of the different versions of these films, and the history behind them.

[Terasawa]

^That backstory explains your current wealth of knowledge of the different versions of these films, and the history behind them.

I have also Japan's Favorite Mon-Star, Monsters Are Attacking Tokyo, and the Tohotopia website to thank for that. The former pretty much introduced me to the concept that there were unique versions of the movies I'd never seen; the latter two introduced me to a lot of films I would have otherwise overlooked for years. For example, Tohotopia had monster stats for LDoPE, which directly led to me tracking that film down in TV Guide (and being weirded out by it after seeing it).

All of these influences and anecdotes together form the Terasawa origin story.

[Rando Yaguchi]

All of these influences and anecdotes together form the Terasawa origin story.

Terasawa Begins - Coming this Summer

[Executive Hamster]

Ive always found it amusing when Godzilla fans talk about VHS tapes because when I was old enough to watch the movies Blu Ray already existed. Definitely grateful to have been born at a time when these movies were way more accessible.

[Rando Yaguchi]

Ive always found it amusing when Godzilla fans talk about VHS tapes because when I was old enough to watch the movies Blu Ray already existed. Definitely grateful to have been born at a time when these movies were way more accessible.

Kids these days don't even know! Sheeeeeeiittttt

[o.supreme]

I distinctly remember my parents purchased our first VCR in 1986, I was 10. I remember my father specifically telling me I couldn't record "all" the Godzilla movies because there were simply too many. Of course I started saving my allowance to purchase blank VHS tapes, and at EP/SLP fitting 3 movies per tape it became quite easy.

The first was Son of Godzilla from a WTBS broadcast in late 86 or early 87. Then KKvG, and Godzilla 1985 from local Bay Area Stations. Also Godzilla King of the Monsters (though I had rented the Vestron VHS before recording it from TV). Then in the summer of 1987 a local channel KTSF 26 San Francisco had a "Godzilla Week" from which I got Sea Monster, Megalon, Cosmic Monster, On Monster Island, and GTTHM.

I think next was G vs The Thing from WTBS (not sure if it was Super Scary Saturday or not...), but then I do distinctly remember getting Godzilla's Revenge and Rodan from WTBS Super Scary Saturday broadcasts. I think I got Monster Zero later from WTBS as well.

I got TOMG from the Paramount VHS in 1989 or early 1990 (one of my uncles had 2 VCR's and copied it for me). So I had every Godzilla film up to that point except DAM & Smog Monster (which I never saw on TV from 86-90) and Gigantis, but I did find the Video Treasures Gigantis VHS at a local drug store and begged my parents to get it (my first actual VHS tape not recorded from TV)

Also in the spring of 1990 a friend brought his VCR to my house, and during spring break we got Smog Monster, Monster from a Prehistoric Planet, Gorgo, and 2 Gamera movies and recorded them all 2 times to make copies for ourselves. That was a fun week.

So when our family moved away from the Bay Area to Sacramento in 1990, I had all the Godzilla movies except DAM (I didn't find out about Biollante's existence until late 1990 through August Ragone's fanzine Markalite)

I went to a comic convention back in the Bay Area in the summer of 1991, and got my first bootleg ever (Biollante) raw Japanese no subs. Then a few months later I somehow got on a mailing list and was able to get a copy of DAM (AIP) that someone had recorded from an east coast broadcast, so my collection was finally complete.

Unfortunately I don't have any of those TV broadcasts anymore, the tapes are long gone, but I do have at least 1 store bought VHS version of each Godzilla film from KOTM-Godzilla 2000. Ironically I think Terasawa still has a copy of some of the KTSF broadcasts I made for him a while back.

in the early-mid 90's while living in Sacramento there was a local UHF station that showed the sandy Frank Gamera films before they aired on MST. I also got to record Monster X and Super Monster (DaP was the only one I had to get a boot from a convention). I also got rare Toho films such as Dagora and Attack of the Mushroom People. I wish I had those both, because they were interspliced with a local horror host legend that has since passed on.

When Sci-Fi first aired Godzilla vs Hedorah and Destroy All Monsters I recorded them off TV to get "better quality copies". This was my first exposure to *other dubs* of Godzilla films, and me wondering, what happened to the old ones? Now we know, basically Toho wants them to not exist, and I am so glad they have been preserved by fans. The same was for Gamera. Although I had all the Sandy Frank versions on VHS, it wasn't until low budget DVD's came out using the AIP TV versions that I felt vindicated again being able to see the ones I had seen at a very young age ion the early 80's.

About the Heisei/Millennium series. That's when I started going to SDCC every summer from 1992-2001. So it was basically a foregone conclusion, each summer we would get a bootleg VHS copy of the Godzilla (or Gamera or Mothra) film from the previous year, except G Millennium. I'm not sure because it had a planned U.S. theatrical release, but boots were either hard to find, or we figured why buy it in the summer of 2000, when it is coming out in the theater. As a result I never saw the Japanese version of that film until Sony's Blu Ray release contained BOTH.

GMK was the last bootleg VHS I bought, and coincidentally the first one that already had fansubs. For GvsMGII and Tokyo SOS I was able to get fansubbed bootleg DVD. Final Wars was odd. I could not find it anywhere, so I ended up getting a 2 disc VCD off eBay I think Final Wars had one of the quickest turnarounds to actual US release home media though (with the exception of Godzilla 1985 and G2000 in the post-Showa era), the Sony DVD came only about 13 months after the films release in Japan IIRC (December 2004 release in Japan, and the Sony DVD came out in January 2006 I think).

[JAGzilla]

I never taped anything, with one mysterious exception. My younger brother had a Hobart and Cosmo VHS (which he hated and refused to watch, though that's beside the point) about trains. So we owned this thing for years without watching more than the first few minutes. Another train-obsessed brother came along, and he ended up watching this tape all the way through one day... and we found that a few minutes of an unknown movie had been taped over the end credits. The scene in question featured a man-in-suit giant ape standing on top of a hill and soldiers on foot firing up at it. The ape chucks boulders down at them, which are very obviously suspended from strings as they fly toward the camera. The footage was in color, and everything looked American to me, although it's been well over a decade since I've seen it; the tape is long gone.

I assume it must've been King Kong Lives which we did catch a few minutes of on TV around the time that the recording must've been made. I don't remember the scene in question, but maybe my dad tried to tape it while I was out of the room or something. None of us remember for sure, though.

[Joseph Goodman]

The ape chucks boulders down at them, which are very obviously suspended from strings as they fly toward the camera.

That almost has to be the infamous A*P*E.

[Legion1979]

In the 80s my collection of Showa Godzilla movies were a crazy mix of purchased VHS tapes, stuff recorded off TV and things duped off VHS rentals (we had two VCRs). Everything was taped/purchased between 1986 and 1988, save Gigan which I didn't see until 1989.

Godzilla King of the Monsters, Ghidrah the Three Headed Monster and Godzilla vs Gigan were dupes from rentals, although it didn't take long for my parents to buy me the legit New World Gigan VHS.

Godzilla vs Monster Zero and Godzilla vs Megalon were purchased VHS tapes. My Megalon tape was bought at The Wiz, and I vividly rememver the tape crapping out about mid way through, so we had to go back and replace it.

Everything else was taped off TV airings. For reference I lived (and still live) on Long Island, not far from NYC. Terror of Mechagodzilla was my very first Godzilla film, taped from an Easter weekend WPIX airing. Godzilla Raids Again and Godzilla's Revenge were from WPIX Morgus Presents airings. Godzilla vs the Thing also came from WPIX, though not a Morgus airing. King Kong vs Godzilla was from a WWOR Thanksgiving Marathon. Destroy all Monsters, Godzilla vs the Smog Monster and Godzilla vs the Cosmic Monster were from WNYW Drive-In Movie airings. And finally Godzilla vs the Sea Monster and Son of Godzilla were taped for me by a family friend off TBS airings. Sea Monster was a Super Scary Saturday airing. Of course I would eventually get all of these movies on store bought VHS tapes, but this is how I first saw all of them.

As for the VS series...I saw Godzilla 1985 on its very first network airing, though I don't recall the channel. Godzilla vs Biollante through Godzilla vs Space Godzilla I saw on bootleg VHS, about 6-9 months after their Japanese theatrical releases. Like a lot of people, I saw Godzilla vs Destoryah less than a month after it's release thanks to a theater camcorder boot.

Then there was the Millennium series. I saw Godzilla 2000 in a theater along with just about everyone else. Godzilla X Megagiras came from an Asian (but not Japanese) DVD release. GMK was a theater boot. Godzilla X Mechagodzilla was the official Toho DVD release. I saw Tokyo SOS in a theater at G-Fest in 2004 and I saw Final Wars in a theater in NYC in 2005.

And I guess thats it.

[StreamOfKaijuness]

What Godzilla movies did we all have recorded off TV on VHS?

Of the Showa and Heisei films, just Godzilla vs. Hedorah and King Kong vs. Godzilla, which I taped back-to-back off the SciFi Channel on December 23, 2000. (Props to Terasawa for the broadcast history guide.) That was the first time I ever saw Hedorah but I had rented KKvsG from a local video store several times before then.

I also taped Megaguirus and GMK off the SciFi Channel when they premiered on August 31, 2003, months before Sony released them on DVD. The post-G2K entries in the Millennium Series missed out on the tail end of the VHS era in the US.

Ive always found it amusing when Godzilla fans talk about VHS tapes because when I was old enough to watch the movies Blu Ray already existed. Definitely grateful to have been born at a time when these movies were way more accessible.

I guess your generation's equivalent to VHS tapes recorded off television would be digital downloads, and I guess YouTube and streaming services have largely replaced television as a source for discovering movies.

I do kind of envy how readily available all of this kaiju and Japanese genre content is for new fans today. Still, as a ‘90s kid there was something very rewarding about seeking out physical copies of every Godzilla movie one by one, usually by finding them at various video rental stores.

There was a local mom ’n pop store called Video Express where I rented Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Monster Zero, Godzilla’s Revenge, Godzilla vs. Gigan, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, Terror of Mechagodzilla and Godzilla 1985. That was also where I discovered Rodan sitting on the shelf in the sci-fi section, and it blew my mind to realize that one of Godzilla’s co-stars had his own movie.

There was a Blockbuster Video much further uptown that I didn’t get to visit as often, where I rented Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster, Godzilla vs. Megalon, Godzilla vs. Biollante and Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah for the first time as well as Gorgo and Gamera: Guardian of the Universe.

There was also a chain rental store called Hollywood Video that I went to even less often but that was where I rented Destroy All Monsters and Godzilla vs. Mothra.

Son of Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla, Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster, Godzilla vs. Destroyer, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1993) and finally Godzilla Raids Again were movies that I saw for the first time when I bought official VHS releases. I eventually obtained my own official tapes of the rest of the movies, except Hedorah and KKvsG.

[JAGzilla]

The ape chucks boulders down at them, which are very obviously suspended from strings as they fly toward the camera.

That almost has to be the infamous A*P*E.

Yeah, looks like it. Well, that's an old mystery finally solved, then! Thanks!

[Terasawa]

I do kind of envy how readily available all of this kaiju and Japanese genre content is for new fans today. Still, as a ‘90s kid there was something very rewarding about seeking out physical copies of every Godzilla movie one by one, usually by finding them at various video rental stores.

Amen. It's amazing that I can get online today and find and watch movies I've waited years to see with just a few clicks and Google searches. But nothing matches the anticipation of scanning the weekend paper or other print TV listings and finding a new Japanese monster movie you haven't seen before is scheduled for the coming week. Nor is ordering a movie on Amazon comparable to the thrill of hoping to find a new film at the local video store. The '90s were a fantastic time to be a Godzilla fan in the U.S.

Then in the summer of 1987 a local channel KTSF 26 San Francisco had a "Godzilla Week" from which I got Sea Monster, Megalon, Cosmic Monster, On Monster Island, and GTTHM.

Ironically I think Terasawa still has a copy of some of the KTSF broadcasts I made for him a while back.

[Joseph Goodman]

How many other old farts can recall pestering your parents to stop by out-of-the way video stores in the off chance they may have had a Godzilla video your local store didn't? I recall KoTM being a bit of a pain to find when I was at the age I first got in to Godzilla (circa late 1989).

[Legion1979]

Oh I did that all the time. If I didn't bug my parents to take me to hole-in-the-wall video stores in the 80s it would haven taken me much longer to see movies like The Mysterians, Gorath and Yog, Monster From Space.

[Joseph Goodman]

Oh I did that all the time. If I didn't bug my parents to take me to hole-in-the-wall video stores in the 80s it would haven taken me much longer to see movies like The Mysterians, Gorath and Yog, Monster From Space.

Another little "quirk" of what was available at the time was that while nearly everywhere had the Paramount VHS titles (Godzilla vs Mothra, Monster Zero, and ToMG) for rent, they'd pretty much disappeared from retail by that time... most of what you could buy in stores (easily, as a nine-year-old flush with Nickleodeon sweepstakes cash) was the Video Treasures, New World, and later Orion stuff.

Oddly, I never got around to Mysterians or Gorath as a kid, even though I remember a local Blockbuster having them. They had to wait until I got back in to this stuff during the hype train for G'98.

[G1985]

Ive always found it amusing when Godzilla fans talk about VHS tapes because when I was old enough to watch the movies Blu Ray already existed. Definitely grateful to have been born at a time when these movies were way more accessible.

Kids these days don't even know! Sheeeeeeiittttt

Kids these days, with their bell bottom jeans and their newfangled ways, they'll never know the thrill of having to walk twenty miles through the snow - uphill, mind you - just to visit the nearest Hollywood Video in hopes there would be a Godzilla film available to rent.

And we liked it.

[Legion1979]

Oh I did that all the time. If I didn't bug my parents to take me to hole-in-the-wall video stores in the 80s it would haven taken me much longer to see movies like The Mysterians, Gorath and Yog, Monster From Space.

Another little "quirk" of what was available at the time was that while nearly everywhere had the Paramount VHS titles (Godzilla vs Mothra, Monster Zero, and ToMG) for rent, they'd pretty much disappeared from retail by that time... most of what you could buy in stores (easily, as a nine-year-old flush with Nickleodeon sweepstakes cash) was the Video Treasures, New World, and later Orion stuff.

The original white box Paramount titles were eventually replaced in the early 90s by the Paramount/Gateway releases of the UPA package, which then stayed in print for a long time. Those titles, various Megalon tapes, Goodtimes' KKvsG, Biollante and the Starmaker tapes of Gigan, MG and 85 seemed to be the most abundant in the 90s.

[Rando Yaguchi]

TNT MonsterVision was big for me when I was six or seven years old. My friend's mom taped the entire marathon - she was even kind enough to stop recording during the commercials. We wore those tapes out, man.