Posts Tagged ‘kaiju’

• Kaiju toys

  Date: 2010.01.28 | Category: Comic Books | Response: 0

  Kaiju means “strange beast” in Japanese, and in pop culture, refers to the monsters that are part of the old Japanese movies, books and comics. From these movies and comics came some of the coolest collectible toys in the world – kaiju toys. These toys are collected by men and children alike, and their value can be quite high depending on their age and how rare they are.

  

  Ultraman toys

  The most famous of these is Godzilla, a beast who appeared in many of his own movies, starting as far back as 1954. In the 70s, Marvel made their own comic about Godzillla. The first one was 24 issues, titled “Godzilla: King of Monsters” and solidified Godzilla´s fame in the United States (he was previously only popular in Japan). In the 1980s and 1990s, Dark Horse published their own comics with Godzilla.

  By this point, Godzilla was well-known throughout the world, and had been created into dozens collectible toys as well. You can actually purchase the original 24 issues in one large book, called “Essential Godzilla.” If you are at all a fan of this super kaiju, this is definitely worth reading.

  Now, when it comes to kaiju, Godzilla, and Japanese pop culture, one cannot fail to mention the importance of Ultraman. Many argue his movies and comics sparked the beginning of kaiju craze as it is today, and compare him to the American Superman ***Please note: This Ultraman is NOT to be confused with the Ultraman from the DC comics who was Superman´s archvillain nor should he be confused with the father son combo that were both called Ultra-Man in the 40s. Both of these comics were based on an American created Ultraman).

  The Japanese Ultraman was created by the same person who created Godzilla, back in the 1950s. He is an alien that came from outer space who, while flying around the universe, crashed into a human spacecraft and killed the pilot. He revived the pilot by using his life force, which caused him to become the pilot. From then on, he travels the universe fighting the evil kaiju. One of these kaiju is Godzilla, hence the connection between the two.

  Ultraman continues to be one of the great superheroes of all time. There are thousands of collectible Ultraman toys and some classic movies and TV series. He has not appeared often in comics, although there were two short series done by Harvey Comics Entertainment and more recently, Dark Horse published a comic adaptation of the Ultraman series known as Ultraman Tiga. It is 10 issues long, and is all about Ultraman battling with the various kaiju attacking the world. It is a great read with some killer art!

  If you are not familiar with Ultraman, Godzilla, and other kaiju, I highly recommend you watch some of the classic Godzilla and Ultraman movies. This is truly where kaiju began, and watching these classics will help you understand more about current Ultraman series, and all about Godzilla, one of the greatest monsters of all time.

  Diego is a big fan of Japanese pop culture, and is especially interested in kaiju toys. You can visit his site for more information.