Skip to main content

Happy Birthday Gamera!

Today marks Gamera's 56th birthday. He first appeared on the Japanese Daikaiju scene in 1965 as competition for Toho's successful Godzilla series. A giant fire breathing turtle who could fly by hiding in his shell and blowing flames through his arm and leg holes, spinning around around like a flying saucer (and later, jetting around Superman-style with flames shooting from his legs), the first film was a bigger hit than the studio (Daiei) expected, so they continued to release more. Soon enough, Gamera had his own series of movies and set of villain kaiju to battle, including Gyaos (arguably his most famous foe), Barugon, Viras, Jiger, Guiron, and Zigra. 

By 1971, the studio went bankrupt. In 1980, the company New Daiei released Gamera Super Monster, in which they took footage from all the previous movies and used it to create a new story, with a few new added scenes of the star turtle himself. It's considered one of Gamera's worst films, on par with Godzilla's Revenge (which also re-uses old footage). The story about an evil space woman who tries to take over the Earth by sending monsters to attack, and the 3 hero space women who try to stop her is quite ridiculous, yet I've always found that film fun and entertaining, in a so-bad-it's-good sorta way.


Then, in 1995, Gamera returned, in Shusuke Kaneko's fantastic, fun Gamera Guardian of the Universe. He was once again pitted against his greatest foe, Gyaos, and the result was a successful film that kick-started what I consider the greatest kaiju trilogy of all time. Kaneko returned to direct the next two in the series, Gamera II: Advent of Legion (aka Attack of the Legion) and Gamera III: The Incomplete Struggle (aka The Revenge of Irys). Guardian was a throwback to the fun kaiju films of before, while Gamera 2 was a serious, awesome monster film with a great story and impressive action. Gamera 3 was like an art house apocalypse film with monsters. Kaneko was a great director, giving all three movies their own individual styles and touches. The success of these films lead him to get the job of directing 2001's Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, or GMK for short, one of the best Godzilla films ever made.





Gamera's final film was in 2006, with Gamera The Brave. I didn't really care for that movie. It seemed to abandon the more serious, adult themed 90's trilogy for a return to more kid-friendly fare. Gamera is adopted by a young boy as a baby turtle and grows giant, eventually saving him from a monster named Zedus. This monster was very cool, but Gamera looked goofy, like with his large, anime eyes. I just didn't find the movie all that interesting. It opened at #6 at the Japanese box office and became a commercial failure. And thus, we never saw Gamera on the screen again. Though fans like me hope that someday he makes his triumphant return.





Anyway, today is Gamera's birthday, so a big happy 56 to Gamera, my favorite kaiju turtle!


Here's a Scoompa video clip I made, in celebration of his big day.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Titanic Creations Yongary 1967

This figure was released in late December, and I got it about 2 days before the New Year, so I'm counting it as a 2025 release. It is the Titanic Creations version of the Korean kaiju Yongary, Monster From The Deep. The film was released in 1967 as a Godzilla ripoff, with several ideas copied from the Gamera series, such as his tusks, his ability to fire a stream of flames from his mouth, and even firing a laser beam from his horn, similar to the slicing one used by Gyaos. The film is pretty goofy, but Yongary, like most of those Asian monsters, was pretty cool (to me, at least), so I was psyched that someone finally made a figure of this lesser known kaiju. When Titanic Creations put it up for pre-order, they announced a series of tiers, where they would add accessories when a certain number of orders were met. Enough fans ordered him, so that Yongary ended up with a shit ton of stuff, making him absolutely worth the price. In addition to the kaiju, you get a flame breath effect, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

S.H. MonsterArts Godzilla Evolved Version (2024)

Early last week, this figure was delivered. It is the Evolved Godzilla from the film Godzilla vs. Kong: The New Empire, from S.H. MonsterArts. I admit, I haven’t bothered to watch the movie. When I first saw the trailer (about a month after having watched Godzilla Minus One and still being on a high from it), the trailer for The New Empire dropped, and I thought it looked stupid as fuck, especially this bad CGI scene of Godzilla and Kong running towards the camera like superheroes. The rest of it looked like Planet of the Apes, so I chose to pass. However, I do think Godzilla’s new evolved look is pretty cool, so when S.H. MonsterArts announced his figure, I went ahead and preordered it. And now, Pinkzilla is finally here. Godzilla Evolved has a sleeker, leaner body, with a bigger head and pink dorsal spines. His tail ends in pink spikes, like an ankylosaurus. The figure turned out looking great, with the spines painted but also translucent, really standing out from the rest of his bod...
Post a Comment
Read more

RICSAN Custom Toys The Unbelievable (Varan)

For the last few months, I had been seeing photos and YouTube reviews of custom Godzilla kaiju from someone known as RICSAN Customs. He’s a guy in Mexico who makes 3rd party customs of articulated figures that no other company is making. Due to licensing issues, he gives them different names, such as The Dream Ogre and The Infant (Gabara and Minilla), Monster from Odo Island (pre-mutated Godzilla Minus One), Sō Shingeki Serpent (Manda), etc. This one is called The Unbelievable, and is basically the Toho monster from the film Varan (aka Varan the Unbelievable from the English dub). His figures are made of resin and use thick string articulation instead of ball joints (similar to Meego figures). So they are articulated and posable, you just need to be aware that they’ll move differently from standard ball joint figures, so practice a bit more care when handling them. Ok, let’s get the one negative out of the way. He packs his figures in styrofoam, and since that stuff can be sticky, my V...
Post a Comment
Read more