KAIJU IS JAPANESE FOR MONSTER

Hi and thanks for taking a look - my names Robert I've been collecting toys for 20 years - One of my main interests is Kaiju Vinyl Monster Figures from Japan - I collect Vintage figures from 1960's thru the 1980's these are made of hollow thin plastic (referred to as vinyl) and range in size from 3" to 10" tall -

The history of manufacturing of these figures is as follows Marusan (a company well known for making classic tin toys) manufactured some of the earliest and coolest Godzilla figures in the mid 1960's - If you've ever seen the movie "Godzilla's Revenge"(1969)  there is a seen where the kid "Ichiro" is seen playing with a number of vintage Godzilla figures - These figures tend to be of a cruder design , but that crudeness tends to make them much cooler and harder to find they can be found in mini (3') medium (6') and standard size (9") many of this original figures have been reproduced - original by Bullmark in the 1970's, Bandai in the late 1990'S more recently as 3" figures in header carded bags by IWAKURA for the 50th anniversary set

JAPAN ONLY POPY GODZILLA FIGURES and CATALOG PAGE

There are also some great 5 1/2"-6" tall figure produced by POPY Japan - from 1974 thru 1978 this set is fairly uncommon and includes Godzilla, Rodan, MechaGodzilla, Gigan and Mothra along with 18 different Ultraman Monsters , as well as Ultraman figures (will get into Ultraman towards the end) The Popy figures (all except Godzilla) were only available in Japan. In 1978 Mattel lisc'd thru Popy to release "Godzilla's Gang" in the US this set came in header carded Bags (one per figure) and Included a Godzilla manufactured in Taiwan along with 7 Ultraman Monsters. These figures are also known as "Footprint" monsters - because they have footprint marks (each different)  When the POPY Co. later merged into BanDai some of the most prolific Monster production occurred starting in 1983 thru today - Bandai continues to produced every type of Godzilla/Gamera Monster created. Since I have limited shelf space I have left the collecting of these Kaiju figures to my 10 year old son.

JAPAN ONLY POPY ULTRAMAN FIGURES & CATALOG PAGE

. Along with the Godzilla franchise they are also figures produced for the Gamera movies - one of the earliest companies to get the rights to produce these figure was Nitto (well know for remote control vehicles today) they produced a series of 3" tall , medium size 6" and standard size 8" figures as well as 3" tall model kits in the late 1960's/early 1970's. and later bandai.

      3" NITTO GAMERA & GYOAS and very uncommon GAPPA FIGURES (uncommon)

Above photo shows 1980's Takara Mini sparking kaiju figures from GODZILLA , GAMERA and ULTRAMAN also included is a Daimajin sparker - made in the early 1980's  of hard plastic these measure approx. 1 1/2" tall they rev-up and spark out of the mouth and move forward - front row 9lft to rght) Godzilla (Takara DK GREEN) - Godzilla (Takara Light Green) - King Ghidorah (Chriome Gold) - Ultraman - second row (rght to lft) Gigan (Takara) - Godzilla (med. Green) - Gigan (KO) - Godzilla (Blue KO) Ultraman - Third row (lft to rght) - MechaGodzilla (Takara ChromeSilver) - MechaGodzilla (Brown KO) - Red King (Takara) - Angillas (Blue - KO) - Daijimin - Fourth Row (Lft To Right) GiGan - Red King (grey KO) - Gomora (KO) - Gamera (takara)   - I have a total of about 20 different figures including Robots  and always  looking for more (note KO = knock-off)

Another Japanese Godzilla Monster figure producer was the Yamakatsu company they are also known for manufacturing the original japanese Star Wars cards in the late 1970's - The photo above shows 3" Yamakatsu figures the Godzilla's are vinyl one has silver spine the other gold spine paint - the Gigan, Baragon and a bagged Flying Mothra are solid light gray rubber and are in scale with godzilla -  - I have also recently found that Yamakatsu also made 2 different medium sized Godzilla figures (below) one is a 5 3/8" tall Gold spine Godzilla figure and the other a 6" silver spined figure (I don't think they would have been produced at the exact same time) - these figures where produced in 1983 thru 1985 and normally have a "Silver" Godzilla label on their foot. along with these figures thay also produced a 6" tall King Ghidorah - Baragon - Mecha godzilla - MechsKong (vhtf) - Mothra larva and Angillas figures -

above complete 6" yamakatsu Godzilla set

the above photo is of late 1970's-early 1980's POPY 1" tall Godzilla figures shown are Gigan - Mothra larva - Baragon - Baby Godzilla - Kamacuras - Rodan - MechaGodzilla - Ebirah - Godzilla - Hedorah and Ghidorah - colors are yellow - pink - green and mostly blue - I've only been able to locate 11 figure my guess is that they made Angillas and maybe King Seasur - Similar figures were made for the Ultraman series and the Toho movie Space Amoeba (Yog) - these we got on eBay from Italy - not really sure how they might have been packaged (most likely bagged with header card)

As this is a work in progress any additional information appreciated - If you like this please VOTE YES - thank you