Author: John “Dutch” DeSentis
Source: La La Land Records
Special Thanks to Mark Banning

La La Land Records’ GODZILLA 50th ANNIVERSARY EDITION SOUNDTRACK
CD is going out of print this month. Photo courtesy of La La Land
Records. © 1954 Toho Co., Ltd.

La La Land Records has made the announcement on their website that their great 2004 release of Akira Ifukube’s career defining score for GODZILLA (Gojira aka; Godzilla, King of the Monsters, 1954) is going out of print on March 31st. There are reportedly less than 120 copies left in their inventory so fans who missed out on this when it initially came out would do well to act fast. Another great incentive to purchase this CD is that it’s price has been reduced to $4.98!

To order the GODZILLA 50th ANNIVERSARY EDITION, go to lalalandrecords.com/Godzilla.

La La Land’s release boasts a significant upgrade in sound quality and is a no-brainer alternative for fans who cannot afford to track down a rather expensive copy imported from Japan. The only Japanese import still in print is the version from the GODZILLA SOUNDTRACK PERFECT COLLECTION which cannot be bought on its own. The 1993 Toshiba/EMI release as well as the version that came packaged with the score to RODAN are both long out of print.
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Next month Kaiyodo launches a line of highly detailed and articulated figures based on popular science fiction and fantasy characters.
Photos courtesy of Anime Jungle. Alien © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Daimajin © 1966 Kadokawa Pictures, Inc. © 2010 Kaiyodo Co., Ltd.

The Popular Toy Line is Expanded to Include Kaiju and Special Effects Movie Characters
Author: John “Dutch” DeSentis
Translations: Jim Ballard
Source: Anime Jungle
Official Site: kaiyodo.co.jp/revoltech
Special Thanks to Tetsu Shiota

Fans and collectors are probably familiar with the brand Revoltech, which is owned by the Kaiyodo Company of Japan. It is a series of super-articulated figures in the 4-6 inch scale and based on various popular characters from manga, video games, television, film, and anime. The name itself reportedly means “Revolver Technology” as the revolver joint is what gives the figures their super-articulation.

Of interest to kaiju fans is the upcoming line, SCI-FI REVOLTECH, which will showcase popular characters from both east and west. The first figures up for release on April 1st are the Xenomorph from Ridley Scott’s ALIEN and the vengeful god DAIMAJIN from the Daiei movie series of the 1960s, followed on May 1st by Tsuburaya Productions’ friendly beast Booska and Toho’s Baragon (from FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD).
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Source: Monster Attack Team
Special Thanks to Michael G Keller and Edward Holland

Cover for Monster Attack Team Issue 8. Photo courtesy of
MAT. © 2010 Monster Attack Team

After far too long an absence, the popular fanzine Monster Attack Team returns!

Edward Holland and the late Joe Riley began Monster Attack Team (the name taken from the anti-monster team in RETURN OF ULTRAMAN) began in the early 1990s as a fan club for aficionados of Japanese science fiction and fantasy. It soon evolved into a Dallas, Texas cable access television show and a small newsletter that grew to become a fan favorite mag. The print version of Monster Attack Team ran for seven issues, edited by Ed Holland with the assistance of David May and Michael G Keller, and featured articles and contributions by authors such as Ed Godziszewski, Kip Doto, Bob Johnson, Kevin Grays, August Ragone, Daisuke Ishizuka, Norman England, and Damon Foster.

Nearly 15 years after the last issue, Ed Holland and Michael Keller have brought back Monster Attack Team with Issue 8. The editors have rounded up an “all star” group of tokusatsu writers and historians and produced a massive, 132 page edition that matches the quality of those truly great English language genre publications The Japanese Fantasy Film Journal, Markalite, and Japanese Giants.
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Source: VIZ Pictures
Official Movie Site: 20thboysfilms.com (US), 20th Boys (Japanese)
Special Thanks to Rieko Fuji

A SciFi JAPAN EXCLUSIVE

Three SciFi Japan readers have each won a 20TH CENTURY
BOYS 2: THE LAST HOPE Gift Pack containing the DVD,
poster, and button. Photo courtesy of VIZ Pictures.
© 1999, 2006 Naoki Urasawa, Studio Nuts /Shogakukan
© 2009 “20th Century Boys” Film Partners

Thank you to everyone who entered VIZ Pictures and SciFi Japan’s contest for a free 20TH CENTURY BOYS 2 DVD Gift Pack. The following randomly drawn entrants correctly answered all contest questions:

Evan Brehany
Joseph W. Whalen
Wilton E. Newman

Congratulations to the winners! Each of you has won a Gift Pack containing the 20TH CENTURY BOYS 2: THE LAST HOPE DVD, button, and theatrical poster. VIZ Pictures will be shipping the Gift Packs shortly so keep an eye on your mailbox.
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Tokyo crumbles in SINKING OF JAPAN, director Shinji Higuchi’s big budget remake of the Toho classic SUBMERSION OF JAPAN.
Photo courtesy of The Associates. © 2006 “Sinking of Japan” Production Committee

Toho Box Office Hit Coming from MVM Entertainment on March 8th
Source: The Associates press release
Special Thanks to Louise Rivers

UK DVD art for SINKING OF JAPAN. Photo courtesy of The
Associates. © 2006 “Sinking of Japan” Production
Committee

The 2006 disaster film SINKING OF JAPAN (Nihon Chinbotsu) will be released on DVD in the UK next week by MVM Entertainment. The movie is based on the best selling novel Japan Sinks by Sakyo Komatsu, and the previous film adaption, Toho’s blockbuster SUBMERSION OF JAPAN (1973).

SINKING OF JAPAN was a co-production among several companies; most notably Toho and Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS). It was co-written and directed by Shinji Higuchi, the acclaimed FX director on the Heisei Gamera series who has gone on to helm hit films such as LORELEI: THE WITCH OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN (Lorelei, 2005). The special effects were directed by Makoto Kamiya of GODZILLA, MOTHRA AND KING GHIDORAH: GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK (Gojira, Mosura, Kingughidora: Daikaiju Soshingeki, 2001) fame.

The film was a tremendous box office success across Asia. Distributor Tartan USA acquired North American rights and planned to release the movie on Region 1 DVD as DOOMSDAY: THE SINKING OF JAPAN in 2008, but the company went out of business before that could happen. The upcoming UK DVD will finally give Japanese cinema fans in the west a chance to see SINKING OF JAPAN.
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Source: VIZ Media, MediaLab press releases
Special Thanks to Evelyn Dubocq and Erik Jansen

Packaging art for the NARUTO Uncut Season 2 Volume
2 Box Set. Photo courtesy of Warner Home Video.
© 2002 Masashi Kishimoto

VIZ Media, LLC has announced their list of DVD titles scheduled for release in April 2010. This includes the final box set release of NANA, the next episodic releases of the popular BLEACH and NARUTO SHIPPUDEN series, and the latest box set release of NARUTO SHIPPPUDEN.

Also releasing is the live action feature film, K-20: THE FIEND WITH TWENTY FACES, from VIZ Pictures.

VIZ Media DVD titles are distributed (in English) in the U.S and Mexico by Warner Home Video and in Canada by Allegro.
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Japanese bookstores are now selling the Toho SFX DVD Collection which packages classic movies with a collectible booklet.
© 2009 Toho Co., Ltd. © 2009 KK DeAgostini Japan

Author: Ed Godziszewski
Official Site: KK DeAgostini Japan

Cover for Toho SFX DVD Collection Vol 2: MOTHRA VS
GODZILLA. © 1964 Toho Co., Ltd. © 2009 KK DeAgostini Japan

One of the recent trends in Japan is take movie and TV series that have long been marketed on video, LD, and dvd and repackage them a new way to sell them yet again to the public. The preferred approach is to produce a bare bones DVD, bundle them with an A4-size booklet, and introduce a new volume every 3-4 weeks, thus bypassing video sales arrangements and allowing the product to be sold as a book in bookstores.

Always one to look for ways to sell the same movies to collectors many times over, Toho jumped on this bandwagon recently and intends to sell 55 titles from their special effects film catalog. Sold by a company named DeAgostini starting in September of 2009, the Toho SFX DVD Collection has been a huge seller in its first few months, moving well over 200,000 units of each of the 11 titles released to date. Not bad for films, many of which have had at least at least 6 different home video releases over time.

So what do you get for your ¥1990 (roughly $22 at today’s exchange rate) per volume?
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Eighteen Classics to Screen During Festival at Stanford Theater
Source: Stanford Theater, akirakurosawa.com

Director Akira Kurosawa, ca. 1952. Photo courtesy of the
Margaret Herrick Library.

The historic Stanford Theater in Palo Alto, California reopens this weekend after remodeling and is off to a huge and auspicious start. Beginning February 20 and running through March 30, the theater will feature an Akira Kurosawa Film Festival.

The festival will feature no less than eighteen of Kurosawa’s classic films, starting with THE SEVEN SAMURAI, considered by many to be the greatest film ever to come out of Japan. Also on the schedule are such films as RASHOMON, THE BAD SLEEP WELL, IKIRU, THE LOWER DEPTHS, HIGH AND LOW, KAGEMUSHA, SANJURO, THRONE OF BLOOD, and RAN.
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Burning Godzilla roars over the crowd at Winter WonderFest 2010. Photo by Ed Godziszewski. © 1995 Toho Co., Ltd.

A Look at the Winter Model and Toy Collectors Show Held in Tokyo on February 7, 2010
Author: Ed Godziszewski
Official Site: Wonder Festival

Owing to an accident in 2008 which occurred at the Tokyo Big Sight, former home of Wonder Festival, this biannual mega collectors event was canceled for the year 2009. But after securing a new venue at Makuhari Messe, WonderFest is back and bigger than ever.

Ed Godziszewski presents a look Winter WonderFest with nearly three dozen photos of the latest Godzilla, Gamera, and Ultraman collectibles coming from Japan.
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Get the 20TH CENTURY BOYS 2: THE LAST HOPE DVD and More for Free, Courtesy of VIZ Pictures and SciFi Japan
Source: VIZ Pictures
Official Movie Site: 20thboysfilms.com (US), 20th Boys (Japanese)
Special Thanks to Rieko Fuji

A SciFi JAPAN EXCLUSIVE

VIZ Pictures is offering SciFi Japan readers the chance to
win a 20TH CENTURY BOYS 2: THE LAST HOPE Gift Pack
containing the DVD, poster, and button. Photo courtesy
of VIZ Pictures. © 1999, 2006 Naoki Urasawa, Studio Nuts
/Shogakukan © 2009 “20th Century Boys” Film Partners

The popular 20TH CENTURY BOYS (20-Seki Shonen) live-action movie trilogy is now being released on Region 1 DVD by VIZ Pictures and VIZ Media. The films are based on the critically acclaimed 20th Century Boys manga series created by Naoki Urasawa, which is a national phenomenon in Japan, selling over 20 million copies to date. The 20TH CENTURY BOYS movies were released in Japan by Toho and quickly shot to the top of the domestic box office. The three films made their US premieres at the VIZ Cinema in San Francisco in August of 2009.

VIZ Pictures and SciFi Japan now follow up December’s 20TH CENTURY BOYS 1: BEGINNING OF THE END Gift Pack Giveaway with a new contest for the second film in the series, 20TH CENTURY BOYS 2: THE LAST HOPE. SciFi Japan readers in the United States and Canada have a chance to win one of three Gift Packs, each with the 20TH CENTURY BOYS 2: THE LAST HOPE DVD, the US theatrical poster, and a 20TH CENTURY BOYS button.

The 20TH CENTURY BOYS 2: THE LAST HOPE DVD will be available for purchase on February 16th. The suggested retail price is $24.92.
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Covers for the DVD, DVD Memorial Box and Blu-ray editions of ULTRA GALAXY: MEGA MONSTER BATTLE ©2010 Bandai Visual

New Ultraman Movie On DVD & Blu-ray In Japan With English Subtitles
Author: Jim M. Ballard
Official Movie Site: Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy
Source: Bandai Visual

The latest Ultraman movie MEGA MONSTER BATTLE: ULTRA GALAXY (Daikaiju Batoru Urutora Ginga Densetsu THE MOVIE) will be released on DVD and Blu-ray in Japan on April 23 and will feature English subtitles. The DVD editions will be Region 2 encoded (only compatiable with DVD players in Japan, Europe and other Region 2 countries), while the Blu-ray disc will be fully compatiable with Blu-ray players in North America.
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Special Theatrical Screening Planned for February 9th; DVD Arrives on February 16th
Source: VIZ Media, MediaLab press releases
Official Movie Site: 20thboysfilms.com (US), 20th Boys (Japanese)
Special Thanks to Evelyn Dubocq and Erik Jansen

DVD cover art for the North American release of 20TH
CENTURY BOYS 2: THE LAST HOPE. Photo courtesy of VIZ
Pictures. © 1999, 2006 Naoki Urasawa, Studio Nuts
/Shogakukan © 2009 “20th Century Boys” Film Partners

VIZ Pictures, an affiliate of VIZ Media, LLC that focuses on Japanese live-action film distribution, will release the science fiction feature 20TH CENTURY BOYS 2: THE LAST HOPE (20-Seiki Shonen: Dai 2 Sho- Saigo no Kibo, 2009) on DVD on February 16th in North America through its distributor, VIZ Media. 20TH CENTURY BOYS will carry a MSRP of $24.92 US / $35.99 CAN.

The 20TH CENTURY BOYS saga is based on Naoki Urasawa’s manga series, 20th Century Boys (published in the US by VIZ Media), which has become a national phenomenon in Japan, selling over 20 million copies of the 24 volumes. Urasawa is the creator of many famous works such as the hit manga series, Monster and Pluto also published in the US by VIZ Media.

In 20TH CENTURY BOYS 2: THE LAST HOPE it is 2015, and “Friend” rules a disturbing new world. Kenji has been missing since the Bloody New Year’s Eve of 2000, and his niece Kanna is now in high school. Her history textbook contains a fabricated story about Kenji and his friends being the terrorists behind the horrific events of 2000. Kanna, knowing the truth, openly resents this, and as a result she is marked as a problem child by her teacher and sent to the Friend Land program because of her anti-Friend behavior.
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For nearly 30 years, Bandai has been producing and amazing variety of vinyl figures based on characters from the Godzilla, Toho, and Gamera films.
Photos courtesy of Mike Russo, Bob Johnson, and John DeSentis. © Toho Co., Ltd. © Bandai Co., Ltd.

An Overview and Price Guide for the Bandai Godzilla Toy Market
Author: John “Dutch” DeSentis
Special Thanks Mike Russo, Jean Carbajal, Brandon Shields, Bob Johnson, Greg Cordaro, Andy Shields, and James Bond

A SciFi JAPAN EXCLUSIVE

Tag for Bandai’s Godzilla 1984, one of the earliest
figures released in “The Godzilla Collection”.
© 1984 Toho Co., Ltd. © 1984 Bandai Co., Ltd.

Welcome to the market overview and price guide to Bandai Godzilla collectibles. The Bandai Company for decades now has been the standard for producing toys based on popular Japanese characters; they are essentially the Mattel of Japan. As it pertains to this article, they began producing toys based on characters in the Godzilla Series in 1983. Over the years since, both the output and quality of the company has steadily increased. The figures themselves are made of vinyl and have been primarily produced in two sizes, 6 inch and 8 inch scale, with the 8 inch scale being the most popular with collectors. There are also larger figures which vary between the 14 and 24 inch scale.

The decision to focus on the Bandai market is due to the company’s immense popularity among Godzilla fans and a general need to know where the toys currently stand as far as pricing and rarity. We have done research and kept our eyes on general trends from sales on the internet and at shows throughout the year such as G-Fest (the annual celebration of Godzilla and Toho Sci-Fi), the San Diego and New York Comic-Cons, Chiller Theater (the legendary toy and horror film expo in New Jersey), and other collector shows and marketplaces such as Frank & Son (in California) and the like. We also keep our eye on shops in the major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Finally, we also go to the people closest to the toys— dealers and collectors— to get their opinions and observations.

Also included in this market report is pricing on GODZILLA-related Bandai figures such as the REBIRTH OF MOTHRA trilogy, the GAMERA series, and even Toho’s YAMATO TAKERU (OROCHI THE EIGHT HEADED DRAGON). We are not, however, pricing DX (deluxe), battery operated, or candy toys. This article strictly covers the standard figures in their various scales.
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A Look at the International Model and Toy Show Held in Tokyo on January 10, 2010
Author: Ed Godziszewski
Official Site: Super Festival

Prototypes for the new Marmit Destoroyah and Burning Godzilla figures. Photo
by Ed Godziszewski.

In years past, it used to be a big deal to attend toy shows such as Super Festival— each show yielded not only its share of exclusive items, but they were a expeditious way to accomplish a good deal of shopping all in one place. Rather than spending time and train fare scurrying about Tokyo, Super Festival offered one-stop shopping where you could find not only most every current item, but also a nice selection of vintage (and sometimes otherwise unheard of) items.

Due to a change in my business trip schedule, it had been almost 6 years since the last time I attended Super Festival, so attending this most recent incarnation this past January 10 impressed upon me just how much times have changed.
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Three SciFi Japan readers have each won a 20TH CENTURY BOYS 1:
BEGINNING OF THE END Gift Pack containing the DVD, poster, and button.
Photo courtesy of VIZ Pictures. © 1999, 2006 Naoki Urasawa, Studio Nuts
/Shogakukan. © 2008 “20th Century Boys” Film Partners

Source: VIZ Pictures
Official Movie Site: 20thboysfilms.com (US), 20th Boys (Japanese)
Special Thanks to Rieko Fuji

A SciFi JAPAN EXCLUSIVE

Thank you to everyone who entered VIZ Pictures and SciFi Japan’s contest for a free “20TH CENTURY BOYS DVD Otoshi-dama Gift Packs”. The following randomly drawn entrants correctly answered all contest questions:

Stephanie Chaplin
Robert Sroka
Abel Castro Montero

Congratulations to the winners! Each of you has won a Gift Pack containing the 20TH CENTURY BOYS 1: BEGINNING OF THE END DVD, button, and theatrical poster. VIZ Pictures will be shipping the Gift Packs shortly so keep an eye on your mailbox.
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