Your first Internet Godzilla experience, alt.movies.monster

[rockstarbd82]

Good ole Tokyo Monsters was probably my first back in 2002 or 03. James Ballard had a great and informative site with lots of clips and trivia I indulged myself in, but after the trolling over took it around 2005sh and I got tired of reading/dealing with it, I switched to the Atari Godzilla forum which was the only forum I think I could deem literally "drama-free" and "troll-free" (at least everytime I was on it.) Tim Harris who ran it was an amazing and level headed guy (still is) and didn't allow drama and gang ups. Unfortunately now that site is gone too. As far as Barry's Temple of Godzilla is concerned, I unf discovered that site several years too late, however I feel bad because every review he's posted (minus GvsSeaMonster and GvsMegagurias) I can honestly say I'm in full agreement with (esp with his critiques on GMK and GFW.)

[Silver Kamen]

Although it did not cover Godzilla, The Henshin Hall of Fame just came to mind; that was one of my first experiences. Stuart really did alot of great work on that; shame it shut down.

[klen7]

i remember messaging some guy on ebay about a Godzilla figure and how to tell if it was a bootleg... they responded with a link to ClubTokyo... and my mind was blown... and my collecting has never been the same since.

[Benjamin Haines]

[Hybrid Gojira]

[rockstarbd82]

[H-Man]

[Gman2887]

I don't know if Wayback stretches all the way back to 1994, which is around when I first saw Mark's Godzilla Page. Most of the stuff I find on it now days are vague farewells on abandoned websites. Mark Meloon was a pioneer for us. Really dug his page back in the day.

[Russzilla]

[Shanai]

I'm a bit surprised to have seen no mention (unless I seemed to have missed it) of the G Project message board. I think that was my first forum after the relatively short-lived Kaiju Fan forums.

That said, since it died off around 2002/2003, guess it would have slipped through most people's memories.

[daikaijusaurus]

Wow, this is an awesome post! Brings back a lot of memories

Okay, so my first Godzilla internet experience was waay back in 1996 when I saw this segment on TV about Mark Meloon's Godzilla page:



I think that was the first Godzilla website on the internet and had a lot of great info and pictures on the Hesei series.

I then started corresponding with him, sending him some of my fan Godzilla art to post to his website. It wasn't too long after until I learned to create my own Godzilla page on Geocities called Godzilla's Domain. I'm not sure if anyone here remembers it but it became really popular and people from all over the world were sending me their own fan art and fan fiction to post on my site. I took down Godzilla's Domain years ago after life became too busy to post the massive amounts of fan art/fiction I was getting on a daily basis, but I had a lot of fun with that site and made some good friends.

And to my surprise my site still exists in the old web archives:



If you put your mouse over the buildings and on Godzilla's mouth and spikes you'll see some cool surprises!

I never got into the Godzilla news groups, but I was a big fan of Barry's Temple of Godzilla, Godzilla News (which became Monster Zero) and others that came and went.

Now the Godzilla sites that I visit most often are Monster Zero (of course), Skreeonk and Kaiju Addicts.

[Joseph Goodman]

I think that the first actual Godzilla forum I joined was the Universal Thread Godzilla forum. That site was an IT tech support site, and the owner, for whatever reason, decided to open a Godzilla subforum. Barry, Conster, and other internet fandom "names" posted there, if I recall correctly. I don't think it was up for more than six months or so (this was in the summer of '97).

[canofhumdingers]

That video was fun. I found Mark Meloon's Godzilla page the first time I can remember ever getting on the internet. I had gone to a relative's house to do research for some middle school paper I had to write & they were the only ones we knew with access to the amazing World Wide Web. After 15 or 20 minutes of "research" I got bored & decided to see what else was out there. Godzilla was the first thing I searched for.

I had very limited and sporadic internet access after that until we got a new computer and got AOL in '96 or maybe '97. Mark's page was already gone by then I think, but I quickly found Barry's Temple. Somewhere in that time I also remember Conster's museum or whatever it was called. I remember thinking that site was confusing b/c I remember it being either Conster's or Connie's at various times.

But Barry's Temple was where it was at. It was when he posted that leaked GINO sculpt that I first heard about Monster Zero or Godzilla's News or whatever it was called back then. I don't know when exactly I signed up to the message board, but I'm fairly certain it was before G2000 was released in Japan and might have even been before GINO came out in '98. I was certainly following the site for all the updates on GINO's production once I discovered it and I know I at least looked into the message board whether I signed up right away or not.

At any rate, this was the first message board I ever signed up for and remains one of the few I actively use. I've been a member of every iteration from the late 90's on, though I've never been all that active of a poster. I'm pretty sure I just lurked and hardly posted anything, if at all, those first few years. Even so, I have been reading this board nearly everyday for at least 14 years now... Man I suddenly feel old....

[angilas]

Mine was definitely Mark's/Mel's Godzilla page in 93/94 (I think he changed the name once). I was already a huge Godzilla fan at 8 years old and had collected or taped a number of Godzilla films since first seeing KKvG and G85 at a few months of age (though my memory only goes back to when I was 2 watching TOMG in th ebasement with my dog after renting it). I thought I had collected them all and that G85 was the last film. From Mark's page I learned of Destroy All Monsters, G v. Biollante, GvKG, and GvMothra 92, as well as GvMG 93 which I think was in theaters in Japan at the time.

I had sort of already heard of Biollante, but knew the codename for GvMG 74 was Godzilla vs the Bionic Monster. Back then I would flip through my tv guide to see if there were any Godzilla Movies I was missing coming on to tape, and one time I thought I saw that listed on HBO (which I did not get), and assumed I must have misread and it was Bionic. But otherwise I figured the series ended in 85 and the last glimmer of hope of new films rested on the American film which had yet to select DeBont ( I remember first hearing a news report on it in 92 late night news, but this wouldve ended in dissapointment by 1998).

I ordered all except Biollante from an import site mark's page linked too (well beyond a statute of limitations now so its fine). They didnt have biollante for some reason and it took me a while to find it. Was weird to hear Godzilla was driven to his resting place at the start of KG when he fought Biollante (and I think either Mark's or the only other Goji site I stumbled on had a horrible review for it though I kind of knew the plot) but I enjoyed the first two 90s films despite their terrible dubs, but felt satisfied after the conclusion to GvM92, as did my brother, though the conclusion to GvKG had us desperate for more. DAM was great (this was probably Christmas 93 if I remember correctly, maybe 94). I waited for mgII to come out dubbed since I didnt trust the unknown that was subs. But by the time GvSG came out on bootleg sub I gave up and just ordered the dub for Biollante and the sub for the 93 and 94 film and went sub ever since. The preview for G:GOTU on the SG tape had me intrigued (I had grown up watching many of the back to back Godzilla Gamera movies on tv), then Mark had the preview for GvDestroyah. At that point I subscribed to G-Fan with my grandmas help, got a nice handwritten note from JD Lees, branched out to Barry's ( I remember he used to have a chatroom) and Connie's sites (remember shooting her an email that I was an 11 year old g-fan who enjoyed the site and wanted a figure she had or something and in her response she thought I wrote I was 2 and she thought it was a scam though we cleared it up), later Here (was the best place for 98 news and Aaron was the man RIP), toho kingdom, City of Masers (you can't write maser followed by city, but I posted on that board too and met a couple members), Rodan's Roost, tokyo monsters (Ballard helped me out with clips before) and even Earth Baragon where I shot some Kaiju Music Vids when they were big in the early 2000s (even won a competition they had but youtube shut us down years later). Made it to one GFest etc. but Mark's site definitely had an influence on my life. had I gone on the internet and found no new info on Godzilla back at the height of my youth and interest, other than bad reviews for Biollante calling it "Godzilla faces off against an oversized flower," I may have never become the fan of Godzilla or as immersed in Japanese culture as I am today. Hoping this next film does well and generates even more fans for the future. I also credit mark with GvMGII being the top ranked Hesei film in fandom at least until we came to our senses. And it does have some cool points, new ray (wondered if it'd ever go back to blue or if they'd forget the new one, at least spacegodzilla answered that) awesome super robot superMG, official score, and the last film before super godzilla and godzilla's greatest battles so it spawned 2 of the best goji games (MOM and DAMM series being better IMO).

[O.Supreme]

[Godzilla21]

[Russzilla]

^^ Anyone know what Barry's up to these days? I mean, he never "officially" shut down or ended Barry's Temple of Godzilla.

[Benjamin Haines]

[Russzilla]

[angilas]

Anyone remember how Mark used to list all the battles Godzilla had and how he'd have a results?
KK - Kaiju Kill
KO- Kaiju knockout
KR- Kaiju Retreat
KT- Kaiju Tie
KI- Kaiju bout indeterminate or something to that effect

and maybe some others.

The ones I wanted corrected were a KR for Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla first battle (or maybe it was a KO..either way they were saying Godzilla, not mechagodzilla was the one who lost). I said should have been a KT since MG had to fly back for repairs and it seemed like Godzilla had to swim somewhere for healing and upgrades. Also while I was happy with the KI for KKvG, the one for Godzilla and Rodan vs Ghidorah in the second battle in Monster Zero made no sense. Ghidorah obviously retreated. \/\/ Jelly I see your post below but my next post is my last for the year now that I've seen the trailer in theatres, and my second to last before I see the film, It sounds dumb but sticking to my guns is the way I keep disciplined in all walks of life. Anyway interesting, never thought it'd get that heated. No offense to those who thought otherwise, just seemed clear to me the intention, otherwise wouldn't ghidorah have stayed on earth to raze it to the ground, instead of turning tail to space like he did in GTTHM?

[DannyBeane]

I remember when I first got internet in 1997. I was 12 years old. The first website my families computer went to was Godzilla.com for the 1998 movie. Then Barry's Temple, Conster's Godzilla page, in 1998 I discovered the old Monster Zero (fanscape?) forums. Most my time though from 2001 to about 2004 was spent on Rodan's Roost, Tokyo Monsters and some site.

[jellydonut25]

[Hellspawn28]

The official website for GINO back in 1998. I was seven years old and I used to go on AOL a lot at the time.

[The Top Crusader]

I remember being at my mom's workplace before we had internet at home and randomly searching for Godzilla... Haha, I was going to say "Googled" Godzilla but back then it was probably AOL search or something. I don't remember any specific websites from doing that, though. Once we got on the internet at home, I found Monster Zero fairly quickly, I think it was on the Fandom sites then? So that's the first Godzilla website that I officially recall being on. It was after G'98 was out, it must have been in 1999 because Godzilla 2000 wasn't out yet, but it was the hot topic of conversation. I remember being really excited to learn a new Toho produced Godzilla film was being made. I remember having to ask what "GINO" was because that was still being discussed a lot, and I had no idea what anyone was talking about at first.

In the wake of the '98 film, I was fortunate enough to find a book about Godzilla that covered the Heisei series, otherwise I would've been completely awe struck once I got on the internet. I can't recall the author of the book, it wasn't one of the names that tends to crop up frequently in Godzilla books and film commentaries, etc. I think the book cover was mostly purple. I'm sure it's in a box somewhere in my basement now, but I remember the binding fell apart so it was mostly loose pages. ...but that has nothing to do with Godzilla websites, so...

[Bluejira]