Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

I know this is old news but even though it's been out since 2007, I still find the Classic Media Godzilla Collection boxset a joy... We were so fortunate to have 7 of the Showa-era Godzilla films getting the ultimate treatment! (Even though "Gojira" was to later be superseded by a Criterion edition)



I understand it's been rereleased. How many times? Looks like it's OOP too.

I love the presentation of the discs. The menus, the features, etc are all great. But the actual audio and video of the movies themselves might actually be the worst among the most current editions of the various films.
The Criterion release of Gojira, the Kraken blu rays of the Showa films, the Sony blu-rays of the Heisei and Millennium films, the Sony DVDs of Son of G and Mechagodzilla 74, and the Media Blasters releases of Destroy All Monsters and Megalon are all better when it comes to the actual films.

I love everything else about this set though.

I believe it was only released 2 times. I may be wrong however. I love the first set, with all the individual films in those nice book-like cases, and original poster art. The 2nd set with just the 2 standard DVD cases is not nearly as impressive. I just saw this at Frys recently, they are still out there.

It's definitely one of my most cherished items. I live in the south and if there's ever another Katrina-level storm and we have to evacuate it's definitely going to be one of the first things I grab up, along with Criterion's Godzilla. I don't know what that says about me.

I'm still crossing my fingers for a Showa Godzilla set from Criterion, especially after they released the Zatoichi and Long Wolf & Cub films. I would absolutely lose my mind.

Heck I'd even settle for a set from Eclipse- It may be the only way we get GRA, MvD, GTTHM, GvMZ ,GR ,& TOMG on Blu Ray.

After the fandom threw a fit over the Gojira packaging, it left a really sour taste in Criterion's mouth. All the work that was put into the set and they got loaded with complaints about the artwork. I don't think they'll ever get involved with Godzilla stuff again.

If, and that's a mighty big "if", Criterion goes in for more Godzilla movies, keeping the list very short besides Mothra vs Godzilla I'd like to see King Kong vs Godzilla and Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla.

A Criterion release of KKvG might be the only way we'll ever see Toho's restoration of their original cut outside of Japan. I'm not sure what Universal might have in their archive storage, if anything exists I'd like to think Criterion could uncover extant elements to use for a restoration of Universal's cut and even improve on Toho's restoration of the original cut.

Looks like I really need to jump in and snag a copy of Classic Media's Godzilla Collection. I waited on the initial nice boxed release and missed out on it, and I've hoped over the last few years that CM would roll out blu-ray releases of the movies. Perhaps with the DVD collection apparently going OOP Classic Media is finally going to release the movies on blu-ray, especially when Warner Brothers has a full slate of movies in their Godzilla universe and now Toho appearing to have multiple movies lined up too.

I'd also like to throw Ghidrah, Mothra, and Rodan out there as being worthy of the Criterion treatment.

So I watched ToMG and MZ the other night and noticed that the special features said the original Japanese trailers but it wasn't on either disc. I do have the first issue that came in the nice boxset was that a misprint or what?

The first pressings of All Monsters Attack and Terror of Mechagodzilla were missing their trailers, but that was eventually corrected. This is the first time I've heard that MZ/Astro-Monster is affected too.

Upon rechecking my Monster Zero disc, I see that the "Original Japanese Trailer" (Champion Matsuri trailer) is only accessible on the menu for the Japanese version, not the US version. Your copy might be the same way, Tom. I also got the box set not long after it was first released.

I just checked, it was under the Japanese special features on MZ. I must have been on the English version when I initially checked. So it's just AMA and ToMG that are missing the trailers in the first pressing?