How much do you love the Trendmasters line?

[GFan]

[Hesei]

[gforever]

[GFan]

[Hesei]

[gforever]

[Hesei]

Apparently, in 1999, Trendmasters announced that they would finally release Doom Island, but the way I understand it, the GINO affair hit them pretty hard. Then there was dwindling support from retailers and other failing projects. From what I heard, they released most of the Doom Island stuff overseas in limited quantities, and very little made it here. The last Trendmasters employee I spoke with told me that the license from Toho expired and that's why they picked up the Gamera rights. I guess after GINO, Toho was too pissed to extend the contract, or Trendmasters was simply dying and couldn't afford it. I could be wrong, though. I haven't researched it, so I'm going off what I've heard and my talks with Trendmasters employees.

Side note here (and I honestly don't mean to change the subject-again):
Is the Banadi Creation line doing well? I see that Toys R Us out here restocks them every 3-6 weeks. Target sells out too, but the dumbasses restock every 2 months or something. I'm not the biggest fan of them, but it would be nice to see another successful line stateside.

[GFan]

[buddah11674]

[Baltan II]

On a slight tangent, I'm amazed it's survived so long, because I've read and reread it so many times as a kid, I'm afraid I would rip it apart, but I still have a nice and informative letter from Trendmasters.

When I was a kid, I couldn't really purchase many of the Godzilla figures, but I drooled over them every time I went to stores. I liked them all, but childhood favorites like the "Giant Mantis," "Giant Spider," (I didn't know Kamacuras and Kumonga by name, not even their dubbed ones), Megalon or Gigan were nowhere to be seen! So I wrote a letter, asking them to make more monsters.

Trendmasters not only replied to a letter sent by some little kid on yellow legal-pad paper, they essentially told me their entire lineup of new monsters, dates included. I don't think they're accurate to the information we know now, but Trendmasters clearly knew what they were doing. Biollante, Gigan, and Battra were early ones mentioned (and we know all about those) and I think it even went so far as Kumonga. Interestingly enough, though I don't know for sure, I think the letter even mentioned Manda.

The next time I get a chance, I'll transcribe or MAYBE even scan the letter, official Trendmasters letterheading and all.

[Hesei]

That's pretty cool. I believe they did get the rights to Manda, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was in there. Didn't they also get the rights to King Seesar? I keep wanting to say Minya and Gabara, but that may be wishful thinking that took over (even though those are my 2 least favorite monsters other than Mothra, lol). Hope you can find the letter. I'd love to see that.

By the way, what happened to Trendmasters? Anyone know who bought them up?

[gforever]

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

[Hesei]

[Baltan II]

[Hesei]

[GFan]

[Dagarah72]

The first Godzilla figure someone bought me was a Trendmaster, so it's special. Otherwise, i've never been a big fan of their figures, they were too goofy and inaccurate for me! The only 2 exceptions were Space Godzilla which I thought was a better sculpt than Bandai and their version of Viras which looks nice and menacing.


Ricky

[Legacy_Of_Gamera]

[Baltan II]

[GFan]

Mega sweet! Thanks for posting that, Giganzilla!

Here's what could have been:
Anguirus
Baby Godzilla
Hedorah
Gabara
Kamacuras
Kumonga
Manda
Ebirah

::drools:: That would have been SO great if they were made... ::sigh::

Varan, Baragon and Megalon barely made it out (I managed to grab Baragon at least), then Destroyah & Kamakiras were at least prototyped. With Anguirus & Kumounga for the Power-Up line. I'm sure Ebirah, Manda and Hedorah would have looked super bad-ass!

[GiganGoji]

[gforever]

[Legion]

[Baltan II]