by franzilla » Sat May 22, 2004 6:27 pm
I had seen up to Biollante when I was in the sixth grade (94-95) when the Trendmasters Godzilla toys hit the shelves. I was all over them. I thought the change in designs of monsters and their origins on the backs of the boxes were strictly done by the toyline. Also, I thought Mecha King Ghidorah was a TM creation(the same with Battra and especially SpaceG the next year, though I was getting suspicious).
Late next spring/early summer ('96) I was reading the letters section of one of Dark Horse's Godzilla comics when a line in one of the letters shook the foundations of my thirteen year old world. It went something like this:
"The Cybersaur is an awesome monster, much cooler than the new Mechagodzilla from the new movie with Rodan and Baby Godzilla."
NEW GODZILLA MOVIE????? I was thrilled/excited/elated/amazed. I called this store in downtown Pgh called Eides Entertainment (where my mom and dad had told me they had seen Japanese Godzilla toys before), and talked to the guy on the phone. I asked him about G-movies post-Biollante and he told me there were five. Suddenly everything about the TM line clicked. The new monsters, the different origins, they all made sense. Of course he told me that Godzilla had died in the latest movie, which bummed me out but didn't ruin my day because ... FIVE NEW GODZILLA MOVIES FOR ME TO SEE. He also told me about Gamera's revival.
Later that summer on August 8th, the day after my 14th birthday, I went down to Eides and picked up Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, Godzilla vs Mothra (the only two they had dubbed, for I was not sold on subtitles at the time), plus Bandai Gamera 95 and Minya (I had gotten Super Gyaos the day before). I also picked up my first G-Fan (the one with Gamera, Gyaos, and Legion on the cover) which further brought me into the world of knowledgable G-fandom. Plus, I had searched for Godzilla on the internet and found Mark Malone's (sp?) Godzilla site earlier in the spring.
I got over my fear of subtitles, and got the last three Heisei movies for Christmas. I remember the night before at midnight mass, I was just daydreaming about all the new Godzilla action I would be watching the next day... I couldn't wait. And it turned out that I ended up preferring the subtitled movies over the dubbed ones.
That's the end of my long road to discovery of the unreleased Heisei movies.