The IMPERIAL GODZILLA Figures (Imperial, 1985/1992) part ONE

 

This is another post that is going to fill several gaps in our Vintage American Godzilla Items list.  Somehow, this legendary Godzilla item hasn't been featured around here, but today's the day to fix that.

Just as the Aurora model kit represented the Godzilla fan of the 1960's, and the Shogun Warriors Godzilla defined the fan of the 1970's, if you grew up in the 1980's (even if you only had one Godzilla toy), you had an Imperial Godzilla.  There was an onslaught of items around the time of GODZILLA 1985's release (unlike today, products didn't have to be slavishly specific to the film or its exact events, or be driven by corporate dictums), and Imperial Toys was there in every grocery, toy, and drug store, with a whole range of products (you can see their other items at the page linked above).  

Chunky and nearly indestructible, the largest of the Imperial Godzillas was "12 & 1/2 inches tall," according to the manufacturer's sell-sheet.  He was posable, towered over your other figures and dinosaurs, and accompanied many a kid to the sandbox, backyard, and probably even bathtub (I knew some weird kids).  One huge advantage he had over your other, cheaper dinosaurs was that other toys and their weapons couldn't go down his throat and get stuck.  The back of his throat was walled off, which was a nice touch.

There are two variations to this big figure (collectors often call him "12-inch," since that is an existing scale of figures and it rolls off the tongue much easier), and that all has to do with the under-the-foot stamp, which either says MADE IN CHINA or MADE IN HONG KONG.  I will admit to you that for years I thought they were pretty much the same...until I moved them to the same shelf, and I discovered this:

Can you see it? The following picture shows it better:

They aren't the same height! My mind is still blown.  Of course, the Hong Kong model is a brighter green, too, but it measures 12 & 3/8 inches tall, while the China variant measures a full 13 inches (measurements that, we should point out, fall on both sides of the manufacturer's officially stated height)!

The tails look a little different (which is difficult to photograph), but I think this is because the Hong Kong Godzilla is a reduced version of the China one, which means the tail is shorter.  I guess it's obvious that there would be different molds, but you would think that they would all have been identical...then again, anything's possible in the world of inexpensive toys.  Imperial was basically a rack & dimestore toy manufacturer when they got this license. As I find myself saying a lot around this blog, we solve some mysteries here, but we create others.  Here are the feet of the two figures:

The HONG KONG figure has the Imperial Toys logo and the "MADE IN" information on his RIGHT foot, and on the LEFT, "c 1985 Toho Co. Ltd"...

...while the CHINA figure has the Imperial Toys logo and "MADE IN" on his LEFT foot, and the "c 1985 Toho Co. Ltd" on his RIGHT.

Who knew, all these years, that they were different heights?  The 6-inch figures don't have this issue.  Here is a better look at the hang tag that came on these figures in 1985:

By the way, the tag for the 6-inch figure was slightly smaller.

In 1992, Imperial re-issued both the "12" and 6-inch Godzilla figures.  No changes were made to the figures themselves, which still utilized the exact same molds with the "1985" year on them.  In fact, only the hang tag was changed, and not for the better:

I'll never get used to that art, and we will see lots more of it next time, when in Part Two, we will look at the 6-inch version of this classic toy.

But, before I forget--did you notice anything weird in the "family photo" at the start of this post?

This guy.  He actually doesn't belong--this is actually a bootleg, an exact copy of the Imperial Godzilla that measures about 9 inches tall! The only major difference is the tail, which as you can see has a rounded end that's completely different.  He has no year on him, only the usual "Made in China" that most toy dinosaurs have had for decades.  It's always a testament to the popularity of a toy to see it copied, but yet in this case, they went the extra mile and invented a new size!