The Things That I See: Godzilla Miscellaneous Edition

Today, let's address a handful of random, Godzilla-related things that have piled up, but don't really have a place of their own.  Hopefully, this won't be too boring or disjointed:

First off, since the best coverage you can find regarding the famous Mattel Shogun Godzilla is off-site, it became obvious that the instructions aren't included anywhere here, so let's quickly rectify that with some high-quality scans, in case somebody is missing them:

This sheet is actually less than half the size of a sheet of bond paper, measuring  5 & 9/16" by 7 & 3/16".  There is also a variant, which looks like this:

Secondly, after years of searching, I finally obtained what turned out to be a crisp, vibrant copy of the advance movie poster for GIGANTIS, THE FIRE MONSTER.  Since Toho has pretty much obliterated this American version (you'd have to go all the way back to the VHS release to find a print with the GIGANTIS title card), it doesn't get talked about a lot, but it should:

I mean, it's the first sequel, the first film to pit Godzilla against another monster (and therefore the first Angilas/Anguirus), and also the only vintage American Godzilla film to have an advance poster.  While advance posters were nothing new, even in monster movies, I've always thought that it showed Warner Bros. was putting some extra money/attention behind the film, although you could argue the opposite, since it ended up in a double-feature release with TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE.  I will say, I was unprepared for how vibrant the color is on this poster; it's almost day-glo like a highlighter.  Pretty snazzy for 1959.

Let's pause for a moment, and test your Godzilla knowledge, with this 1978 comic book ad.  Or not.

Lastly, here's a discovery that surprised me.  Remember how the first official version of the GODZILLA vs. MEGALON DVD had lots of extra (unapproved) material, and was then withdrawn? Well, don't fall for E-bay prices, you can actually still obtain the pulled version.  It seems Tokyo Shock is alive and well, and selling their leftover stock on Amazon (under the name Cinema Scape).  You can buy a bundle that includes sealed copies of the blu-ray as well as the withdrawn version, together.  And it's the real deal.  What's uber-strange though, is the label under the shrink-wrap:

My guess is that they had to label their stock when the hammer came down, to keep it straight when a bare-bones version was demanded, but even so, it was surprising to see this label.  Keep in mind that only the DVD ever included the forbidden extras, but who wouldn't want the blu-ray anyhow? Unfortunately, while the recalled version is an important Godzilla collectible, the (video) extras aren't so hot.  I never understood Toho pulling the DESTROY ALL MONSTERS disc, but in viewing the MEGALON ones again, you can see why it was done.  The extras are obviously from a VHS tape of various film sources (including Super 8), and there is a 7+ minute stretch of trailers that are so bad, they had to be window-boxed (shown in a small television graphic that limits it to maybe 25% of your screen) to be viewable.  Oh well.  We would still recommend buying it, while you still can! One of these days it'll be crazy expensive. A sealed 1983 VHS copy of KING OF THE MONSTERS ended for over a thousand bucks this weekend, so you never know!