With the recent death of Ray Harryhausen, whose stop-motion photography brought a whole new world of fantasy to the big screen, it's not difficult to let the mind wander back to those childhood days watching his movies on Saturday mornings or afternoons. He influenced many people throughout his long career but it was a surprise to me to learn that his direct influence upon Japanese film maker's led to the making of 'Godzilla', one of the screens most iconic Big Monsters. I never did go to the movies much as a kid but do remember going to a local neighborhood theater to see 'King Kong vs. Godzilla'. Wow! It was great watching those two duke it out.
While the subject of Harryhausen and Big Monsters has been playing out among bloggers I couldn't help but reminisce about the monster toys I had as a kid. Most of my toys were generally Little Green Army Man type but there was the complete set of Remco's 'Hamilton's Invader's', the plethora of dinosaurs, and as I got older the Aurora model kits. In my minds' eye that badly constructed Godzilla is a reminder of undeveloped modeling skills coupled with youthful enthusiasm. At the time that brush-painted, bright, gloss green plastic monster was awesome. I had never seen him in color, so except for the box art coloring, had no idea what he should really look like. That model, along with the other poorly constructed and badly painted models, have long since been added to the landfill. Something inside of me may still have yearned for those old toys as I had bought the entire series of Playmates 'King Kong' playsets based on Peter Jackson's 'King Kong' remake. But the only Godzilla to have been added to the Toys & Stuff Monster Gallery is a Christmas tree ornament from American Greetings which was released last year. It's a nice little rendition of the big guy and so, without further ado - Enjoy!
