I was never much of a Godzilla geek, although I do remember watching some of the old, badly dubbed Japanese originals on afternoon TV as a kid.
The kick out of watching these films inevitably came from seeing the regular wanton destruction of Tokyo model sets by men in rubber suits. It was interesting also how quickly the original Godzilla morphed into a hero, regularly ‘saving’ Japan from an array of other monsters (while still managing to trample a city in his wake). Monsters From An Unknown Planet from 1975 (in which Godzilla spars with “MechaGodzilla”) is one of those mash-ups.
This poster I came to possess when I worked as an account executive at a London ad agency years ago. I think we bought it for a photo shoot for some prospective ad, which never happened, I ended up being custodian of the props and kept it rolled under my desk. When nobody asked for it back after awhile I…ahem… appropriated it!
I’m not a fan of the more recent “re-imaginings” of Godzilla. Like most people, I hated the “fast lizard” 1998 version, which didn’t seem true to the image of Godzilla at all. I do however like this poster for the 2014 version, which also again features a monster smack-down, along with the obligatory city-trashing. (Eagle-eyed viewers will spot this time the ’lucky’ location is San Francisco).