Having been on a bit of creature feature binge lately, I thought it only fair that I mention some of the other monsters made by Imperial Toys, based on characters that are much larger than the classic Universal Monsters characters I covered yesterday. So here’s the hairy Eighth Wonder of the World, and the irradiated King of the Monsters- King Kong and Godzilla!

Straight away it’s apparent that King Kong is much taller than Godzilla, which is a bit of a shame really, as any battles between the two behemoths look like they should be won by King Kong, who has an obvious size advantage over Godzilla. But supposedly these two figures were once sold as part of a two-pack, so they were obviously intended to be pitted against each other! They were both sold singularly, loose in a store display box, and Godzilla was also sold carded as well.

One of the surprising things about the Godzilla toy is that it’s actually a licensed product, endorsed by Toho, the creators of the Godzilla franchise.

It’s somewhat hard to believe as few would deny that Godzilla looks…well, terrible. First off, he looks very green in colour, as opposed to the usual grey or black colour that he usually is in the movies he appears in. My guess is that the green colour was inspired by the artistic interpretations of Godzilla from the original movie posters outside of Japan, where he was often portrayed as having green skin.

The real strange thing though is that he has splotches of red around his maw, which many have likened to him wearing lipstick. Perhaps it was intended to be blood? But Godzilla is rarely seen chomping down on people enough for blood to be smeared around his chops, preferring to use his atomic breath to wreak destruction upon the people of Japan. So I’m guessing the red was more artistic license. It’s definitely a bizarre decision, but I appreciate things that are a bit weird.

Godzilla also has a patch of silver on his front, along with random darker green bits on his limbs and body. He’s definitely an unconventional version of the legendary atomic monster, but he still looks close enough to his onscreen appearance that he is recognizable, so it’s a pass from me.

Oh, nearly forgot! Godzilla’s back is covered in dorsal plates with the bigger ones being silver and the smaller ones green. A bit wacky, but I wouldn’t expect any different considering the rest of the figure.

King Kong doesn’t differ too much from his onscreen appearances. His face looks pretty similar to the 1933 King Kong, but his boobs like those in the 1967 King Kong vs. Godzilla.

I love King Kong, and probably prefer him over Godzilla, and overall this is a pretty decent portrayal of the Great Ape. He’s quite simple with a limited amount of paint except for a pair of green eyes, some white teeth and red nostrils and tongue.

So that’s the Imperial Toys Godzilla and King Kong! I wish that Godzilla had been a little taller just so that he could stand toe-to-toe with Kong instead of looking like he’d get the shit battered out of him, but regardless of this, I love them both. There have been far too few King Kong toys released over the years, whereas Godzilla has seen numerous releases by many different companies. This may be down to King Kong being a property of mixed ownership, resulting in licensing difficulties regarding merchandise. This is just speculation on my part though, whether this is actually the case, I don’t know. But the King Kong has certainly seen its fair share of legal battles over the years.

Anyway, enough rambling for now. More spooky stuff tomorrow.