BOOTLEG GODZILLAS
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I am starting to worry that I am becoming the Mason Verger of the bootleg-toy-world, occasionally being offered Godzilla production items by various incarnations of Barney the nurse, and completely unable to stop acquiring them for the thrills they bring me. I’m SURE it’s not that bad if it’s Godzilla bootleg stuff, as opposed to…
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Recently, a small cache of deadstock Polish colouring books began to emerge on the market. These measure 205 by 145mm., and are secured at their tops by staples (either side of a long hole cut for rack hanging or for a carrying by a child). They are reversible, with sets of line-drawn images with two…
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For a while, I have eyed these dino-abominations from a distance, always finding them on Polish sale sites, and usually in collections of 1980s and ‘90s dinosaurs – until recently I purchased one in a job-lot in order to get the bootleg Godzilla toy included there. Then after the parcel arrived, I was entranced by…
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Somewhere in the blizzard of strange toy mashups that was the 1980s, and driven by the booming popularity of skateboarding, a lot of mini toy-figures on skateboards hit the market. I was way too physically uncoordinated to ever get on a skateboard or view them as anything other than instruments of torture, but many were…
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In a previous post (‘“Call me Ishmael”: the hunt for the great white Gojira’) I discussed a close-knit group of white Dor Mei Godzillas, all produced in China and with the copyright date ‘1986’ under their feet. It is clear from that post that the manufacturers struggled with their materials in the production of these…
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Toy bootlegging, at its heart, is an anonymous pursuit, usually operating on or outside the boundaries of copyright law and trying to avoid simple detection. Thus, the companies involved often did all that they could to cover their tracks, and not lead any disgruntled toy manufacturers to their doorstep whose designs may been ‘borrowed’ or…
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Before we get going with this post, it should be recognised that at least half the work below has been done by my esteemed friend and bootleg co-hunter and researcher, Jamie Francis (see here and here). Thus, this blog is published in both his and my name as a collective research project. Like any good…
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If these little critters, with spring-loaded arms that allow them to be clipped to objects, don’t bring you immediate waves of warm nostalgia, then I’m afraid you might be too youthful and filled with zest, vigor and natural joie de vivre to be reading this blog. … Ok, now it’s just us old farts lamenting…
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Some bootleg Godzillas are so glorious that it would be wrong to look at them too quickly – so just breathe with me and keep your eyes focused up here, and we can count together to steady our nerves: 1-hippopotamus, 2-hippopotamus, 3-hippopotamus, 4-hippopotamus, 5-hippopotamus. Ok, now look down: We finally come to the wonders that…
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Just as Spain has the crown in the western part of Europe for the number and variety of bootleg Godzillas and kaiju (see my earlier posts on JHL and Hermanos Pardines), then Poland has the equal honour in the eastern part of Europe. There are many similarities to the bootlegger’s art in both, and also…
