Central Europe – Godzillas and kaiju from behind the Iron Curtain
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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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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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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…
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Sometimes the hunting of new and rare kaiju takes you into strange territory. While online and idling away a long sleepless night sometime ago, I stumbled across a toy offered by a Polish seller just north west of Warsaw, described as a USSR-made character named Cebulka (‘Little Onion’), but in fact a previously unrecorded Polish…
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China and Hong Kong dominate the world of bootleg Godzillas, and thus any produced elsewhere are fascinating in themselves, and the few produced in Europe are extremely so. European bootleg toys were not produced everywhere, and seem to have been made mainly where political barriers (such as the Iron Curtain) or economic hardships placed the…
