I'm not as knowledgeable on Kaiju as the rest of the members here, and so I have a question that I've been wondering about since I first discovered Kaiju.

Why, out of all the Godzilla monsters, is Hedorah and (to a lesser degree) Jet Jaguar so popular? There are loads of variations on Hedorah and I don't understand the huge appeal of this monster over say... Godzilla himself, or Gigan or whoever.

I really like Jet Jaguar personally, but for me I enjoy JJ because my first impression of him from MST3K. Other similar characters don't have much appeal to me.


So why is hedorah and JJ so popular?

phil

What's not to love of the design of a big, gloopy, shape-forming polution puke pile? It's just cool. So versatile, works with so many colors. Further more, anyone can re-create the big mess and it still hold ground.

JJ has a song, nuff said. Plus he's always smiling, gotta like a guy like that.

The way it was explained to me was that Hedorah was in one of the last Godzilla films, appealing to a slightly younger niche market among kaiju fans, plus that film is really seen as schlocky, preachy, and psychedelic, adding to the "punk rock" appeal of the character.

Jet Jaguar was never popular.

the hedorah just looks cool and the idea of what it is lends itself to endless interpretations...

Godzilla is a big lizard. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

'nuff said.

For the longest time, there were few to no renditions of these characters. It's only in the last few years that toys of these characters have been readily available. I have to think that's the attraction/mystique tied to them.

Gargamel gave the Hedorans/Hedolans personality and made it look so cool!

Yeah, but those aren't Hedorah toys. hellopike was asking about the character in the Toho Godzilla movies, not the knockoff, or Gargamel's knockoff of the knockoff.

Hmm Maybe if I see Hedorah in action or something. I still don't get it, as far as giant shambling mounds of pollutions go, I don't think its that cool looking.

As for JJ, yeah I figured he wasn't too popular, Godzilla v Megalon certainly wasn't cinematic gold... but hey at least he kept on smiling!

Phil

yeah, that makes some sense to me.... wierd "collector" sense, but hey..

Anyways, yeah Jet Jaguar toys are sorely lacking. Not a fan of most of them. Not the M1, the newest Bandai one is ok, so is Gigabrains (would like to get the standard version of that one) I really like the slightly stylized version LASH painted all black and purple... don't remeber the make of it though, or the size.

I think if Hedorah wasnt a TOHO monster people would still dig it. Its just an awesome design all in itself. I have HEDOs coming out my ass and it makes my wife nuts.

yup roger, hellopike might be refering to the classic hedorah toys.

but im just stating as a fact---knock offs such as gargamel, for me, made hedorans look so cool with their new take on these classic sculpts.

Can you blame her? You've got Hedorahs coming out of your ass...get that checked out!

I have to say that our wives/girlfriends/partners/boyfriends must have alot of tolerance to put up with the shit we collect. Mine just looks bemused, "Oh...another melty guy...so, does this one glow, or is it translucent?" (which applies to Hedorah, Damnedrons, and a multitude of other characters)

What-what-WHAT???

No wonder you don't get it. ;p

Go to Netflix now and add Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster to the top of your queue. It's got monster sludge tadpoles, psychedelic hippies singing and dancing, and Hedorah smokes a factory smokestack like a giant bong. It has something for everyone.Jet Jaguar was a pretty blatant attempt on the part of Toho to introduce an Ultraman-like character. They were a little peeved that Tsuburaya was getting so much of the rubber monster mind share.

Useless trivia: early Godzilla vs. Megalon posters had Jet Jaguar identified as "Red Aaron."

Roger hit it right no the head. A lot of people become fans of various kaiju mosters due to the films. You really can not appriciate Hedorah unless you see the film. Same goes for me back in the day with the Ultra Q and Ultraman monsters as well as some other board memebers here I imagine. There are other reasons why people connect with toys of Garamon, Kanegon, Gomess, Ragon and for me Baragon and it usually tied to the films and shows.

And the worst part, was that they didn't even come up with the character design themselves...it was done through a contest! Toho was trying to get into the superhero market hardcore in 1973, between Jet Jaguar and the show "Zone Fighter".

Again, I'm convinced the reason we're seeing so many versions of these characters 25 years later, is purely nostalgia. The folks driving the collectors market, primarily Japanese who gew up on this stuff, then us Americans to a lesser degree, never were able to get their hands on toys of these characters. So, if you're a Toho fan, and you grow up to make toys, you're going to make what you always wanted. As a collector, you're thinking the same thing.."holy crap, someone finally made a toy of this character?!?"

I'll have to try and pick that one up somewheres. Sounds... campy.

Welcome to the wonderful world of rubber monster movies.

I think Hedorah is classic case of: You either get it or you don't

it won't appeal to everybody. I on the other hand cant get enough of smog monsters. although flying hedorah always weirds me out...unless its in toy form.
That leads me to JJ. I like him almost strictly in toy form.

I pray every night for the death of my enemies, a HP bemon and the emergence of a huge smog monster from the bay.

I think everyone has raised some good points about these characters; I was about 12 when "Godzilla VS the Smog Monster' hit our local theater and I had not heard of Ultraman; cable eventually carrred Ultraman for a short while. He wasn't a knockoff back then to me, just a cool friend of Godzilla's. I think MST3K added to his popularity. The DVD from their series featuring "Godzilla VS Megalon" is the only volume sold out on Amazon.com. And if you can find it, people are asking way too much for it.
YouTube has the MST3K version of the J.J. theme song if anyone is interested.
I think bannedindc summed Hedorah up by saying "You either get it or you don't". I think in his case, most of the vinyls look way better than the movie monster. I wish Hedorah had gotten more screen time in 'Final Wars', but at least he made the film. Gorosaurus, one of my personal favorites, did not appear. But Godzilla wil always be the top collectible; he is the reason Hedoarh and J.J. exist in the first place

I thought Jet Jaguar was really cool in Godzilla vs. Megalon. Sort or corny, but it's a ridiculous movie anyway and he's about the least ridiculous thing in it. I also like Gigan's badass attitude in that movie.

Dude, he PROGRAMMED HIMSELF TO INCREASE HIS OWN SIZE!

;p

Yeah, and he shares arcane fake kung fu semaphore with Godzilla too, but at least he's not one of those CHEESY DUMBASS SEATOPIANS!!!

I saw the film when I was young boy. Don't remember much other than the end of the battle between Godzilla and Hedorah. Hedorah, or the Smog Monster which is what I knew him as, did NOT make an impression on me and as an adult I couldn't even remember what he looked like at all. In fact, when I started seeing all the Hedorah toys in recent years, it took me a while to realize that Hedorah = Smog Monster. Most of the toys of Hedorah suck in my opinion. The Bullmark is kinda cool only because of the nostalgia factor. The only decent contemporary sculpts I've seen are by CCP and Atelier G-1. They actually make Hedorah look cool and that's no small feat.

J.J. was a pretty lame character and I even felt that way about him when I was about 10. As toys go, though, Gigabrain's version looks pretty neat and it's got more articulation than you can shake a stick at.

Moving this to Japan Toys because it doesn't have much to do with Super7/Skullbrain.

Wow...where has this discussion been my whole life!?

Well, since I'm late to the party, I won't rehash all the brilliant things that've already been said, but I'll share just a couple thoughts.

First, it's interesting to me how different people's attitudes towards Hedorah and Jet seem to be derived from their collecting habits. I'm surprised no one has mentioned the difference between "character toys" (toys based on characters that already exist in other media...namely film and/or tv) and "non-character toys" (original characters created by toy makers that only exist in toy form).

Naturally, those--like myself--who grew up watching Godzilla flicks and have developed a love for toys will gravitate towards picking up toys of those characters. Nostalgia, as has been mentioned, plays a big role here. The existing media behind these characters means a lot.

Of course, I don't mean to devalue non-character toys in the slightest. For example, though as a seven-year-old, I could rattle off the names of all the popular Toho monsters, I was never exposed to Ultraman. I only became vaguely aware of who/what Ultraman was in high school when I went through my "anime phase". Only now do I own the commercial DVDs of the first series...but before that, when I started getting into collecting these ecology-killing lumps of joy, I fell in love with so many of the monsters featured in Ultraman. Garamon, Kanegon, Baltan, Woo, Gomora, Red King...the list goes on. But the point is that, for all intents and purposes, these were essentially non-character toys to me. To me, they only existed in toy form--there was absolutely no nostalgia factor involved with my coming to love toys of these monsters.

And, ultimately, the same sort of thing can be said for many folks' love for the myrial real non-character ("designer", "urban", "pachi", whatever) toys out there. Heh...I'm a Godzilla nut, but I also loves me some Blobpus!

Anyway, Roger and some others have already touched on this subject with his imperative to watch the movie... But another thing about Hedorah, in particular, I think, is just the physical design of the monster. If you take a look at ALL the Hedorah toys out there, they sure run a helluva gamut. Just among the standing/adult form Hedorah toys, you've got things that look virtually nothing like one another! And y'know something? To a degree, they ALL work. Having that slightly amorphous, sludgy, drippy form lends brilliantly to sculpting a vinyl toy. First of all, it's EASY! I've sculpted quite a bit in my time, and drippy, asymmetric monsters are fun and easy to form in convincing shapes. But more importantly, they're a virtually BLANK canvas: the sculptor can get away with *anything*...no matter what crazy interpretation he or she throws in, it's still Hedorah! Awesome potential for brilliant artwork and creative toy design.

Okay, JJ...not so much. Still, there's the nostalgia/dearth of JJ toys factors again. Plus, I think because of JJ's metal hero flavor, he's got some cross-over appeal to a lot of fans today. He's a little Ultraman and a little sentai...as well as being one of Godzilla's buddies.

Well, all I know is that I loved that grinning bastard from day one. I always wished my dad would build me one when I was little!