Wonder if anyone has insight into this.

Seems like there are a massive number of Hedoran figs coming out - aside from Bemo & Hedolan Bros. - are these figs all liscenced from Toho? Is it relatively cheap to get a smog monser liscence? Or is there (pardon the pun) ind of grey area regardig smog monsters....

I have no idea about Hedoran, he was IKB's copycat kaiju. Obviously Gargamel has been cranking out a bunch of toys based on him, but I don't know if they pay a license fee to what's left of IKB, or if they've trademarked the character themselves, or what.

I've asked my friends at M1 Go about why there are so many toys of Hedorah, the real Toho kaiju. They've told me that the licensing situation for him is the same as any other kaiju, they and other toy makers still have to pay Toho a standard fee. It's just that for a while, collectors were buying every Hedorah toy that everyone was making, so everyone just kept making more. I don't know how long the phenomenon is going to last (or if it's already ended).

any idea how much that license costs?

// d

is there anything left of IKB, and if so why can't they seem to track down an original Bemon???

I have ideas, vague ideas, but I don't know for sure. Maybe someone here can pipe up with something concrete.

I was talking with Bill Gallagher from Marusan-USA last week and he told me that the licensing situation with Toho in Japan is relatively simple to deal with and reasonable in terms of pricing. However, when you try and sell something for the US market, too, it gets really expensive. In addition to them, Super7 and Maxx Toys have sold Toho character vinyls in the US, I don't know if they've had to put up with the same issues.If anyone knows, Gargamel does. Cometdebris could ask them about this.

ok thanks Roger

Yeah, toho is really expensive, otherwise you would see a lot more stuff. Big guarantees.