Thanks for the links, Roger. It looks like a great-fun Goji.

That's a great goji, you could make some awesome booty casts out of that.

After almost three hours of auction extensions and torturous psychological warfare, I finally got one of these in the last "SOCIUS" auction back in August:



I probably paid too much...but after all the bidding and being outbid with just seconds left, it became almost as much about principle as it did about the toy!

Either way, in the end, I finally got me a Hawaiian/spray Godzilla...probably my favorite G toy of all time. The toys I mentioned on the first page of this thread definitely have sentimental value, but this thing's always been on my "someday" list...and I'm psyched to have him finally.

The photo doesn't do it justice: the metallic green spray over the common dark blue vinyl gives it an appropriately eerie shimmer even in low light. It's divine.

^^ ............

Now that is a nice figure Sanjeev. Glad you scored something you really wanted. The thing is, we all end up overpaying now and again, but in the long run, at least for us vintage folk who are attached to the toys we boy, it really isn't such a big deal, when you consider the contribution to your overall collection, the time you have invested in the search, the opportunity to get one, etc. - or at least I try to tell myself all that.

Seriously though, amazing figure. If that is a shitty shot of it, then I can well imagine the glistening green sprays in-hand. Classic vintage glory.

Guess I am out of the loop, but what is Socius out of curiosity?

Yes! That is a beautiful Godzilla !!

Got it. Love it.....don't care that everyone hates it.

Nice, happy you were able to track him down. It is definitely not everyone's thing, but this is probably the best version of him I have seen.

MUCH better in vinyl than in computer-generated imagery, that much is certain!

Haha...well, I considered that a very nice shot of it, actually! I picked that spot with that low ambient light because the blue vinyl would remain pretty dark, while the soft metallic green spray would continue to scatter the light in neat ways. I was mostly trying to emphasize that contrast.

Now, HERE are some shitty (cell phone) pics I just snapped in brighter light:








Oh, "SOCIUS" is just the Y!J username of a particular super-collector in Japan. I don't know much about him at all, but some folks around here do. I guess every now and then, he liquidates a bunch of really top-shelf stuff. In mid-August, he posted all kinds of drool-worthy Toho Bullmarks: Hawaiian Hedorah, Mechagodzilla, Hawaiian Goji (blue on caucasian), this "Hawaiian spray" Goji, Marusan Giant Gorilla, Hawaiian King Ghidorah, purple/striped Gorosaurus, Hawaiian Baragon...shit...I can't even remember all the amazing toys he had. You'd probably have an easier time listing the four-figure Toho Bullmarks that WEREN'T included in the auction (honestly--if I recall correctly--I think he was missing just one of the two Megalon versions).

Some figures went for comparatively cheap prices...which I gladly feasted on! Most went for about what one would expect given the market these days. And some (like the purple Goro) went for a fuck-damn lot. I probably paid a few hundred more than what I coulda gotten the Hawaiian spray Goji for, but I felt a little justified because I'd made out like a damn bandit on a couple other high end guys. Plus I was skyping with a fellow collector at the time, and repeatedly out-bidding my only competition in the auctions became almost a game to us!

A very fucking expensive game. Yeesh!

That Godzilla looks to be in wonderful condition!
Congratulations!
He looks awesome.

Wow, Sanjeev! Seeing that just made my day. I saw your mention that you had picked up a Bullmark Hawaiian Goji on TBDX and I was like, no way, those are super hard to find. It looks to be in fantastic condition as well.

There's so much history in that mold and unusual circumstance surrounding the Hawaiian Bullmarks, that the rarity seems almost secondary. Congratulations on finding such an amazing item.

Ok, now im really intrigued.

Anyone care to point this guy to a good thread filled with all the juicy history details of all of this toy-selling, Hawaii-spraying toys?


I have no intention on ever even trying to buy vintage, but the stories really make for fun, interesting tales when the industry was played very differently.

thanks in advance for any info!

It's called the search function, my friend!

Oh, I know. The thing is that there are threads with 50 pages and very different convos going on that I figured someone might throw me a keyword or point a finger on the right way, I was reading the convo about the guy in Hawaii that bought lots from people in the islands and stuff. All very interesting. Thanks for the heads up though. The search does work better these days. It used to suck a lot, my friend!

Sanjeev that Goji is stunning! Very impressed. It's always nice to be on the winning end of a hard fought auction battle for something you really want. I'd love to see a full on shot of your Bullmark collection now. I'm sure it's grown leaps and bounds since the last pic.

Thanks for the additional comments, guys!

Chris, I know I keep procrastinating with the pics...haha...soon, man, soon!

Daniel, I totally agree: I'm not a completist and I don't give a shit about rarity/desirability. But I *am* thoroughly intrigued by the history and cool weirdness that these toys are often steeped in. I just posted the rambling below on TBDX, and thought it would be criminal not to cross-pollinate over here...


Okay, finally got a chance to go outside yesterday afternoon...and after chasing around spots of sunlight on my lawn, I took some nicer pics of my Godzilla pair. They're not gorgeous studio shots like Stephan's, but just picture me rolling around in the grass with monster toys and a camera...on a cold-ass November afternoon in New England!







So again, on the left, we have the Bullmark "Hawaiian spray" Godzilla. He seems to be a slightly darker blue vinyl that has very subtle vertical bands of soft metallic green spray. As I mentioned before, I love how that green paint catches the light and almost gives the figure a luminosity regardless of the lighting.

Part of what's interesting to me about these figures is that we can't be 100% sure about the history of the later super-rare Bullmark releases. On one hand, we have the "Hawaiian" figures, which are toys usually shot in caucasian flesh-colored vinyl and featuring flashy paint jobs (often multiple ops of metallic paints). These toys are generally thought to have been exported to Hawaii. On the other hand, there were "Hawaiian spray" figures thought to have been released in Japan, which featured toys composed of the same vinyl as their more common counterparts, but sprayed very differently.

So apparently, that thinking is becoming a little less certain these days. Brian tells me that more and more "Hawaiian" figures are showing up in Japanese folks' collections...while the "Hawaiian spray" toys are turning up in random places Stateside, presumably by way of Hawaii. Could that suggest that we've had things backwards the whole time??? Brian, Jim, or Mike (or anyone else in the know)...if you're lurking, I'd love your take on this.









I presume the "Hawaiian spray" was released around '73 or '74? He features seven tail segments and the Bullmark logo on his right foot. And I love 'im. It took the combined might of me and C-10 to win this fucker--and by "win", I mean extend and auction for nearly three friggin' hours...only to end up over-paying by a bit...just outta principle. Damnit. And the toy's totally worth it.

Next, we have one of the toys that started it all...









This is a somewhat more rare (or, at least, more desirable) version of the venerable Marusan Godzilla: the "double-stamp". This guy came out in 1966...based on a plastic kit of Godzilla made by Marusan...which, in turn, was based on the classic Aurora kit of King-Goji. So...the Marusan Godzilla is essentially one of the very first Godzilla toys ever (if we don't count the model kits!). Is he the first sofubi kaiju? Maybe--we need an expert chime in.

Anyway, the first Marusan Godzilla toys featured the "J-tail", which was basically a sharply up-turning tail...that often tore inside the mold when pulling the vinyl. Only a few of those made it out into the wild, and only a few super-collectors have one. After that, the molds were manually fixed to make the tail curve more gradually (and thus introducing different numbers of "segments" in the tail in the hacked molds). This particular toy--a "double-stamp" Goji--features another mistake: I guess Marusan intended to have the year stamped on the feet, along with their logo and Toho copyright info...but they apparently forgot the first time around! So some Marusan Goji's can be found with the incorrect stamp on their right feet...some with the correct stamp on their left feet...and you guessed it: a few with both stamps on both feet!

I love this toy because Marusan had a tendency to be a little heavy-handed with their paint ops. I don't know if it was because Bullmark had to crank them out in a hurry, but many Bullmarks I see have lighter, all-over misting, as opposed to the more deliberate--and more primitive--Marusan style. This guy has nice banding of silver spray across his joints and down his back. Mike Johnson hooked me up with the seller on facebook...and I'm thankful for getting a great deal on him.

As a general rule, my Toho Marusan/Bullmark collection has no doubles in it: for space (and financial!) reasons, I only want one example of each sculpt in my collection. But this is an exception I'm happy to make. One of the first Godzilla toys, and one of the last of the Showa era...based on those very same molds.

I've always been meaning to investigate this further while in Hawaii. The guys who ran the companies that imported Bullmarks in the 70s (Marukai, Holiday Mart, Longs Drugs) are still around (I think), but they're not getting any younger.

That Hawaii spray is super nice!!! Love the green spray too but am also a big fan of the gold spine. Some of those early Marusans are downright "frosty" with all that silver spray and the one Bullmark used on their promo material is outrageous. Congratulations, again, on some great toys.

Solid rant and some great snaps, Sanjeev! It's always heartening to hear that somefolks around here are still digging into the rich and mysterious history of the form, and it thrills me to no end to see toys actually being played with - shelves are fine and all, but give me a bed of pine needles any day!

I just recently picked up my first repro of the good 'ol '66 and I'm over the moon for him; I can only imagine how you must feel having two such great slices of history around the house. Good stuff.

This is such a great discussion, thanks Sanjeev. Love to see that Skullbrain is still a wealth of information, and as David pointed out, we are all still learning more all the time. I often wonder given the popularity of this figure if there weren't a lot more produced, and hence over a longer period, which could account for the variations we see in them. Some have very light silver sprays, while others have very heavy handed paints; then there are the eye colour variants, with most of the SANs being red or pink, where it seems they alternated additionally with white/grey or maybe even light blues on the Bullmarks (based solely on what I have seen I mean). I love my original and really, no collection is complete without one. As the man said, this is where it all began.


Had to throw in a Goji-sized pic to show off this guy's beauty!

Can't beat the original Goji sculpt. Here is my SAN (Double stamp) and Bullmark versions.

Awesome pair, Jordan. Is the one on the right your double-stamp? The silver spray looks kinda like those earlier Marusans. The eye on him is super-neatly painted though...very unlike Marusan!

Steve, is that a Marusan, too? Just a guess given the banded silver spray--and the messy eye! But anyway, yeah, there clearly were a LOT of these made over that 8 or so year period. I'm guessing he was pretty popular...it IS Godzilla, afterall! And since these were for kids, not obsessive man-children. I'm sure Marusan and Bullmark never gave much of a crap about the minor differences. Kids didn't care and would bug their parents into buying whatever was on the shelf at the time.

Heh...thanks, David! I've definitely got a nice display case for my Toho cast, but I've got no qualms about taking 'em out to have a good roll in the hay with. Waitaminute... Nah, while I do enjoy getting into the history of these toys and learning about variations and all, it's all just *part* of the fun for me. The tactile experience--especially when you can share it with someone else--of playing with toys and letting your imagination go wild will always be the core of this stuff for me.

Oh yeah, the gold spray on the spines is clutch, Mark. It's just such a tight color scheme on that Hawaiian spray. To me, it really represents how refined the process became from the start of Marusan's foray into soft vinyl, all the way through to the waning days of Bullmark. I mean, look how much neater the eyes are painted! Oh, a while back someone on TBDX was asking what all sofubi kaiju were shown in that scene in the beginning of Godzilla vs. Hedorah...and when I was grabbing screenshots, I really noticed how absolutely frosted the kid's standard Godzilla is. Serious coke problem on that guy!

And Daniel, yeah man...if you could help shed some light on this neat little mystery, that'd be awesome! Your kaiju-sleuthing is legendary...so do it up and let us know what you find!

You are correct that the on on the right is the SAN Sanjeev.

Yep, my silver-kneed, wonky-eyed fella is indeed a Marusan too.

Awesome, guys. Thanks for posting your pics!