over the years, the term "Hawaii" in reference to old Bullmarks has been used to denote both the flesh and sprayed versions. Over the years though, the research and propensity for certain figures to pop up in some places and not others has led to some narrowing of the genesis of these figures. One of the best bits of knowledge comes from the founder of Bullmark interviews and autobiographies. He openly mentions painting Bullmarks for Hawaii in bright colors that were inspired by the foliage and bright colored shirts from Hawaii from their first trip to the island. He also mentions, when they were short on vinyl, they would use flesh vinyl as a substitute.

The current thinking is that the vast majority of brightly sprayed figures were intended for Hawaii, and most ended up there, with some staying in Japan -maybe 80% to Hawaii and 20% or less in Japan. Later, as Bullmark was going out of business, they switched to flesh vinyl for almost all characters, and many of the flesh vinyls were exported to Hawaii as well, but just as many stayed in Japan. This happened in 1974-1975. So far it seems a 50-50 mix. If Bullmark was only selling flesh vinyls at that time, it would make sense that wholesalers in Japan would have bought them as well. (Just as the Ultra Leo vinyls, which are rare in Japan, turn up frequently in Hawaii and all are on flesh vinyl.) Additionally, oddball figures like the Bon Festival figures, which were intended for Japan festivals made it to Hawaii, presumably as overstock sold to Hawaii after the festivals were over.

Years ago, I was in contact with the son of the main buyer for the toys imported into hawaii, but his father was in cancer treatment, and not able to do an interview. I have since lost touch with the family, and no longer know his status.

Thanks for the info Brian. This makes me wonder (as I often do) how different life could have been for a lot us if, just by chance, there had been a few more exports of these great kaiju toys to North American/Europe - we could have had a lot different childhoods.

It is a shame that a lot of this info is being lost with time, I am sure the import stories alone from the 70s are worthy of an entirely dedicated book.

Wow, I've never heard of the Bon Festival figures. Thank for the summary of information on the Hawaii Bullmarks.

Much obliged, Brian...always a wealth of knowledge!

Didn't know there was a brown version and have never held one in hand till now. My fav!

Wow, what a find. I have definitely never seen or even heard of a brown version either. And to think the other ones are hard enough to track down. That guy is really stunning. I can definitely see how he is your new favourite!

Thanks. I really like how the arms are articulated at the elbow too.

Here's the header. Is it one of the regular festival or events?

Drat... another to add to my mental shopping list. Isn't it simply the greatest Godzilla toy / sculpt? So much fun.

^ did you ever manage to wrangle the other one back from your buddy?

I totally agree with you. I have not been able to find one at a reasonable price either blue or brown. But he has a great look. I will continue to hunt.

Has to be my favorite sculpt too.

Boo-hoo~! I sold this guy years ago when i decided to get out of Kaiju and start collecting 3A.
Funny thing is I quit 3A at the beginning of this year and now I really regret selling that Godzilla since I've gone back to collecting Kaiju again!
Hopefully I can track him down again too.

I was very lucky to recently score this Hawaii Godzilla. The auction stated that he had "loose joints" and I think that kept bidders away. I took a chance. Only his left leg is a little loose but not too bad at all. All said and done, I was able to land him signed, sealed, and delivered for under a Grand! Here he is next to my "frosty" double-stamped Marusan Goji.

Congrats!! Both are amazing.

Awesome pairing, Mark!

I definitely approve:

Mascots by rogerharkavy, on Flickr


Godzilla vs. King Kong Metal Charms by rogerharkavy, on Flickr

Love these two photos, Roger! The metal charms are fantastic! what's the story?

Great shot of the giants.

The metal dudes are by Ark, no? I've never seen the Godzilla one before though...

Yeah same here. That Goji pendant guy is really sweet, perfect companion to the Kong. This page is just filled with so much goodness. I never tire of looking at your guys' Hawaii and brother photos.

On of my all-time favourite sculpts of the King of Monsters is this Bullmark style from M1-Go. After so, so many near misses I was finally able to track one down. The anticipation for his arrival has been killing me; but it has all been worth it. Now he can rule over his M1 minions.

I ran this by Josh, he said it was okay to post here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/221357393820

I don't know the seller personally, but he is based in NJ and apparently acquired a large lot of Godzilla figures (without their Tricephalon counterparts) from the 1970s HG Toys playset. Apparently the storage container got dirty over the years and the Godzillas are coated in some sort of oily material, which is why he's letting these go so cheaply.

For $10 shipped I couldn't pass it up, and with a little bit of dish soap and elbow grease it's in new condition.

Anyway, if you don't have one of these already, you should. Go buy one.

UPDATE - I got the backstory from Bob Eggleton, who met the seller at the last Chiller Theatre show: "Apparently the story is the pieces were going to be released to 5 and 10 cent stores because the game was a failure so they took the actual monster pieces to sell like cheap dinosaurs in those dump bins you'd see. But Toho would not give them the deal. So they stayed in storage forever. And someone got them in an abandoned storage unit auction."

^ i love old toys with weird histories like that. thanks for sharing!

I picked up one of these Godzilla figures from the seller a while back...and it was definitely covered in some weird muck! Took quite a bit of scrubbing with a toothbrush and hot, soapy water, but it's looking stellar now...and I'm quite pleased with the figure. I never had the game/playset, so I assumed the figure would be pretty small. The figure's actually surprisingly big and hefty...it's, like, 4" and mostly-solid polyethylene (I think)!

Cool didn't know that they were available loose like that. I actually own the HG set and it's pretty awesome...it's still wrapped so...ah crap I should just open it.

If you guys haven't been to Plaidstallions.com there is a wealth of information about tons of 70's western toys as well the HG set and other Godzilla related merchandise.

Lucky!