I was talking with Matt Alt about Big Z tonight, and after a little Googling he was able to provide some much-needed information about the background of the character.

In 1967 there was a book by an artist named Nakaoka called Sekaino Kaiju (世界の怪獣):



Zagora is in there, in addition to many other original kaiju characters like Deathra:







Daikyo (大協) made the original Zagora toy, apparently without any sort of permission, and years later, Gargamel created their own version of Zagora, Deathra, and apparently other kaiju that appeared in the books or that Daikyo produced.

Matt also found this interesting discussion on 2chan:

http://hobby9.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/toy/1174271481/-100

There are some comments in there like (this is a quote from the thread): "The Gargamel Zagoran was produced without Daikyo's permission so as far as I'm concerned it's pirated...."

Matt adds that based on what he found in the web searches, "it seems that a lot of people are really irked that Gargamel took what was an obscure design, resculpted it, and put his own copyright on the foot. (There's apparently a ton of venom directed at Gargamel on 2ch over this.) Basically Gargamel's re-sculpt is 'cooler' and 'pop-ier' than the original, which is kind of dorky (in a good way), and 'real fans' have taken issue with their claiming it as their own (there are slight differences between the designs but they're obviously very similar.)"

Matt said he was surprised by this reaction because he really digs Gargamel's stuff, as do I, especially their accomplishments in the field of cutaway toys. I plan on digging deeper into the 2chan discussion when I have the time and the resources available to me, but there you have it. Regardless of the language, toy geeks find something to argue about, point fingers, and label themselves 'real fans' in the process.

;p

Yep, I remember all those great disscusions quite well. Again, I would love to see Nakaoka receive some credit or acknowledgement for his work and creations as he imo, rightfully deserves.

Target earth has given credit on there blog.
http://pub.ne.jp/sofvilife/

The "cute factor" is a huge part of the mass appeal of the Gargamel versions, but I'd love to see a more aggressive/muscular Deathra toy, closer to the original. Gargamel's is great, but kinda softcore for something called "Deathra."

According to Hukkokudo's blog a few days ago Target Earth is taking over the production of their Smogon2/Bemon toy. That and the message on their site now ("Future schedule is undecided. As soon as details to be decided, we inform.") make me wonder if Gargamel rip-offs are profitable. I just want the other 2 hedorahs

The work in progress pics of their Bemon weren't that good IMO. The arms and head joint looked pretty bad. And not bad as in good

The work in progress pics of their Bemon weren't that good IMO. The arms and head joint looked pretty bad. And not bad as in good