I have some questions about the IKB Bootlegs these were based off of:

1 Why are they called hedoran instead of hedorah? Copyright issues?

2 How tall are the old ones? same size as gargamel's fullsized versions?

3 Did hedorah ever look like this in any of the movies or is this like a "rip-off" mold made to have similar characteristics as hedorah but be an "original" sculpt?

4 How hard is it to find the old bootlegs? I don't think I've ever seen one for sale online.

any knowledge would be valued.

I think the h and n is interchangable.

old ones are super hard to get. for a while I guess no one cared, then flynn ran the article in S7 about them and then they got hot. Flynn blew the lid on these!

Man I love that picture!!! Totally forgot about it. So I guess it looks like they're closer to the fullsize.

That old man was cooler than I could ever hope to be...

Didn't this issue come up ages ago? I seem to remember Brian (I think) discussing the difference in names (hedora versus hedoran) being related to licensing/copyright in the history of this "property.".

From what I recall, they changed the figure and the name just enough to avoid licensing problems.

I think the original name in English was "hedorah" - the last "h" was replaced by an "n" for the new figure.

Incidentally, the last "h" is an optional add-on anyway. It doesn't signify anything derived from the Japanese word/pronunciation. To make it even more confusing, I see that Gargamel has used the less common "L" spelling on some of the new releases, writing it out as "Hedolan."

I'm not fond of that transliteration scheme. If you employed the same thing for the company name, it would be "Galgamel."

Some clarity:

Hedora (or Hedorah): A kaiju who fought Godzilla in the 1971 Toho film. Also known as "The Smog Monster." Original Japan-issue and Hawaii-issue Bullmark toys of Hedora shown here:



Hedoran: A toy made by IKB in the 70s to capitalize on kaiju mania. The design is similar to a design from a lobby card for Gojira vs. Hedora, but it is completely unlicensed and unofficial. Original Hedoran IKB toys are shown with the late great Jim Chapin here:



Decades later, Gargamel adopted the Hedoran design and made their own toys based on it. Many of the variations can be seen in the pages here:

http://gargamel.jp/item/zokki06.html

In summary, they are two different monsters, but one was definitely meant to imitate the other.

Roger,

Just to maybe clear my own understanding... Is the hawaiian version the yellow based vinyl or the pink (? guessing) based vinyl? I've been under the impression the yellow was hawaiian but could be wrong.

The yellow is the original version sold in Japan, the pink is what's referred to as the "Hawaii" version (although it was also sold in parts of California).

Some humorous Hedora/Hedoran discussion here:

http://toyboxst.inwards.com/phorum/read ... 442,132442