Yup. I'm not exactly young anymore, but I still love Godzilla. Anyone my age probably remembers going to the Saturday or Sunday matinee to watch a couple of B movies in a row. There might have been a monster feature or some such thing to go with your pop and popcorn. Anyhow, in Tokyo, you now even have the giant Godzilla head on top of the Toho Theatres in Shinjuku, which is very cool, and you can even Stay in the Godzilla themed suites at the Hotel Gracerie there. I'm not in Tokyo, so I ended up ordering this very nifty electronic coin bank from Japan.
Electronic Godzilla Coin BankThis is a pretty cool electronic coin bank. The latest variant of the old cat in a box coin banks you can still buy in Japan. I previously reviewed the
cat coin bank here. The coin bank comes in a blue box with a little diorama of the sea on top and takes two AA batteries. The diorama shows a naval ship depth charging Godzilla and you can see the foam rising in the water where his head will surface.
You put a coin on the circular splash zone on the right and press down on it to activate the bank. There is a red glow accompanied by one of four sound effects that range from the Godzilla theme music to Godzilla roaring. He then comes out and grabs your money to drag it down into the ocean depths. It's a fun little toy, and it'll help you save for retirement, but it isn't cheap either as $25 or so, a bit more than the cat coin banks built on a similar mechanism without lighting or sounds.
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| You can't miss that it is a Godzilla bank from the box. |
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| Place a coin on the circular water area and press down. |
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| Godzilla surfaces to make sure you save some money to rebuild after his next rampage. |
Godzilla Blind Box Figures Some older blind box type Godzilla figures. These have been out of production for some time, but I did see some in the second hand sales cases over at the Akihabara Culture Zone building in Akihabara. These were bought ages ago (seven or eight years right now) from an online shop and kind of hold a bit of a special place as they were some of the first things I bought from Japan. They came in sets that shows a scene from particular Godzilla movies, and it is pretty cool to look at a set as Godzilla's suit changed in almost every movie, so he looks different every time.
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| Godzilla with Tokyo Tower and a building from Godzilla versus Space Godzilla. These figures aren't very large, maybe about 5 or 6 cm in height at best, but they are very detailed for the size. |
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| A few other Godzillas, including the original Godzilla at the left with a hapless fishing boat below him. |
Just another slice of exported Japanese culture.
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