Official Bandai (Japan) Thread 2.0

[Legion1979]

Salute

Who?

[Kagutaba]

Salute

Who?

Y'know, the little cross arm salute the Black Hole aliens do in Terror of Mechagodzilla. I want a headless Mechagodzilla in the saluting pose.

[Godziboomer64]

Ok, just to be a bit different here’s my list.

2. Any or all of G’s Kaiju enemies from Marvel comic book series.

Marvel owns them, not Toho.

6. Dark Horse G’s enemies.

I believe Dark Horse Comics owns them.

10. G’s foes from that series (the 1998 Godzilla: The Series cartoon)

AFAIK, Toho only owns the rights to them in Japan (and possibly other parts of Asia), and Sony owns the rights everywhere else.

Thanks for the clarification. I know YMSF was able to release a few of these. I’m not exactly sure who they obtained the rights from.

Then again, no need to open up this can of worms on this thread.

Still, would love a Bandai release regardless of who owns the rights.

[Legion1979]

Other difference between YMSF and Bandai is that YMSF is a small company run by one guy who seems to understand the US is a lucrative market for his figures, so he'll do things people here want to buy. Bandai meanwhile is a massive company making toys primarily for Japanese consumers and tailored to what that market wants.

With the exception of something like Monsterverse or G98 I don't think you're ever going to see Bandai figures of Godzilla variants or monsters from American media, especially comics, video games or animated TV shows. What would the market in Japan even be for a H/B Godzilla or something from the 98 animated series?

[Mechagigan]

Same here, as much as HB and Cartoon Zilla would be really wicked, I can't imagine they've got much of a foothold in the Japanese fandom etc. Almost feel like Zilla would be the more likely of the two, lol, though that's not saying much.

[CheetoKamper]

I think the only way we'd get HB Godzilla is if he shows up on a poll. But hey Giant Condor won so it's not impossible. Just unlikely.

[Kagutaba]

I think the only way we'd get HB Godzilla is if he shows up on a poll. But hey Giant Condor won so it's not impossible. Just unlikely.

That's hardly an accurate comparison though. Toho alone owns the rights to the Giant Condor, HB Godzilla is split between two parties.

[John Pannozzi]

I think the only way we'd get HB Godzilla is if he shows up on a poll. But hey Giant Condor won so it's not impossible. Just unlikely.

That's hardly an accurate comparison though. Toho alone owns the rights to the Giant Condor, HB Godzilla is split between two parties.

No. Toho outright owns the Godzilla cartoon that Hanna-Barbera produced.

[Legion1979]

I think the only way we'd get HB Godzilla is if he shows up on a poll. But hey Giant Condor won so it's not impossible. Just unlikely.

That's hardly an accurate comparison though. Toho alone owns the rights to the Giant Condor, HB Godzilla is split between two parties.

No. Toho outright owns the Godzilla cartoon that Hanna-Barbera produced.

Of course, ownership doesn'r mean much when theres no market for it. I wouldn't eveb be surprised if the domestic market for the MMS didn't know what the H/B series even was.

Also, someone needs to explain to me the legalities of Toho outright owning an American cartoon that they had no involvement in outside of ownership of Godzilla.

[Gojirasaur]

Said it before, but Bandai is aware of what Fumiaki-san does, and what he's had success with. Polling aside, I do still think it had some impact on their own subsequent DREAM5 box choices. Plus, while we've seen Bandai ignore those American-market-specific characters or classic vintage colorways which have some gravitas in the west, we have seen some popularity for them when they have been embraced by companies like Super7.

Does the first mean they will be affected by the latter, no, but I could see a pathway for another US-based arm of Bandai, like Bandai Creation, deciding to do a more American-market based line again. It depends on how well other licensees do in the west, S7 especially, with those left-field choices. You can only ignore money on the table for so long.

Also, someone needs to explain to me the legalities of Toho outright owning an American cartoon that they had no involvement in outside of ownership of Godzilla.

I was under the impression that only the Godzilla character likeness reverted to them; not the independent characters and scripts developed for the series, but I'm not certain.

[John Pannozzi]

The rights to the HB Godzilla cartoon reverted to Toho after 25 years. That's how Classic Media was able to release (some of) it on DVD (licensed from Toho), and then later Toho put it on the official English-language Godzilla YouTube channel.

And yeah, there's not a lot of demand for merchandise for it (especially since it apparently was never released in Japan), but that's another point.

[Legion1979]

The rights to the HB Godzilla cartoon reverted to Toho after 25 years. That's how Classic Media was able to release (some of) it on DVD (licensed from Toho), and then later Toho put it on the official English-language Godzilla YouTube channel.

I need more information than that. This was a Hanna Barbara show produced in the US that used the Godzilla character under license from Toho, right? So how does the entire series become Toho property like that? Aside from the use of the Godzilla character, by what grounds could Toho pssibly claim ownership?

[CheetoKamper]

I think the only way we'd get HB Godzilla is if he shows up on a poll. But hey Giant Condor won so it's not impossible. Just unlikely.

That's hardly an accurate comparison though. Toho alone owns the rights to the Giant Condor, HB Godzilla is split between two parties.

Well yeah if you compare it in a way that I wasn't talking about yeah. I wasn't talking about the rights or ownership. I was talking about how in demand they'd be in Japan as opposed to other monsters. Giant Condor won because it basically became a meme to vote for him. I could see the same thing happening with the HB Godzilla just because it's so out there.

[Legion1979]

I think the only way we'd get HB Godzilla is if he shows up on a poll. But hey Giant Condor won so it's not impossible. Just unlikely.

That's hardly an accurate comparison though. Toho alone owns the rights to the Giant Condor, HB Godzilla is split between two parties.

Well yeah if you compare it in a way that I wasn't talking about yeah. I wasn't talking about the rights or ownership. I was talking about how in demand they'd be in Japan as opposed to other monsters. Giant Condor won because it basically became a meme to vote for him. I could see the same thing happening with the HB Godzilla just because it's so out there.

Giant Condor at the very least is a monster from an official Japanese Toho-produced Godzilla film. As brief as its appearance is, I'd say that still puts it over the HB Godzilla design, especially in Japan.

[CheetoKamper]

That's hardly an accurate comparison though. Toho alone owns the rights to the Giant Condor, HB Godzilla is split between two parties.

Well yeah if you compare it in a way that I wasn't talking about yeah. I wasn't talking about the rights or ownership. I was talking about how in demand they'd be in Japan as opposed to other monsters. Giant Condor won because it basically became a meme to vote for him. I could see the same thing happening with the HB Godzilla just because it's so out there.

Giant Condor at the very least is a monster from an official Japanese Toho-produced Godzilla film. As brief as its appearance is, I'd say that still puts it over the HB Godzilla design, especially in Japan.

I guess people are glossing over the part where I said it was unlikely we'd get HB Godzilla, and are assuming that I'm saying Giant Condor and HB Godzilla are comparable in terms of notoriety in Japan. What I'm saying is Giant Condor was put on a poll, I assume most people thought it'd be funny to make Bandai make us a Giant Condor figure, so now we're getting one. In the same vein if they put HB Godzilla on a future poll or hell Godzooky on a poll there's a chance that it would become the next Giant Condor. Not saying it's going to happen anytime soon but to act like it would never happen when I don't think anyone would've thought we'd be getting Giant Condor in this line especially before a showa Rodan or Mothra but here we are. It is an unlikely possibility.

[Mac Daddy MM]

My HB Godzilla senses were tingling.

HB Godzilla MMS isn't out of the picture at all. The fact we've been getting merch of HB Godzilla now for some time, even. Toho owns that version of Godzilla. There is nothing stopping them from using it. Now the other HB original monsters and such... That I don't know. But last I understood, Toho owns the show through and through.

[Kagutaba]

I guess people are glossing over the part where I said it was unlikely we'd get HB Godzilla, and are assuming that I'm saying Giant Condor and HB Godzilla are comparable in terms of notoriety in Japan.

Even if HB Godzilla had relevancy in Japan, it was moreso the notion using a monster Toho exclusively owned the rights for in comparison to one they didn't. If that assumption is incorrect, fine, but it's definitely news to me despite the Mondo statue we'd gotten a few years back.

[Legion1979]

HB Godzilla MMS isn't out of the picture at all. The fact we've been getting merch of HB Godzilla now for some time, even.

But has any of it been from Japan? (Not counting YMSF)

[John Pannozzi]

The rights to the HB Godzilla cartoon reverted to Toho after 25 years. That's how Classic Media was able to release (some of) it on DVD (licensed from Toho), and then later Toho put it on the official English-language Godzilla YouTube channel.

I need more information than that. This was a Hanna Barbara show produced in the US that used the Godzilla character under license from Toho, right? So how does the entire series become Toho property like that? Aside from the use of the Godzilla character, by what grounds could Toho pssibly claim ownership?

KPA talked about how the rights reverted to Toho back when the Classic Media DVDs of the show came out about 20 years ago. I assume that when the deal was made between Toho, H-B and UPA/Henry Saperstein (as they were Godzilla's licensing agent stateside) to produce the show, contracts stipulated that the rights to it would revert to Toho after 25 years (not uncommon. The animated series X-Men Evolution was a coproduction between Marvel and Warner Bros., but the rights eventually reverted to Marvel. And the rights to the current film Sinners are slated to revert to the filmmakers after a certain amount of years).

Also, IINM, episodes of the show cited Toho, Hanna-Barbera and Benedict Pictures (a sister company to UPA) as copyright holders. And vintage merchandise featuring characters from the cartoon cited Toho but not Hanna-Barbera as the copyright holder.

[CheetoKamper]

I guess people are glossing over the part where I said it was unlikely we'd get HB Godzilla, and are assuming that I'm saying Giant Condor and HB Godzilla are comparable in terms of notoriety in Japan.

Even if HB Godzilla had relevancy in Japan, it was moreso the notion using a monster Toho exclusively owned the rights for in comparison to one they didn't. If that assumption is incorrect, fine, but it's definitely news to me despite the Mondo statue we'd gotten a few years back.

Ok but again I'm not talking about that, I'm aware how rights work. I'm saying this that if they can make that happen it's not off the table.