There goes Tokyo

How many people out there remember the bad Godzilla movies from the 60's and 70's?


So what is it about the Japanese and these shows/toys about giant rubber monsters and robots?

Shogun Warriors
Ultraman
Spectreman
Johnny Sokko and his flying robot
The Space Giants

I don't understand it.  I watched it as a kid, and was reminded of it while catching an old rerun of Mystery Science Theater 3000, but I still don't understand it.

This show wasted plenty of my time during my college years on a Saturday evening, and though they are tongue in cheek riffing on the movie maker's attempts to destroy their own set it encapsulates my view of this genre perfectly.

Essentially a grown man in a rubber suit walks around a model set of a city and trashes it amidst lilliputian pyrotechnics.  I suppose the production time must have been extensive and expensive, because of 2 factors.

First you had to have the models of the city ready to trash in the first place and even with a team of little Japanese men putting these together it had to take a while.  Think model railroading combined with firecracker sized pyrotechnics.  Gomez from the Addams Family would have loved it.  He was a man ahead of his time.

Secondly, I would think you would have to have more than one of each building available in case you had to do another "take."  "Ooooops, Hiyashi you were supposed to step on the Kyoto Temple AFTER you run through the electric power lines."  As far as I know, they saved money by using the same actor in all the rubber monster suits.  He just went from show to show, movie set to movie set.

Technically he never said anything, there were just sound effects for the monsters so I believe he got paid a lower rate as well.  Wouldn't that feel weird though, to tell people you had to join the Screen Actor's Guild because you played Megalon or the Smog Monster?

Then there are all the robots, additional monsters and people involved in this whole process.  Whereas these toys looked cool to me as a kid, they're still weird.

This is obsessive by anybody's standards.  Thankfully I think this movement has subsided at least insofar as imports of these shows go.  Carryover of this theme can be found in "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" and the monster aspect from "Pokemon" and "Bakugan." So maybe its not as dead as I'd like it to be.  I'm certain of one thing though, this is rooted in a conspiracy against model railroaders worldwide.  If you don't believe me, just see below for proof.  Oh the horror, the horror!  That was the Southbound Hokaido Express.  "Oh, oh.  There goes Tokyo. Go go Godzilla!"