The Gotengo, or as it's known better in the West, The Atragon - the flying submarine seen in the 1963 film of the same name.
This lovely little model, released in 2003 by Bandai and similar in size to the small Konami range of Sci-fi models, was given to me by my blog friend, Will Schwartz, who is a big fan of Japanese Sci-fi movies.
I first watched the movie during the late sixties at my local ABC Cinema as part of their Saturday morning matinee for kids - remember those?
I was really taken by the design of the sub, with it's flying capability and it's drilldozer front, something quite common in Japanese mecha. As the film came out in 1963, it does pre-date the Thunderbird Mole which would have appeared in 1965.
This is a good example of futuristic vehicles featured in Japanese Sci Fi movies.There are many more and I encourage you to look into this.I have a few toy versions of vehicles used in various Godzilla movies and the Ultraman TV series.
ReplyDeleteHi Brian, I do like quite a few of the vehicles seen in Japanese Sci-fi movies, especially those in the sixties. Unfortunately, unlike the States, growing up in the UK it was very rare to see a Godzilla, or indeed any Japanese sci-fi film on TV, apart from Marine Boy or Gigantor. In fact, even these days, I can't think of any proper Japanese Godzilla film being shown in recent times. Nowadays, gaming has made all things Japanese sci-fi very popular, but back in the sixties and seventies, as it had no nostalgic value, it wasn't generally popular in the UK. I get a lot of background info on stuff from Will Schwartz who's a big fan of both Godzilla and Ultraman. I'll post a few photos of the larger Revoltec Atragon later. Cheers
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