Being a space age and monsters fan I enjoy crossovers of the two genres especially on toy box art. The Japanese are masters at this and there are countless examples of what they call
Kaiju, or giant monsters, terrorising hapless military men, astronauts and cities. The most famous Kaiju is Godzilla. The genre might be said to have eaten itself in
Destroy All Monsters but survived many more outings and is brought right up to date in this year's monster blockbuster,
Pacific Rim.
A good example of a space age Kaiju crossover toy is Strange Explorer. The box art depicts a huge King Kong-like Gorilla battling with a space tank.
The side panel shows the monster ape holding up the tank weightlifter style and is typical of what most Kaiju did to military hardware! A good movie example is Frankenstein Conquers The World, in which a 50 foot tall atomically-mutated man destroys most of Japan! Famous Monsters of Filmland caught the monster's charming grin in this classic Basil Gogos magazine cover.
The West had its own 'Kaiju'. In fact America's King Kong kicked it all off, followed by countless overgrown creatures like Mighty Joe Young, The Colossal Beast, Ymir, the Danish Reptilicus and of course, Cornwall's very own Gorgo.
Despite this long tradition of huge monsters in the West though, I can't think of a single example of American or European toy box art showing them pitted against spacemen. Why? Is it Japan's unique place in atomic history that has lead to their fascination with Kaiju-cum-space toys? Any ideas readers? Theories, observations and pictures of space monster toys welcomed. Now run for the lives!
