All of last week, I have been away for a medical procedure. Even though I am finally home now and ordered to relax during the healing process, I am feeling really eager to get back to the swing of things. So I am sorry for not bringing you any news earlier.
KADOKAWA RENEWS GAMERA TRADEMARK
On January 21, 2020, Japanese studio, Kadokawa Pictures Inc., filed an application to renew the trademark for Gamera. The trademark was discovered on the Japanese trademark watch website, chizai-watch.com.
While not the most popular monster, Gamera has not had a movie since Gamera: The Brave back in 2008. The movie did not do very well critically and financially despite Kadokawa's first attempt at making a Gamera film. Fast forward to 2015 at New York Comic Con, a concept trailer for a new Gamera movie was shown. Many thought that Kadokawa Pictures will be doing something new with the franchise, but nothing came from the trailer other than a report a year later with a representative from Kadokawa stating that the trailer was the whole movie.
With the now renewed trademark for Gamera, fans lead to speculate that Kadokawa Pictures may be up to do a new movie with the character. The most popular speculated theory is a cartoon movie because of the "animation" label tagged on to the trademark, but so is the "mobile" tag. For all we know, it could just be for another crossover with another mobile game. If there is a new movie in the works now is the time to do so while the kaiju–craze is still ongoing thanks to Godzilla and the Monsterverse series. If Kadokawa continues to sit around and waited until afterwards then that new film will not perform as well. Why wait until the pot is cold when the fire is still burning?
Until there is confirmation of a new film it could be that the company is just renewing trademark and may not do anything with the franchise itself. So far, Gamera has only made appearances on Japanese mobile games and that is all.
GAMERA FILM SET RELEASING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND NORTH AMERICA
In December's issue of Home Cinema Choice magazine, UK film distributor, Arrow Video, announced they will be bringing the entire Gamera film collection to the UK. Arrow Video concentrates on the restoration and distribution of classic and cult horror/sci-fi films.
Arrow's Fran Simeoni states,
One of our big upcoming projects is a collection of Gamera films; many of these will be available for the first time in the UK and it going to be a real treat to see them all packaged together, with loads extras and stunning packaging. We love working on boxsets and this is one of a few we have planned for 2020…
On February 11th, Twitter page @ArrowHelp was asked if the Gamera film set will be available in North America. The next day, @ArrowHelp confirms that the film set will be coming to the United States and Canada.
It is unknown when in 2020 this boxset will be released. Hopefully, it will be sooner, but it could take even Late Summer/Early Fall for the release of this set.
GODZILLA GETS HIS GAME ON WITH MONOPOLY AND JENGA
Game publisher, USAopoly (The OP), in the collaboration with TOHO International Inc. has announced two new Godzilla tabletop games that are coming to the United States, Monopoly and Jenga.
Demolish the competition in a city - terrorizing twist on the classic board game with MONOPOLY: Godzilla. Begin the invasion by buying, selling, and trading locations like Monster Island, Goro's Workshop, and Kitakami Lake and take over the board with facilities and bases. Custom sculpted tokens of giants such as Mothra, Godzilla, King Ghidorah, and Mechagodzilla easily impose on anything in their path!
The game is packaged with:
1 game board
6 collectible tokens: Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah, Minilla, Mechagodzilla, and Rodan
28 Title Deed Cards
32 houses renamed FACILITIES
12 hotels renamed BASES
16 UNGCC Cards
1 pack of Kaiju Credit Currency
2 dice
Instruction guide
MONOPOLY: Godzilla is 2 - 6 players and can be found in stores this Spring for $39.99.
JENGA: Godzilla Extreme Edition will bring a whole new experience to the game. Godzilla is on the rampage again, this time with JENGA! Remove one block at a time from the tower, and then stack it on top, while Godzilla marches toward the tower raising the threat of destruction with every step! The last player to stack a block on top of the tower without making it fall wins the game!
The game includes:
54 Hardwood Jenga blocks
Custom Godzilla approach track
Custom Godzilla die
Loading tray to assemble the Jenga block tower
Instruction guide
The game can be played by one or more players and can be found in stores this Spring for $19.99.
WANT A LEGO GODZILLA SET? YOU GOTTA VOTE FOR IT!
We have seen Lego make toy sets based on Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, Star Wars, and The Avengers. However, you never see any Lego sets based Godzilla or any other monsters…until now. Lego created a website called Lego Ideas where it allows anybody to submit an idea for a Lego set. If it grabs enough votes and attention, then Lego may make your idea become a reality.
On Lego Ideas, there have been numerous submissions for a Lego Godzilla set before, but one of them has been gaining the most attention.
Submitted by LordofAngmarMB on Lego Ideas, he proposes a fully articulated Lego Godzilla that stands 16 inches tall and 25 inches long. It comes with an atomic breath effect part and extra parts for the eyes and dorsal fins to look like they're glowing/charging. Other possible features he includes are a display background and a mini Lego figure of the original Godzilla actor, Haruo Nakajima, in the original suit.
Even though I am not big on Lego, but I can see me getting this set and displaying with my other Godzilla figures and I am sure so will many others. If you would like to see this set happen then you need to go on the Lego Ideas website and vote for this. I will leave a link so you can go directly to the page and vote.
That is all for this week's news. I apologize again for last week being lackluster, but I am now well enough to write posts again. I am looking forward to your comments on the Gamera trademark and the Godzilla games and Lego set. Make sure to follow me on my Facebook, Twitter, and Minds pages to stay up to date for more news, reviews, and discussions.