Kaiju Week: Day 4 Masters of Trends

Welcome to another riveting post of kaiju week! Today we take a look at a seriously diminished collection of figures from my youth (and hopefully yours too). Without further ado I present to you... Trendmasters!

Fly little bird, fly!

Trendmasters was a 90's toy company that took on the licence to produce Godzilla toys in the west. And boy did they do so in spades! Trendmasters seemed to revive interest in Godzilla for North American kids almost single handedly. Producing an incredibly wide variety of toys, from action figures, mini playsets, birthday supplies, straws, growing toys, banks and all sorts of merchandise. If it weren't for them you might be looking at a different (read: boring) person right now. Sadly Trendmasters went bankrupt somewhere around the early 2000's. If only these people were here today. One thing I am not thrilled about Pacific Rim is how it's merchandise is being handled. The majority (what little there really is to be had) of it is pretty niche. You don't pick up something by Neca at Walmart too often. It is not attempting to appeal to a wider market to get people interested in the film, where as Trendmasters on the other hand was at many mass retailers and not just specialty places (such as Toysrus today where it is the only place I can find the current Bandai Godzilla stuff). Now this article has me hopeful that 2014's Godzilla reboot will NOT make the same mistake. Given the distance between me and my nearest Toysrus, I would actually like to own some toys of the kaiju from both films. It looks like that I will be able to actually collect stuff more easily when it comes to G '14. Trendmasters esque renaissance? Probably not on the same level, but at least something trying to resemble it.

Yes, second block of text for the actual toy above. The above Rodan figure is actually tiny and from a playset. I owned a couple of these, and it is a shame I don't have anymore than this lone Rodan to show for it. He actually has a hole on his back for a "flying" gimmick that was basically a tiny zipline. Pretty nice detail for something so small!

Three heads are better than one

This Ghidorah figure came from Trendmaster's line of monster eggs which were basically plastic Easter eggs with "baby" versions of the monsters inside. And no, I really have no idea Mechagodzilla was in an egg too. Overall I like this figure, I think the only other one I had was Godzilla.

I said Kaiju Week not Shark Week!

Not from childhood but a recent acquisition from Ebay about three years ago. Along with their vast line of Godzilla toys, Trendmasters even did a small line of Gamera figures. Shame it didn't pan out as it would of been really cool to see them do Irys and Legion toys as well. I was on a serious Gamera kick and this was pretty cheap for being mint in box (yes I still have the box) so I bought it without a second thought. I also bought a VHS copy of Gamera: Guardian of the Universe that week too. Its still in plastic and hasn't been opened. Mostly because I bought the DVD trilogy set sometime after. Anyhow this isn't a bad figure, though as expected not a ton of articulation. The small part of the horn is actually a missile you can flick out to fire. My least favorite type of toy missile mechanism for not being half strong, and yet my most favorite for its impossible to destroy a spring that doesn't exist. So polarizing. It makes noise but I removed the batteries and never bought new ones. I know how old batteries get and I didn't want to risk battery acid corroding the chamber or springs. Much less touching any of it. I really wanted a Jiger more though. But Zigra will have to do until I can find her for cheap too.

Moth with the broken wing

Among the many TM lines came bendy figures. I had three of these, being Godzilla, Ghidorah and Mothra. Mothra being the only one that remains. Through repeated use the rubber on these toys would eventually wear down and break, often by the bendy paper-clip type wires poking through the rubber. Or in the case of Mothra's wing here, the rubber simply giving way and cracking. It is only by taking care not to have her flap anymore that she has held onto her wing this long. If a toy has wings I am doing to do my best to make it flap dammit. As you will see...

Noms from '98

Not only did Trendmasters produce Godzilla figures based on Heisei and Showa kaiju. But they also got the licence to produce figures for the '98 American film. The figures were of pretty good quality, excellent detail and plenty of variation, especially in the hatchling figures (wish I could find my red chomping one, he was awesome). The figure on the left isn't actually by TM however. It is the base of a toothbrush, likely from Colgate who still does stuff like this. His arms are bendy, though he doesn't have a huge range of motion with them, and he has a train in his mouth. The one on the right is a hatchling that came with a large egg which you could have it "hatch" from via some mechanism.

Charles R. Knight

What would Trend's line of Godzilla '98 toys be without some good normal sized figures? This figure takes a pose more akin to his namesake than his film base. The largest spine facing the camera is actually a button you can press down to launch a "fire breath" missile. Which of course as been lost to time. Still a really cool toy, awesome detail and good scale to some of my other kaiju figures.

You're Grounded!

Here is another, much larger Rodan figure. It came in one of Trendmasters many monster two packs. Which was a great way to collect, other than the fact you would end up with way more Godzillas than other kaiju. But then again, who said there is such a thing as "too much Godzilla"? This suffers a little from "Mothra Syndrome" in that I played with this so much and had him flap his wings (manually) that one has started to tear off a bit. Another figure that I sought to take care of as I noticed his injury. Now that I'm much more aware, I doubt the wings of these guys are coming off anytime soon.

Mean, green, solid, machine!

Last but most certainly not least is the Godzilla from the two pack mentioned above. This figure has withstood the test of time rather well, despite some paint wear, hes in great condition! If I recall correctly this was the first TM two pack I ever bought, and its the only one to survive! Well except the trading card. Anyhow, a good representation of Godzilla for me and my youthful self. This guy has to have seen so many adventures weather it be in lawns or Lego cities! He will continue to stand proud on my shelf!

Thanks for reading today! Tomorrow's post won't be quite as big, but to keep you occpied heres this neat little click and point Roswell adventure Google has up today, enjoy!