Gamera 1995 (Bandai/Movie Monster Series)

Gamera is the Guardian of Earth, savior of children, protector of humanity... and completely ridiculous. He's a giant turtle with tusks that breathes fire and has jet engines that light up when he draws his arms and legs inside his shell. None of that is anywhere as crazy sounding as his roar. Ever been super emotional and stub your toe? It kinda sounds like the noise you'll make. His adventures usually revolve around rescuing some kids whom somehow found themselves in danger from some other giant monster or space aliens who specifically kidnapped them and have a giant monster. Despite how silly it sounds (and is)... Gamera is completely bad ass. His fights with other monsters are absolutely BRUTAL beat downs full of carnage.

In 1995, Gamera got a much grittier reboot with a new series of films that took away all the corniness of the older movies and gave the world the hardcore Gamera he always was. Gamera: Guardian of the Universe and it's sequels were amazing kaiju movies that I fondly watched after classes in college. They revitalized the big turtle and even though newer appearances (like the recent Netflix series) have returned him closer to his more friendly roots, nobody has forgotten how hardcore he is since. This soft vinyl of Gamera represents his appearance in Gamera: Guardian of the Universe. It's a newer figure, released around 2020 (I think) by Bandai (the best) in their Monster Movie Series. It was a Christmas gift from my wife who somehow tolerates all my nonsense. Gamera fits in wonderfully with my other Bandai kaiju and represents the character very well. His sculpt practically mirrors his on screen appearance and while articulation is the standard amount for a toy like this... it feels like all he needs. This is a great figure of our protector and I'm proud to call it mine. 

Sega dreams of Gamera (and so do I)

I've had Gamera on my mind today, because I like him. It's a little unfair that Gamera doesn't have the most shinning legacy, admittedly being widely perceived as a low rent wanna be Godzilla will do that for you. But man, it's really hard to hate a giant fire breathing turtle. For one thing, Gamera's fights have always been crazy violent. In his goofier children's movie roots to his more darker and gritty 90's movies... Gamera's fights are usually full of blood shed, severed limbs, and carnage all around. It's just insane.

The commercial above is for a Gamera VMU mini game. Gamera has had some good showings in video games and while the Dreamcast may have been short lived, it's still pretty well regarded. The VMU was really before it's time. A memory card that served as a portable gaming device. It was pretty limited, but in time I could have seen it developing into something special. Sadly we'll never know as the Dreamcast, as great as it was, pretty much had all it's momentum killed by the PS2.

The game is called Gamera: Dream Battle. Basically it was for sale in a neat package loaded on a VMU with an included Gamera figure. Pretty dang neat. It was the standard virtual pet/monster fighter type game that was all the rage at the time. If somebody had the prior released Mothra: Dream Battle VMU, they could battle those as well. That's pretty dang great, Mothra vs Gamera, the winner is you.