One of the highlights of the Daves Zoo Tour 2014 has been the little side trips we have been doing, exploring other interests outside of the animal kingdom. On my second day in the Chicago area we visited a store that is a dream come true, as it caters to Godzilla fans. The name of the store is Monster Island Toys and though it is kind of unassuming from the outside, the inside is chock full of eye candy for Godzilla fans and toy lovers!
The 50’s will go down in history as the greatest decade of all time for science fiction films. During this 10 year period we were introduced to Godzilla, Rodan, giant insects and arachnids and of course every type of alien being bent on invading Earth imaginable. It truly was a great time to be a fan of not only movies, but of science fiction. Some of these films were great; some not so great. The one thing they all had in common though was great imaginations at a time where Hollywood was chock full of original ideas.
This is part four of my ongoing series covering the alien invasion films of the nineteen fifties. In the past I have reviewed THE MAN FROM PLANET X (see HERE), THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (see HERE) and one of my all time favorites, THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (see HERE). Now I am here to review another great addition, INVADERS FROM MARS.
Some more shots of G-FEST XX’s Monster Model entries!
2013 marked G-FEST (Godzilla Festival’s) 20th gathering and I’d attended faithfully the last ten. Of all the conventions I’ve gone to, this one always has a special place in my heart because it gave me so many happy memories with my kids (as I tearfully explained once HERE). Not to mention, Godzilla fans are really more like family than just fellow enthusiasts which makes it more like an annual reunion as opposed to Expo. Unfortunately, the July weekend it took place this year couldn’t have presented more of a challenge for me as my Friday & Saturday was booked solid with events I was locked into attending.
Since I was a kid I have been a fan of kaiju films. Every Saturday afternoon I would sit in front of the television set watching that week’s installment of the Creature Double Feature, as they showed such great films as Rodan, War Of The Gargantuas, Frankenstein Conquers The World and a whole variety of Godzilla and Gamera films. Yes they were cheesy but they were also a lot of fun and they are one of my fondest memories growing up.
Back in my junior high and high school years, I admit to being a pretty serious collector of comic books. This was back in the early ’80s and well before The X-Men, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Batman, and The Avengers would all become modern day pop culture & box office phenomena (as I write this post, Iron Man 3 just pulled in $175M on it’s opening weekend here in the US). Unfortunately, back in my day a guy needed to downplay his love of super heroes lest he receive daily wedgies from the school bully while consistently repelling members of the opposite sex.
I discussed my comic book history back when I reviewed The Avengers movie last year (seen HERE). This year I decided to use the C2E2 (Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo) occasion to not only cover the Return of Svengoolie (see last post) but also as an opportunity to reconnect with my comic book past.
Terror from Beyond the Dave 