what the f is the address for the vinyl requiem forums?? i went there once and just cant figure it out anymore!
Welcome SL..You started off right with an intro. BTW all noobs are supposed to send me one vinyl toy as a show of RFSO spirit......
man i'm glad i started up a couple weeks before you got here. that is a tough rule for all that came after you better listen to him too, SL
What rules......the rules aways seem to change for newbees....razing a newbee is simply a right of passage on Skullbrain....it shows how willing and dedicated a new member is to post there true feeling on the board as well a allow the board to shape the newbee into something they could be proud of....I wear my battle scars with pride and thank the board for allowing my growth in Kaiju prowess....can i get a witness!!!!
Howdy SL! I guess I thought you were here all along because of your use of one of Bryan Flynn's prints as an avatar at KR. Good to see ya here.
2) Don't abuse the word Kaiju. Not every Japanese vinyl toy is Kaiju. Fight figures are not Kaiju. All noobs should be forced to chant that like a mantra. Welcome aboard Samurai Lincoln!
Yeah, thanks for saying that turtle. I know there's always going to be some debate on that subject, but I cringe a little whenever someone says "kaiju means 'monster' in Japanese." Argh, not quite.
Not to start this old-as-time discussion, but I don't count them as Kaiju. Maybe related, but not. Kaijue, to me, means big ass monster, like Godzilla. So Eyezon, Gargamel biggens (zag/hedolans/bakos), Dream Rocket monsters, Anrakus monsters, things like that ARE Kaiju. I don't really count RxH as fight figs myself, they're not really the same to me. No boxing or wrestling or judo gear going, just weird lil guys. I dunno, a whole new can of worms just opened in this "welcome" thread. WELCOME!
Well the S7 store lists them under "new kaiju" so that or "neo" seem good enough to me for the sake of reference. Although obviously there's crossover in terms of appreciation and manufacture, technically, the pre-toy roots of fight figures are more in the art of Big Daddy Roth than Japanese cinema. As recently discussed, a good catch-all loose definition for "kaiju" is probably "giant mysterious beast," especially when based on giant mysterious beasts from Japanese kaiju movies and television shows, "kaijin" being the term for humanoid, human-scale Japanese monsters and their toys. The problem I have with saying that "monster" is the English equivalent is that technically, it's not, at least given that the original primary English definition of "monster" implied something biological gone wrong, not necessarily the chimeric fantasy creatures of cinema. (Although in contemporary common usage, the latter has probably replaced the former.) Maybe I just spent too much time being nerdy in my cactus-and-succulent obsessive days. In that context, "monstrous" meant plants with spectacularly weird growth anomalies, often considered more desirable by collectors than "normal" plants. At a certain point "to each their own" is going to have to do, because the finer points are debatable. Even that assertion is debatable LOL. Oops, sorry for the worms, but on the other hand, a diversion like this is soooooo Skullbrain, so indeed ... welcome!
What then about the Gargamel fight figures? Gargamess is an obvious nod to Gomes, and Bullmask is a nod to Bullmark. I'm not sure if I consider fight figures to be kaiju, but they definitely reference them in some ways. Neo-kaiju is probably a pretty apt term.
Welcome, Sam! Nice analysis, xono ... The 'humanoid-human-scale' aspect of kaiju has always fascinated me (indeed, I frequently tend to be drawn to stuff that, technically, may not meet many definitions of kaiju, the stuff that could not be done by a guy in a rubber suit.) But, speaking of human-scale and rubber suits, I briefly toyed with the idea of building a collection of evolutionarily preposterous kaiju - specifically, the 'knee-walkers.' There are several classic kaiju who, in their most common incarnations, 'crawl.' That is, they are shown down on 4 legs, but they're 'walking' on their knees. The fact that this would never occur in nature, but is required by the practicalities of men in rubber suits, somehow amuses me tremendously. CC
Welcome, nice of you to introduce yourself. You will not get shit flung at you if you don't act like an idiot. Simple concept that some people seem to ignore. Have fun.
