HOW I GOT HERE.

My name is Trey, but you may know me better as Gryphon. If I haven't made it clear enough, I am a huge Godzilla fan. 
Being a part of a few Godzilla themed groups on Facebook as I am, a question that comes up pretty often is how did you became a fan. Well, this is my story...

Now my memories of when I was a kid are pretty scattered, so I will try to recall this tale to the best of my ability.

In my early elementary school days, I knew this one kid who I would play with (Can't remember his name). On one fateful day, he showed me something that would change my life forever...

It was a Dor Mei "Godzilla" figure. I grew up loving dinosaurs and had many toys that I would play with, but when I saw this thing that looked like no other dinosaur that I knew about. I asked this friend if I could borrow this toy to play with and he somehow told me yes. I ended up having the toy for a few days before I finally gave it back.
  
Months pass and I went to visit a local Blockbuster Video store and my mother, knowing about my love for dinosaurs suggested that I check out a Godzilla movie. The movie I ended up renting was called "Godzilla 1985"

I ended up watching one of the more serious and intense movies of the series, I'm honestly surprised I wasn't put off by all the long talking scenes or frightened by Godzilla himself, but I loved every minute of it. 
After that I needed more and the Blockbuster did indeed have a few other movies. The next movies I watched were Godzilla Raids Again and Godzilla vs. Monster Zero. I even caught a few movies playing on television. I still have a VHS tape my Grammie gave me where she recorded 4 Godzilla movies on one tape that AMC played during their old MonsterFest marathons hosted by Roger Corman. I could tell by the quality of the films that they were made before the one I saw, but I didn't care. I loved them and I quickly became a junkie. 

Sadly, not everyone shared my love.
An important anecdote to this story is that I have high functioning Autism. I don't talk very much, I'm an extremely shy person and I am very much prone to anxiety. As such, dealing with bullying was not easy for me. 
Other kids at school would constantly berate and make fun of me for a variety of reasons, my love of Godzilla was just more ammunition for them, especially since I was very open about it.

Now, I'm barely scratching the surface on what a high functioning Autistic person goes through, but one other behavior I wish to highlight is a particular obsession on a certain thought and topic. That was me to a tee when it came to the Big G. I managed to get a hold of several books from libraries that taught me a little bit about the history of Godzilla. I gained even more knowledge thanks to a new thing that I was just starting to get familiar with: the Internet! 
Exposure to even more movies greatly increased with the release of the 1998 Godzilla film.

As far as any collectibles go, I didn't have much. Remember, I live in the United States and there weren't as many toy companies eager to put out Godzilla merchandise. In the early 90's the only hope you had were bootleg toys or Trendmasters. The later actually put out some real quality figures, even if the sculpts weren't always the most accurate. I still remember being jealous of my cousin who got a Trendmasters Mecha-King Ghidorah figure as a gift.
I did manage to get a Godzilla figure from KB Toys as a reward for something good I did (again, sketchy childhood memory).

Sometime in the early 2000's, while I was in middle school, my Dad's company sent him to Nagoya, Japan for some work. Knowing that Japan was the birthplace of Godzilla, I asked if he could bring me back a DVD of King Kong vs. Godzilla so I could see the fabled 'Alternate Ending'. Of course, it wasn't true but that was the least of the problems with that, I learned about the unfortunate concept of region coding.

But what he got me instead more than made up for it, he got me Japanese Bandai vinyl figures of Godzilla Junior, Fire Rodan and Mechagodzilla. To this day, those are some of the figures I treasure most and wouldn't even think of parting with.

Thankfully, collectibles are much easier to come by these days. After I graduated high school, I used what allowance, birthday and Christmas money I could to help build my collection, buying figures, movies, video games and any other odd and unusual stuff. I had a hell of a time trying to get a job but my patience payed off and now I'm with a pretty good company that pays well. I'd like to think I have a good handle on keeping up with responsibilities and feeding my habits. Or as well as I can given my current situation.
If there is any figure I wish I could add to my collection more than any others, it would be the one that started me on this path. That blue, Dor Mei, shark fin Godzilla figure is one that I've been hunting down for years. If anyone reading this happens to have one for sale, let me know.

[UPDATE: August 10, 2020]
I have finally acquired the figure. 

Up until a few years ago, I mostly kept my interest in Godzilla to myself as no one else shared it. I would tell people occasionally, but I didn't really have that one friend who I could really geek out about it with, watch the movies together and have in-depth discussions with. Until one friend I knew from high school told me of his step brother who was also a fan. Why he never mentioned it to me when we were in class, I'll never know. You may know him as the Kaiju Kidd. I wouldn't really get to know him until I learned that he would host screenings of classic films at a local comic book store on Sundays. After I attended a double feature of 'Clash of the Titans' and 'Jason and the Argonauts' I made it a point to start going every weekend. We would watch a variety of different movies and shows ranging from Godzilla, King Kong, Ray Harryhausen, various creature features, Super Sentai/Power Rangers, Ultraman, Kamen Rider and even Big Bad Beatleborgs one day (which we still enjoy doing to this day). Some of my favorite memories from those events, labeled as 'Klub Kaiju', include attending a riff of the 1998 Godzilla, a showing of the original Godzilla before going to see the 2014 film and a month long marathon of 'Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger', the Japanese show that was the basis for 'Power Rangers Super Megaforce.' 
Unfortunately nothing lasts forever. In July of 2014, an unknown store goer decided to report our activities to the MPA (out of spite to our suspicion) and Kidd had to deal with accusations of violating copyright laws even though we were technically not doing anything illegal. We were simply watching movies through a non-profit, community run event. Luckily he wasn't fined or charged with a crime, but if we wanted Klub Kaiju to continue we would have to get licenses to play movies weather we charged for viewings or not. The writing was on the wall and Klub Kaiju was no more. It honestly made me very sad, I was looking forward to an upcoming summer theme month we had planned and I was even thinking of suggesting a dinosaur themed month.

Going back for a bit, during the middle of these events is when I started getting into this thing called social media. My two main sites were Gaia Online and Myspace, I had been posting a lot using their journal functions. They were mostly random posts, occasional movie reviews and rants, which were all the rage back then. Then I tried making my own blog on one of those "make your own blog sites" and I named it 'The Gryphon's Lair' after an old screen name from a website that I don't use anymore. 
Unfortunately I didn't keep up with it and it was soon lost, along with most of my journals, probably for the best as the quality of my writing was nowhere near what it is today. At some point in January 2013 I made a Blogger account (even though I don't remember doing it), but I sort of lost interest in blogging and didn't pick it back up until August 2015 when I decided to make a post comparing the cast list of 2 different Jungle Book movies. I wouldn't find my real edge until weeks later.

I had been watching figure reviews on YouTube and on a whim I tried doing it myself with a figure I had just gotten.
So, on September 8, 2015 I posted my very first figure review and I finally found a blog subject I could keep up with on a semi constant basis. I even got better at writing movie reviews and my good friend Rhiannon was kind enough to offer her services as an editor for me, which I am eternally grateful for.
I might have even inspired Kaiju Kidd to start his own blog.

And that's how I got here.
If you made it this far I want to thank you for sticking with me for this long, I hope you've enjoyed reading my content and look forward to what comes next. I've got some big, big plans for The Gryphon's Lair...

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and thank you for joining me here in my lair.

So long...

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. 
Thanks for reading!

https://www.facebook.com/TheGryphonsLair/

PLAYMATES TOYS KONG 11" | Figure Review

So it's come to this, I'm reviewing a Playmates Toys figure.



I'm sure you've seen the new figures released from Playmates. Most range from 'meh' looking repaints of older Bandai figures.While others are a flaming train wreck where even the survivors with minor injuries are begging for death.


You should have been in that Walmart with me when I saw that Shin figure, I said "Oh my god" out loud, I said it loud enough to where I'm pretty sure someone would have heard me. Needless to say along with the lazy sculpt and paint, Playmates was not making a good first impression.

I soon excepted that these figures just weren't for me and put them out of my mind. A few weeks pass and I just so happen to be looking in the toy aisle at my local Walmart and I saw they had 3 Kong figures and a Final Wars Godzilla. The more I looked at the Kong, the more I started to kinda like it.

I don't think I can look at this figure the way I usually look at figures I review as this figure wasn't primarily meant for adult collectors such as myself. I feel like I shouldn't be too overly critical about it, but I will highlight a few things about it that I find interesting. 

This Kong figure is obviously based on his appearance in 2017's 'Kong: Skull Island' and the sculpt is pretty accurate to that design. The fur doesn't have the deepest amount of detail but it does the job well enough.
Kong has a closed fist and an open hand, so if you wanna try jamming a small girl figure or even a tree branch in there, you could.

Kong's face is nicely sculpted with a very nice roaring expressing with some gnarly looking teeth. I would question why the gums are painted the same color as the teeth, but at this point, I'm just happy that the eyes look good unlike that other abomination...ugh...

I should mention that Kong can feel very wobbly when standing since the feet are not flat. You may have to fiddle with the legs a bit till you can get him to a point where you feel confident that he can stand on your shelf without falling over easily. 

The paint on Kong is good. He's mostly a light brown color while the face and chest are grey and his hands and feet are black . All the colors compliment each other nicely, they even painted a big scratch on the chest. Nice touch.

Kong's articulation is as follows:
Head can rotate at the neck. Arms rotate at the shoulder. Hands rotate at the wrist. Legs rotate at the hips and the feet rotate.

This Kong figure stands at just 11 inches and if you've got the Jakks Pacific 12 inch Godzilla 2019 figure, they look very nice together!

Despite my initial views on the Playmates figures, I ended up being quite pleased with this Kong figure. If you're serious about picking up any of the playmates figures, I feel confident recommending this Kong, he is most definitely the pick of the litter!
Of course this is just the first wave of Godzilla/Kong figures from Playmates, I hope there are more surprises coming soon. And a lot less mismatched eyes...

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and thank you for joining me here in my lair.

So long...

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. 
Thanks for reading!

https://www.facebook.com/TheGryphonsLair/