I was reading "Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters" which explores Godzilla and it's huge impact on American culture ie. from using the suffix zilla to mean huge, his use in advertising and most peoples at least cursory knowledge of who he is etc.

Just wondering if any Godzilla fans wanted to share how they got to appreciate him.

My first viewing experience was:


I got it for Christmas from my dad who was always supportive of my love of B monster movies. We had a deal, he would take me to sports games which as a kid I had no interest in and he would watch classic monster movies with me. There's nothing technilogically special about them beyond the groundbreaking first one but they still seem to hold their magic for me. Godzilla depending upon the movie is either a hero or a villain either way I always root for him.
My father and I never had much in common when I was young but it was something we could do together. He never complained and never even flinched at the god awful dubbing.

I think my appreciation for the the G man is seated more in the way it brought my father and I closer together than family dinners, playing catch and cub scouts ever could. I think my father would say the same. Interestingly enough we stuck with Godzilla as I grew up and he grew older. We watched the god awful 1998 american version in NY so we could be in the city Godzilla would trample. The movie dissapointed but the experience didn't.

I saw Godzilla for the first time in the theater watching Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster when I was a kid. After that, we would go to the public library and watch all of the Godzilla movies they had on super 8 using the library's projectors. This was, obviously, before Beta/VHS then DVD.

I grew up on this stuff. My very first movie experience was a double feature of King Kong (the original) and Vincent Price in House of Wax (in 3-D!) when I was five in NYC.

Every Sunday they played some sort of Godzilla movie when I was young. So I remember watching them.

I remember reading about the guy (or one of) in the Godzilla suit. He was not a big guy, but they would pour at least a cup of sweat out of the bottom of the suit every time they stopped for a break. Heavy rubber + hot lights = Saunazilla.

I loved it when Medicom released the 12" Godzilla with the GI Joe-type figure inside. One of the only action figure I ever bought two of - one to keep new and one to play with.

http://www.mwctoys.com/REVIEW_091605b.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN2ANvC9SNQ