Trademark icons
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Toho has created various trademark icons for their kaiju which long appeared on most official merchandise related to the Godzilla franchise, but have since become mostly defunct.
Overview
Toho's trademark icons feature black-and-white artwork of the monster in question, surrounded in a circle with the monster's official trademarked English name written across the bottom. The artwork used in the icons is generally taken from official artwork of the monster, although there are some unique cases where other images are used. An example would be Sanda and Gaira's icons, which feature pictures of the X-Plus figures of the monsters.
Trademark icons were often featured on official merchandise, along with additional legal disclaimers for the monsters. Almost every major monster from the Godzilla franchise possesses an icon. Some monsters possess multiple icons for different individual forms or incarnations, while some icons apply to more than one character. Not all merchandise featured these icons, and instead some only included trademark disclaimers. Sometimes, certain monsters' icons were not included while others' were.
Most monsters' trademark icons have ceased to be used on recent merchandise in both the U.S. and Japan. Toys such as those in Bandai's Movie Monster Series and Playmates' Godzilla lines default to a Godzilla icon, regardless of which monster the figure depicts.
Gallery
An icon for Toho
Godzilla's icon in color, from Marvel Comics' Essential Godzilla, King of the Monsters
An alternate Godzilla icon used in IDW Publishing's various Godzilla comic series
A newer Godzilla icon, used in Japanese merchandise; includes the year of release
A second Jet Jaguar icon used in Godzilla: Unleashed
A third Jet Jaguar icon also used in Godzilla: Unleashed
Defunct/cancelled icons
Toho has registered several trademark icons in the past that have ultimately been cancelled or rendered defunct. They include:
- Godzilla - Prior to the creation of Marvel Comics' Godzilla trademark icon, Toho commissioned a different icon, featuring the outline of the Showa Godzilla with "TOHO CO, LTD" written outside of the circle.
- Godzilla (1998) - For the 1998 American Godzilla film, Toho and TriStar Pictures registered a new icon for their version of Godzilla. This icon appeared only on merchandise for the film, notably Trendmasters' toys for the film, before it was cancelled by Toho. This icon was replaced by Godzilla's default icon for subsequent home video releases and merchandise for the 1998 film, although since 1999 all releases of the film have not included any icon at all, just a trademark disclaimer.
- Baby Godzilla - Similar to the Godzilla (1998) icon, Toho and TriStar created their own icon for the Baby Godzillas from the 1998 film. While the Godzilla (1998) icon was a variation of Godzilla's normal icon, the Baby Godzilla icon was actually an entirely new trademark, as Toho's icon for BabyGodzilla from Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II spelled the name as one word. Like what had happened to the Godzilla (1998) icon, this icon only appeared on merchandise such as toys before Toho cancelled it and applied the existing BabyGodzilla icon to the film and subsequent merchandise. Eventually, Toho removed the BabyGodzilla icon from the film entirely, and all current home video releases only include a trademark disclaimer for Godzilla himself and no icons.
- Mechagodzilla MFS-3 - At some point, Toho decided to create a trademark icon for Kiryu, the Millennium Mechagodzilla, under the name "Mechagodzilla MFS-3." This icon only appeared in Godzilla: Save the Earth before being cancelled. Currently, Toho includes every version of Mechagodzilla under a single icon, although Super Mechagodzilla has his own icon.
Godzilla's original trademark icon
Video
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