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.

While these icons are not known to have an official name from Toho, they are also colloquially referred to as copyright icons, kaiju icons,[1] or stamps.[2]

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 30cm Godzilla Series 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 some only included trademark disclaimers instead. Sometimes, certain monsters' icons were not included while others' were.

Most of the 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

Cancelled/defunct icons

Toho has registered several trademark icons in the past that ultimately have either 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 home video releases of the film have not included any icon at all, just a trademark disclaimer for Godzilla himself.
  • 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 its subsequent merchandise. Eventually, Toho removed the BabyGodzilla icon from the film entirely, and all current home video releases of the film only include a trademark disclaimer for Godzilla himself and no icons.
  • Mechagodzilla MFS-3 - In 2002, Toho created a separate trademark icon for Kiryu, though it was still called "Mechagodzilla," which appeared in the Japanese version of Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee. A second iteration of the icon labelled "Mechagodzilla MFS-3" appeared in Godzilla: Save the Earth and tie-in materials for the game, but it has not been seen since. Currently, Toho includes every version of Mechagodzilla under a single icon, although Super Mechagodzilla has his own icon.

Video

Wikizilla: YouTube Mini Kaiju Facts: Godzilla Monster Trademark Icons

References

This is a list of references for Trademark icons. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]

  1. "KAIJU ICONS - T-SHIRT (BLACK VARIANT)". Cavity Colors. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  2. "Godzilla Classic Mechagodzilla Stamp PopSockets PopGrip: Swappable Grip for Phones & Tablets". Amazon. Retrieved 13 December 2021.

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