Godzilla ESCAPES

By BOB ROSS of The Tampa Tribune

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TAMPA - She may have busted loose a few days early, but she's back in the box now. And her handlers are not talking. She, of course, is Godzilla, the raging, roaring, giant mutant lizard from Japan who is about to crash New York's skyline - by way of the nation's movie theaters - on May 20. Godzilla's premature ``escape'' came when a Polk County movie aficionado accidentally found one of the monster's action figures on sale at a Lakeland Toys R Us store.

``I went there looking for another set of toys,'' said Gary Tabar Jr., 40, a collector and science fiction fan who lives in Davenport and works at Disney's Animal Kingdom. ``I saw a box full of Godzilla stuff that a stock guy had gotten out. The cases said, `Do not shelve before May 20' in big green letters. I did tell the store manager about that, but he let me buy the item I had picked out before he quickly took the stuff into the back room.'' Tabar said he had no idea the embargoed goodies would be available.

``I just happened to be there,'' he said. ``They were really nice about it.'' Tabar quickly posted the discovery - along with information he had gathered from other Godzilla cognoscenti - on his Internet Web site, Garee's Page, at http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/ellison/86/index.html.

The Web site describes four different Godzilla toy sizes, priced from $9.99 (baby Godzillas with break-open eggs) to $39.99 for the biggest model, which Tabar says ``looks really cool.'' The New York Post got hold of the story and published a picture Sunday.

``The Post figured out what store it was,'' Tabar marveled. ``I didn't tell them where I found the thing. I mean, it was an honest mistake. I didn't want anyone to lose his job over it.''

They probably won't. ``I have not been able to confirm any of this,'' said Rebecca Caruso, vice president of corporate communications for Toys R Us in Paramus, N.J. ``If it did happen, it was an isolated situation.'' The new Godzilla toys will go on sale May 20, Caruso said, and ``They will be in all of our stores. I don't have prices or other details yet.''

Tribune calls to Sony Pictures publicity were not returned Tuesday.

The manufacturer of the new Godzilla action figures is maintaining the monster's pre-release coyness. The company, Trendmasters, shows bits of Godzilla's scaly anatomy on its Web site, www.trendmasters.com, but as of Tuesday afternoon the online mail-order menu did not include Godzilla.

Sunday's New York Post story included a picture of the official Combat Claw Godzilla, equipped ``with powerstrike terror talons,'' according to the packaging. ``The new Godzilla,'' the Post reported, ``has bigger spiny plates on his back, more teeth, a flatter head and a longer tail than its earlier incarnation in Japanese movies.''

Those plastic playthings are merely a taste of the film's huge merchandising campaign. Some 3,000 product tie-ins have been licensed, from beer to beach towels. But the official marketing position of the film's distributor, Sony Pictures, is that Godzilla images are to be withheld until the film opens May 20.