First experiences

My first "Godzilla" movie was the 1998 film. I remember all the posters and other stuff but I was too young to see it in theaters. The first time I saw it was the DVD when I was about 7 years old. I loved it. At first (about a year) I thought Zilla was THE Godzilla but luckily I borrowed a Dinosaur/movie history book from library when I was about 8 years old. I saw a small picture of the real Godzilla in it and a text under it saying something that "this is the original Japanese Godzilla". 

Of course I got really interested and it took me about two years to find the first real Godzilla film from a flea market. It was Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla (1974) VHS. I watched it and I freaking loved it! The low production value (compared to the 1998 film) didn't change the fact that the movie was a lot of fun. After seeing it I wanted to find more and I did: 6 DVD Box including the original 1954 film, Godzilla 1984, Godzilla vs Biollante, Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, Godzilla vs Mothra and Godzilla vs Destroyah. I loved all of them.

This all happened in Finland.

My first Godzilla movie was GMK. I first warched Christmas morning when my dada was flipping channels trying to find something to watch. He landed on GMK and told to stop there so I could watch it. It really interested me so Dad did some digging and found out what it was. In trying to find it so I could watch it from the beginning (I had started it at the final battle) we rented Final Wars, and being young at the time I thought it was the same one. So we looked at Toys R Us for some action figures and I got the Bandai Creation Godzilla 1954 and the Burning Godzilla. Next was the GMK version of King Ghidorah. Now fast forward 7 years and I own all 29 movie, including the 1998 movie, and most of the Bandai, X-plus, Y-msf toys of each monster.

I was a new Godzilla fan and I wanted to watch some Godzilla movies. So I went to Netflix on my console and put on Godzilla: Final Wars for myself. I also managed to watch Ghidorah, The Three Headed Monster, Godzilla vs Megalon, Gojira, Invasion of the Astro Monster, Godzilla vs Mothra: The Battle for Earth and Godzilla vs King Ghidorah thanks to Netflix and online sources which I will not be mentioning for legal reasons.

My first movie was Mothra vs Godzilla. When I was five, I saw the DVD of Godzilla 1998 in a target. My mom said I was too young for the movie. Two years later I'm in Barnes & Nobles looking for a new dinosaur related movie (I intend to become a paleontologist when I grow up.) and they were out. Then I asked for Godzilla remembering the name of the movie I couldn't get two years prior. I got a box set of Godzilla movies containing Godzilla the King of the Monsters, Mothra vs Godzilla, Terror of Mechagodzilla, Rodan and Godzilla's Revenge. I watched Mothra vs Godzilla. Being a young kid, I skipped to the fight scene of the movie. From the moment I saw them fight, I fell in love. Now that I'm older, I watch the movies in their entirety and I have all of them except for 1984. 

It is interesting to read the experiences of all, let me put my own: The first Godzilla that I know was that of Hanna-Barbera, it was when I have 4-5 years old and it was GREAT!!! This new incredible "dinosaur" was amazing, with great powers and fight against evil monsters. Latter, when I had 7-8 years I saw in the old SciFi channel a marathon of Godzilla movies and the first original Godzilla movie that I saw was "Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla" of 1974. It was AWESOME!!! Latter, in the same week, I saw "King Kong vs Godzilla", but in the next week, when "Godzilla vs Megalon" beginning, the cable signal was lost, we call to the cable company and they tell my dad that they were going to check it until tomorrow, so I lost that movie.

So, my first experiences were with the REAL Godzilla, thank God. I liked Gino-1998, but to be sincere, I never consider him like the real Godzilla. The good thing was that in 1999 "Godzilla 2000" was presented and saved the image of Godzilla in many people, of my country at least.

Greetings to all.

I do think I saw 1998's one first but it wasn't that got me got interested in godzilla, what did was when i about 3 years old i think my mom got this book at local sale called "Godzilla VS. Gigan and The Smog Monster" thinking I would like the "dinosaur". I fell in love with godzilla and at my next birthday they got me Godzilla vs Megalon and Godzilla vs Monster Zero, and from there the rest is history.

I guess I've never gone into great detail about this.

It was 1993... or 1994... Can't remember. The Sci-Fi Channel (as it was originally called, not "SyFy") was airing a week long of Godzilla movies every night. Unfortunately, I didn't catch it until Wednesday night/Thursday morning. They were repeating Godzilla vs. Gigan at 1:00am. I was fascinated by it.

Thursday they showed Godzilla vs. Megalon, which I was far less fascinated by, and then Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla which I enjoyed infinitely more. That weekend I rented Godzilla 1985 and I steamrolled through the series from there.

Grew up loving it and I was never ostrisized for it. I was known as the "Godzilla Guy" for awhile, but in an endearing manner. A lot of my friends joyed me in the fun.

my first experienc was actually my first memory i was 1 and my brother was 4 and he came home with godzilla 1985 he put it on the tv and eversince then ive loved watching the king stomp anything in his path

my first experience ws when i saw a trailer for Godzilla 2000, so i said to my dad, "let's go rent it from blockbuster", and then i watched the movie and became a godzilla fan

I don't even remember my first experience.... I think it was Godzilla vs Gigan and if that was it I was anywhere from 4-6 years old. Mind you, I saw it in black and white and this was in the early 80's. After that I would catch pieces of movies like godzilla vs mothra and king kong vs godzilla, but when I 1st saw a book by Ian Thorne I knew I was a fan!!! As I moved from Brooklyn to Long Island and got to enjoy the luxuries of having cable I began to be able to watch more and more godzilla movies. Eventually when I got older and found a newer book I read in tower records I found out about everything after godzilla 1985. For the record, my favorite Godzilla movie is terror of Mechagodzilla, I saw that in 1985 or 1986? The version I saw was on Fox 5 I believe and it had the special in the beginning of it and after they showeed it they never showed that version again......  A few years later I saw Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla and I liked that movie as well. I was a Godzilla geek!!! I have all the heisei movies but I still love terror of mechagodzilla the best. That has my favorite godzilla suit, in my opinion the best Godzilla roars, that movie was just AWESOME to me!!! I still watch it to this day, but I CANNOT wait till May 16th!!! I have a feeling this new Godzilla is gonna be the truth!!!

I remember I was 4 years old, it was 1994, and I was watching cartoons at the apartment my family lived in at the time. I remember this as the first day I ever saw Scooby-Doo, Flintstones, Jetsons, Johnny Quest, and the 70's era Godzilla cartoon.  I was one of those kids that was obsessed with dinosaurs, so much so that I was able to name 20 dinosaurs before I could even count to 20 lol.  I remember seeing that cartoon with Godzilla and Godzooki as he faced off against some monsters in this mysterious under sea world, trying to protect his humans.

Later when I was 5 and we moved away and lived in a house, I remember still thinking about that cartoon and asking my Dad if I could see a Godzilla movie.  We rented the original Godzilla vs Mothra (one of only two movies they had at the one video store in town, the other being Godzilla vs. Biollante) and thinking the movie was really cool but kinda slow and not what I hoped for.  I also remember watching Biollante with my parents and them being shocked at how violent it was (the gunplay among the humans mostly... it was the early 90's and I was young so ya lol).  Later we went to Blockbuster and I found a massive collection of Godzilla films there and thus my obsession began :)

hahahaha good old memories, first godzilla movie when i was 3 was godzilla vs megalon. :)

then when i fell into this fandom and in love with the big g, well my parents started to get all of the vhs tapes that they could find at walmart, but if didnt have the money, blank tapes came into play and they recorded them for me. Oh i was tickled to death when i saw this monster and will always be till the day i die. :)

My first introduction, luckily, was with the original Gojira. An old fan in my family let me watch it, I think I was about 3 years old then, and boy did it scare me and made me cry. It still does to this day. My first true love, Godzilla, had arrived, and we've had a steady and wondrous relationship since.

I think my first experience was watching Godzilla Vs. Megalon as part of a string of movies that would air on Thanksgiving. It would air on WOR channel 9 in New York and was as traditional as your football games and the parade. Other movies included King Kong, Mighty Joe Young, and Terror of MechaGodzilla, one of my personal favorites. I remember this being one of my first experiences with Godzilla because I saw him as the good guy or hero and didn't quite understand what was going on when I saw the original Godzilla from 1954 airing at 2:00 am and saw Godzilla as the antagonist or villain. I seriously thought that the annoying humans had done something to anger Godzilla. I then saw the ending where he dies from the oxygen destroyer and didn't quite understand how Godzilla could live until I saw Godzilla Raids Again years later.

Damn, I wanted to do this topic a while ago :/...

Oh well, you beat me to it :)

Anyway, my first Godzilla experience was when I was a child, around 4 or 5 years old. I remember I went to the flea market in my town and my grandfather had gotten me a VHS pack with 4 Godzilla movies. I can't remember which ones they were exactly, but I do remember I was disappointed because one of them had a label that said "Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla" , but it ended up being a boring movie about Greece. I had a big stuffed dinosaur that I used to recreate the scenes. I really liked it. 

A couple of years later, I found Godzilla 2000 on TV and I got interested again.

My grandfather died some years ago. I get a warm feeling when I remember this. I think Godzilla movies remind me of my grandfather because thanks to him I met Godzilla.