UchuGame

The UchuGame (宇宙ガメ, UchūGame^?) is the Gamera puppet and suit design used in the 1980 film, Gamera: Super Monster.

Name[]

The UchuGame's name comes from Gamera: Super Monster's Japanese title, specifically Uchu (宇宙, Uchū^?), meaning "space," and Game, which comes from Gamera (ガメラ^?).

Detail[]

Following Tokuma Shoten's purchase of Daiei, the company decided to produce a new entry in the Gamera series, the first since Daiei went bankrupt following the production of Gamera vs. Zigra. Unfortunately, almost all of Daiei's suits and props used for the Gamera series were destroyed in a fire shortly after the studio closed its doors, so new ones were needed. Daiei contracted Equis Productions, who had created the suits and props for the entire Gamera series to that point, to build a new Gamera suit. The suit was ultimately never used in the film aside from a brief shot of its lower body, as Daiei elected to simply use stock footage of Gamera and his various monster costars from previous films instead. A new flying Gamera prop that was constructed by Equis was utilized for new footage of Gamera, totaling only a few minutes of screentime. This prop was heavily based on the previous Gamera design, the only major difference being its very light green skin color.

The Gamera suit that went unused in the film was used for promotional appearances and commercials, and was utilized in a single shot in the film when Gamera knocks over a film poster featuring a monster called "Dojira" (a parody of Godzilla.