Godzilla Fan Dispenses Trivia while Working

Godzilla models, miniatures, toys and posters compete for attention in the display case.

Two framed Godzilla posters adorn a wall in the customers’ bathroom.

Soon a patron to the Powder Springs Street Southwest DEKRA Emission Check location asks Manager Dennis Reid a question he has fielded hundreds of times since placing some of his Godzilla collectibles in a store display case about five years ago.

“People constantly ask if that’s my Godzilla collection,” Reid said. “I say, ‘Yes,’ and they say that it reminds them of when they were a kid; people that hadn’t thought of Godzilla in years. I tell them to go to Netflix and check out the movies since ’95. This isn’t The Godfather or Citizen Kane, and I know that. They’re incredible genre movies.”

Reid doesn’t try to contain his passion for all things Godzilla, which dates to the 1954 anti-war Japanese film Gojira that two years later was released in the United States as Godzilla, King of the Monsters! As Reid quickly delivers trivia about the 29-movie franchise, the 42-year-old often will encourage parents of small children to check out the new Japanese Godzilla movies so they can watch them as a family.

Despite the uniqueness of the collection, Reid said customers have always greeted it warmly over the years.

“I get a lot of good comments on that,” he said of his store Godzilla display. “I’ve never gotten anything negative about it.”

Deborah Lawson recently had her “noisy truck” serviced at the Powder Springs Street Southwest DEKRA Emission Check location. She was caught off guard by Reid’s Godzilla memorabilia.

“It’s amazing,” she said. “I’m going to bring my son to come and see it. (What impresses me is) the variety and the different sizes, from the miniscule to the huge. There’s even a robo Godzilla.”

However, Reid’s business display of Godzilla creations pales in comparison to his Kennesaw home collection. It features Christmas ornaments, shirts, DVDs, comic books, autographed movie posters, model kits and toys. For good measure, Reid even sports four Godzilla tattoos. His treasury takes up one bedroom in the house he shares with his wife of nine years, Tracy.

“The Internet and eBay gave me the opportunity to amass a collection like this (because) 20 years ago you wouldn’t have been to get a collection like this,” said Reid, who declined to comment how much his collection was worth.

Reid’s award-winning dioramas depicting some of his favorite movie scenes–including clashes between King Kong, Mothra and Anguirus–are the highlight of his collection. It takes from two weeks to month to create the dioramas. Reid’s attention to detail almost makes the dioramas come to life.

His “Tokyo S.O.S.” diorama with Godzilla battling two larvaes hatched from nemesis Mothra in a city is his prized possession. It captured a silver medal in the WonderFest National Model Contest last year in Louisville, Ky.

“I was definitely a little jealous at first because he seemed to spend more time with Godzilla than me,” said Tracy Reid, who has known her husband since they attended Smyrna’s Argyle Elementary as second graders. “But he’s very good at his model making so I’m going to support him. … When he started getting really good a few years ago I noticed people started going crazy because they’re put together so good and painted.”

Bilal El-Amin, who lives in East Cobb, met Reid at the G-Fest convention in Chicago four years ago, and the two have been good friends ever since. The 45-year-old helps Reid with his model making and also collects Godzilla memorabilia, but said his basement collection is about half the size of Reid’s.

“I think he’s really good,” El-Amin said of Reid’s dioramas. “He’s got a really good eye for composition and setting a story. What we like to do is show pivotal scenes in the movies. He’s pretty good and has won a lot of recognition.”

El-Amin called Reid’s collection “great.”  

“Any Godzilla fan would be envious of his collection,” El-Amin said. “It’s like a little museum. I’m just surprised how nice his wife Tracy as been about allowing him to have a Godzilla collection in a room.”

El-Amin also wanted to set the record straight about fans like him and Reid.

“We’re not closet freaks. We have kids, we share the whole hobby with the kids and how to build a model and take them to the shows,” said El-Amin, who was introduced to Godzilla as a kid growing up in Michigan. “I’m a computer engineer so to sit at my desk after doing logical computer work … I can come home and be creative and just kind of unwind. It’s a lot of fun, very enjoyable.”

Reid and his wife travel to Chicago to display his dioramas at the annual G-Fest convention, which attracts about 1,200 to 1,500 monster fans yearly. G-Fest organizer J.D. Lees said fans come from the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Finland, Hong Kong, Japan and other countries. Lees also publishes and edits G-Fan Magazine, which has a circulation of 3,000. Lees said the longevity of Godzilla’s popularity comes from a “unique combination of characteristics and circumstances.”

“First, he's a spectacular creature with an intriguing name, but he isn't just a mindless destroyer,” said Lees, a Canadian high school science teacher who started his magazine in 1992 and convention in ‘94. “He has some human qualities, a sort of personality that makes him more interesting than an ordinary monster. He's been in a ton of movies, so he's become familiar to a large number of people, especially through repeated appearances on TV. And he's changed over the decades, so he can appeal to all different sorts of fans, depending on which incarnation they take to heart.”

Although Godzilla’s appeal has remained fairly constant throughout his 57 years, the likelihood of it increasing again may come as early as next year with the highly anticipated Legendary Pictures 2012 release of Godzilla. After director Roland Emmerich’s 1998 Godzilla, which starred Matthew Broderick, largely disappointed fans and audiences, Reid said “hopes are definitely high” for the Legendary Pictures’ creation after the production company successfully sparked Batman’s resurgence with The Dark Knight in 2008.

“The fans are really looking forward to a good movie with the hallmarks of the traditional Japanese movie, but with the American special effects, that’s what we’re waiting on,” El-Amin said. “Godzilla isn’t a lizard, he was running away from the military, and Godzilla never retreats. He never digs a hole.”