Here is the Alpha Gamera incarnation, still with the most movies under his belt of the various versions that exist now. Going immediately from (possibly) misunderstood menace (in 1965's Gamera (aka: Gamera the Invincible)) to wacky protector (and devoted friend to all children).

His antics grew more and more crazy (rivaling even Showa Godzilla in sheer goofiness), from olympic-level antics on some bizarre alien structures, to playing music on the back of his opponent like a xylophone. Yet despite the fact that the films were meant to be "for children", his methods when handling enemies were pretty brutal.

But sadly, his meager series was not meant to last, as Daiei Motion Picture Company went bankrupt in 1971.

I sadly didn't have much exposure to this series of films, save for viewing brief scenes of the (awesome) MST3k lampoonings. His movies were just never available where I lived till the advent of DVD. Till that happened, the only Gamera movie I was able to watch was the first movie of the 90's series.

So I never really get to grow up with Gamera like I did Godzilla.