toyboxdx toy blog brog: is graceful art of daily expressing japanese toy  

Lurchi the fire salamander and his buddy Unkerich the yellow-bellied toad meet Mirrorman.

The 2 troublemakers are made by the Salamnder AG in germany.
There are 4 more figures that belong to the Lurchi toyline.

These early 70ties big sofubis are germany’s answer to Bullmark.
German Kaijus in leather shoes ;-)

Lurchi and his friends started their lives in 1937. They are comicfigures used by
the shoe manufacturer Salamander AG for promotion. They are very famous
in germany…like Godzilla in Japan…

The east coast guys are probably well aware of this guy here, for those not in the know a bit of background. In the summer of 2002 I was kind of bored. I needed a project to keep myself occupied and eat up those lazy summer days. I saw an article online about a 1/6th scale rx-78 gundam that had been built for an event in Japan. On my desk was an MG RX-78-3. I grabbed it, a ruler, and calculator… hmmm, 1/6th scale would make this thing about 10 feet tall, but at 1/10th scale it’d be about 6 feet tall… and using a 1/100 scale kit as a template the measurement conversions would be pretty simple to figure out (I can’t help but LOL hard at that one)… a few months, and a ton of trips to the local hobby store later I had this guy finished. When I first moved down to FL my first place was pretty small and sadly 6 foot gundam wouldn’t fit anywhere. He sat in NY for close to 5 years, waiting for the opportunity to come down. About a month ago my folks offered to make “the final trip” down here and drag down the last of my stuff taking up space in the house. Somehow they managed to fit this guy in the back of the van (let me say now that my folks are freaking awesome). Now he’s here and the toy room feels that much more complete. Had to move a couple things to get him to fit but he slid into place pretty simply. Awesome times.

Little story from the world of toy auctions.

…it happened at the end of january. I made my daily Rockbat auction check on Yahoo
and found something interesting for me. This auction caught my eye…Blazer, Box looks mint,
Bullmark and starting price 100 yen. Well, do I need another one? Yes!
But I don’t need to win the auction desperately, because I already have this Blazer.
Max bid 2000 yen…fire and forget…

…the auction ended and I was the only bidder. Yeah! I was astonished that really nobody
bid on this auction.  I won my 100 ¥ Blazer!
Ok, with shipping, fees etc it was more a 1300 yen Blazer, but I won him for 100 ;-)

1 month later my big toy parcel from japan arrived in germany.
I was curious how my 100 yen auction looks in reality. On the auction fotos
everything looked mint, but you never know how it looks when you hold it in your hands.

I wasn’t dissapointed! The Box looks perfect. I love the artwork!

Then I opened the box and …

…the first thing I noticed: A Missile

(uups, I forgot to mention that the auction was for a box only)

How cool is that! I’m be happy as a kid, because I found a missile in the box (that wasn’t mentioned
in the Yahoo auction description)…all that for 100 yen.

But I wasn’t the only one who was happy now.

Also my small MFV Blazer was happy now. Finally he got an original Bullmark
missile…no ill-fitting Ark missile anymore.

Happy end for me and Blazer.

…and the Blazer box?
Hanging framed on the wall now :-D

Sorry…again a Blazer Brog…I’m a nerd…BBS

My Bullmark Honda Motor Club has a new member.
Mr.Zabitan!

The bike is the usual Honda CB 750 four, like the ones Blazer and Diapolon drive.
But Zabitan’s Garibar Honda is tuned up with a super aerodynamic fairing,
armed with 2 deadly missile launchers.

A funny detail is mirror inverted sticker on the right side. RABIRAG.
Looks like a little mistake. Well, nobody’s perfect…specially Bullmark toys.
But who cares, I love them regardless.

Here are the 2 missiles that came with the bike…mint in bag ;-)

Lets continue with the box:

Great artwork as usual. Box shows the 2 action features. Missile firing action and
“sparkling” mechanism inside the motor.

The artwork is identical to the small version Garibar in blister box.
Both toys have a “double branding” on the box. Bullmark & Takatoku (T.T.).

Here are some fotos of the whole Bullmark MC.

I know that there are also a Mach Baron, Zaboga and an Ultraman on these bikes…
so, the Honda MC isn’t complete yet ;-)

But trying to complete the Bullmark Honda Motor Club is nearly tough as
trying to get all Zabitan figures. You never know whats out there…

More fotos in the BBS.

A strange, apparently handmade Tetsujin 28 display spotted by a Japanese blogger at the Suma Aqualife Park in Kobe in 2008. It seems to be a one-off created for an amusement park rather than an officially produced item.

1975 ROCKED!!! Figured I’m due for a shitty cell phone brog so here goes. I just wanted to say that I think this is my all time favorite Popy Chogokin. File under “Declarations”! And BTW Fraser, I was short on acid free wrap and had to use a piece that had a crease in the middle. So, NO, it’s not the box… ;)

Today I have a before/after Brog for you.
A few weeks ago a found a Takatoku Gariba C, or is it Garibr C (?),
on Yahoo.  Usually these non Bullmark bikes, even loose specimen have
lots of fans out there…so they go for more Yen I want to pay for one.
Apropos “non Bullmark”. Akumaizer 3 toys are licensed by Takatoku,
but Bullmark produced many (most) of the Akumaizer sofubis, MFV’s,
plastic toys and even the Zabitan Zenmai. Many of the toys are “double branded”
with Takatoku & Bullmark logos. What a great toy manufacturer cooperation.
But I was pretty sure that THIS one,  even with box, won’t go for a fortune.
and I was right…

When Evil on his bike arrived in germany, he looked like on the auction fotos.
It seems that he had a bad accident at some point in the last 35 years…
yepp, riding a motobike is dangerous.

I wasn’t sure what really was wrong with Evil when I “analyzed” the auction fotos,
because the quality of the pics wasn’t good (as usual) and the item description wasn’t very
informative too. What I know was that his head was pretty deformed (melted?),
he had many discolorations on his body, the box was “repaired” with some kind of tape, etc.
Could be a nice restoration object, or a few thousand Yen burned for junk…but no risk, no fun ;-)

The first thing I noticed when hold the toy in my hands was that the “discolorations ”
on Evil’s body is only dirt…nice mixture of 30 years old dust and nicotine.
But his bend back head looks really evil…haha, funny wordplay.
Ok, sorry…shitty joke ;-)
When the vinyl is dryed up, it could break, when I try bending the head back into position.
I decided to use the “hot water” method. I think this is the best method to bring vinyl
back into “form”. Better than using a hairdryer.
I restored quiet a few vintage vinyls that way…works pretty well.

I pour only a bit hot (nearly boiling) water on Evil and…

…“PLOEEP” (this was the sound),

Evil’s head was back into position.
Wow, a 5 second restoration. I was amazed!
Getting rid of the tape and cleaning the box, without destroying the artwork, took hours.
Here is the result. A pretty nice looking toy & box. i thing the only thing that is missing
is Evil’s scarf. But I’m not 100% sure if he came with one.

Nice colorful box. The plastic window is a bit battle damaged over the years.
But I won’t replace it, I want to keep it original.

Now Evil is ready to race again with his friction drive bike!

So, this was my little Akumaizer motorcycle story for today.
I have a few more to tell ;-)

More fotos etc in the BBS.