Finally yesterday a big package arrived.
Not a package from Japan. This time a big one from germany.

The story of this package started ca. 2 weeks ago.
I found a pretty mint looking Shogun Warriors Dragun on german ebay by accident.
The item description was “Ritter des Weltalls”…that means “Knight of Space”.
You find “Ritter des Weltalls” under the Shogun Warrios Logo on german boxes.
Nobody bid on Dragun (no wonder) and I got him for 1 Euro…luck!
It seemed that this guy was specialized on Smurfs (!), he had dozens of them in
his ebay shop. But I thought its a good idea to ask him if he has more robot stuff.
Again luck. He had much more Shogun Warriors. They came from a toy store liquidation.
A real “warehouse find”! I was gettin’ nervous ;-)
I made the guy an offer and he says YES. Well, he thought his Shogun are worth nothing.
Ok…I’m a fucker…but the Shoguns get a good new home.

Here’s the lot. All in all: 1 Mazinger, 3 Draguns, 1 Raider, 1 Poseidon, 1 Daimos 2in1,
1 Voltes V 2in1, 1 Gaiking 2in1. Most of them in “german” multilanguage boxes.
I was very happy getting a Voltes or Voltus V in near mint box. Strangely he has a US box.
Don’t have a clue how he made it to germany.

But wait. The Gaiking box looked pretty strange. I’m not sure I’ve seen this one before.
I heard from another german collector that there are a few strange “german” box
variations, but never found one myself.

Here’s a foto of the “german” Gaiking (left) side by side with my US boxed version.
Pretty bizarre design mix of the box.

Here are the back sides of the boxes. Again “german” Gaiking box on the left.
Again, very bizarre. Never seen that kind of design on Shogun warriors boxes,
with the black fond etc.

Gaiking himself (“german” on the left) looks “normal”.  I couldn’t find any difference
between him and the US Version.

Looks that I really had luck with this Shogun Warrios find.
BTW…there was also a Smurf in the parcel…maybe I start collecting them too ;-)

Has anybody infos about this Gaiking. Josh? Or some of the european guys?
Discuss in the BBS

Uh…. NO. Not a Jumbo Machinder. A big ass vinyl maybe… I might sound elitist but the term “jumbo machinder” is thrown around like the “F” word in a bar these days. This is a VERY, very large vinyl. (stepping off soapbox). BUT, it’s far more cool than my 1981 Popy Jumbo T28 in my opinion. I know it’s sacrilegious to say, but I really, really, really love this darn thing..

I’m a huge fan of the character, so for me this is the holy grail. Great sculpt, great delivery. MAN!! This thing rocks. Get one now!

You be the judge:

Japan is just starting to climb back on its feet after the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami (as it’s officially being called now). For long weeks toys have been the last thing on anyone’s mind. But as we work to get much-needed supplies to those up north, dodging the occasional rolling blackout, and keeping an eagle eye on the damaged reactors simmering just a few hundred kilometers away, people in Tokyo are getting back to their normal lives.

My normal life involves toys. And I think it’s telling that even in the midst of the chaos that followed the disaster, these toys showed up on my doorstep. Literally 24 hours after a magnitude 9 tremor rocked Japan’s eastern seaboard, when the nation had ground to a virtual standstill, the Japanese post office still managed to deliver the frickin’ mail. It still amazes me.

I didn’t have a spare thought for, or even a chance to so much as open the package, for two weeks. And I’m glad I waited. Because these aren’t just some of the most beautiful toys Japan has ever produced — they virtually demand attention. Normally I am not a big fan of reproductions of vintage toys. It’s not that I don’t understand why people buy them, but rather simply don’t have an interest myself. I prefer knowing that a toy has a certain history to it. What was happening in the world when this first went on sale? How many hands has it passed through to get to mine? How rare that it’s survived the decades in such good shape…

Most reissues, being simple copies of what came before, by their very nature lack this “weight of history.” But Bullmark is the founding father of Japan’s character toy scene, and Saburo Ishizuki — the same gentleman who managed sales for the company back in the Sixties and Seventies — is running its latest incarnation today. His mere presence gives these reissues the weight they wouldn’t have had, coming from anyone else.

These particular replicas of Bullmark’s old 1974 missile firing Mechagodzilla toy were sold exclusively via mail order earlier this year. (how’s that for burying the lede, five paragraphs in.) They’re color variations of the first missile firing Mechagodzilla reissue that was offered as a separate mail-away premium included with the Bullmark History Box Set, released last year. Physically, the design of these latest reissues is the same as the previous one: only the chest missiles actually fire, with the elbow and knee launchers disabled. (Actually, they’re not even there; the missiles simply slot into the holes where they would be.)

The great thing about these latest two re-issues, the thing that sets them apart from the previous one, is that they aren’t slavish duplicates; they add new value to the concept. Like the earlier reissue, the head is molded separately, capable of rotating — something the original 1974 model wasn’t capable of doing. But the real eyeball grabbers are the all-new color patterns, totally unlike anything seen before. One is in “box colors,” painted with metallic green highlights instead of gold to match the toy as it appeared in photos on the old package. The one that really gets me, though, is the second version. Molded entirely in glowing vinyl, it doesn’t look like any missile-firing toy produced in the Seventies or anytime else, for that matter. The thing looks positively radioactive in the dark, which is appropriate both for the character and the strange times Tokyo finds itself in.

The bad news is, you can’t order these anymore. The only way to get them was by placing an order on the Bullmark web site earlier this year. But there is a better than even chance that we’ll be seeing either more, or more variations, soon. Which is good news for anyone who wants to get their hands on a little “new old history.”

The first time I saw it was in 2007 in Hong Kong ..
I was not shure what it was and my budget was all gone ..
I left it there…
After several months i decided to give the picture of the toy to a frind of mine who translated the Kanjii and
the translation was MEKAMAX .
I left on the shelf of that shop one the rarest mekanda toy i’ve ever seen in my life.
Not expensive .. but rarer than a Mekanda DX ..
It was incredible that after 3 years that toy was still hidden in that little store .. but a friend of mine find it again when he went to HK for a toy hunt .. and I ordered him to buy it at any cost!!
That bad ass was waiting for me and this time i did not let it go.
Here is the Mekanda Max pla DX with all it’s features !

The toy appears amazing and on the box you can see the various features it is able to do .

The front part can be detatched

The spinning colored wheels can be loaded by rotating the small blue wheel

The other missiles can be fired by pulling the trigger here

Guys …It is a friction toy like the Sanzen DX Gakeen .. look !!!!!!!!
There are two wheels that can be used to push the Mekamax on the floor and let it go!

This complete my mekanda collection and i’d like to share to you all!

Thanks Erik!

I have to start again with this one again: Bullmark: Blazer friction cycle
Mike’s  rusty and heavy yellowed Blazer bike did something in my brain.
I had seen the Blazer & Rockbat Meka Machine and a few sofubis before,
but was more into Super R0bots etc. Coincidence or destiny. Some weeks later
one of these Blazer Bikes showed up on Yahoo…I bought it…later I bought the
Meka Machine…ST sofubi…and a few years later I had a whole glass display full
of Blazers and Rockbats. I still love these guys and I’m really excited when
something “new” pops up. This happens a few week ago on ebay. A MFV Blazer.
The auction foto was pretty shitty, but something caught my attention.
Blazer’s blue legs looked a bit brighter, but what was really fascinating for me:
“He has red missile launchers, holy shit” (Nerd mode activated) “How cool is that!”
I always asked myself why the hell Blazer had yellow missile launchers.

Ok, in the end the color variation of the legs etc is not so exciting, but the red hand attachments
really upgrade this Blazer.

…and now I have mention our glorious chairman Erik again. I know that this one was yours and I have
no words how much I appreciated that you leave this one to me. Thanks bro, you are so cool!

Big things come in small packages. 1980 Clover goodness. (more…)

Standard size sofubi from Bullmark, with removable mask.
Smart ass baby face.

Mirrorman was Tsuburaya’s first non “Ultra” superhero TV production from 1971.

Mission Sea Shark accomplished!
Sounds like a top secret undercover operation. But nothing really secret here.
This is only the attempt to get a smile into this poor Jumbo Grip Denjin Zaboga’s face.

I bought a very nice nice Zaboga few years ago. Nice box, nice condition…everything was nice.
Nice, nice, nice…but wait! Something was missing. Something you don’t see normally.
Something stored in Zaboga’s back. Sea Shark!

Zaboga’s little jet that could fly and also could operate underwater like a submarine.
Sound like a gadget from Q for James Bond.

But it’s “only” a little red plastic jet…you can’t even see it…so…forget it.
I tried to forget this little missing detail. But it didn’t work.

A few days ago one of Zaboga’s brothers arrived in germany with a special gift.

Incomplete, battle damaged…but with sometging very special in his back.
Noooo…the Zabogas won’t do what YOU think…

Sea Shark

Years of scanning Yahoo auctions, nightmares, incomplete-depressions
come to an end, a happy end for 1000 Yen ;-)

Mission accomplished. Zaboga could smile again.

Firts I only wanted  to post a macro picture of Zaboga’s little jet.
But the Brog got out of control…sorry for that.

But it seems that this Brog is now a kind of Jumbo Grip Denjin Zaboga review.
A little bit ;-)

Here are a few more older fotos of Zaboga’s gimicks.
His “Jet Punch” (fist on chain), transformation into the motorcycle Machine Zaboga
and his back which could be opened for the Sea Shark.

more stuff in the BBS.
If you want more infos about the real Denjin Zaboga.
Check out this site.

This is a video I created showcasing a group of Super Robot Mach Baron illustrations set to the TV show’s opening theme song. Hope you’ll like it.