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

Lets start 2013 with a mini Brog and a really mini Robot.
This is a Yonezawa Goriking No.10. This guy usually kicks
Astekaizer’s (プロレスの星 アステカイザー) ass, in the  pro-wrestling
tokusatsu series created by Go Nagai in 1976.

Here we go…

Box had seen better days, but I’m happy that I have the
little sucker. Next pic is a close-up of the back side.

Now Goriking himself. Solid zinc & plastic mix.

Here comes the usual feet fetish photo…Goriking is walking on decals.

Here’s the mini Goriking with his big brother (No.8).

That’s it for today. Now I have to find the “No.3 – really mini Astekaizer“
and the “No.7 – really mini Mach Beat“, never seen No.7 before.
I also need “No.13 – Mach Beat with Magic Motor”, also never seen
this on before. Pretty exotic stuff. The hunt goes on, 2013 will be an interesting year ;-)

2012 is nearly over and I thought poor Gabura needed some extra love.
Some people call him Poophead…not very nice!

For those who don’t know Gabura.
Gabura (ガブラ) is one of the Akumaizer 3 guys, a popular japanese
tokusatsu TV series from the mid 70ties. He is the strong, beefy, “the thing”
kinda guy of the three.

First I wanted to make a little photo review about the Bullmark large sofubi
and started to shot a few photos…

…but than I thought that Gabura is such a cool guy with so many “different” faces.
Let’s make a little “Gabura-family-photo-review”.

Here we go…The Gaburas.
Made by Bullmark, Takatoku, Grip, etc

…and the smallest of the gang. Gabura key-chain

…ok, he looks like a Poophead!

Here’s my little christmas holidays restoration project.
I bought two Nakajima standard size sofubis from the Tiger Mask
(タイガーマスク) series  few weeks ago. A Miracle 3 and a Mr. No that looked
pretty “loved” on the auction photos, but I was confident that I could bring
them back to old glory. Well, I’m a pro-wrestler-restorer ;-)

When the two guys arrived I wasn’t really surprised. Mr. No had lots of paint
rubs all over his body, but thank god he wasn’t painted with a magic marker
or something like that. Miracle 3 also had a few paint rubs and the usual wrestle
injuries, paint loss on his face and fingers.

Here are the two heroes before their wellness program began.

Mr.No overall condition wasn’t that bad, but Miracle 3’s missing paint
on face & fingers really didn’t look that good.

Step 1: Extensive cleaning

Lots of Q-Tips with car-paint-polish/cleaner to get rid of the paint rubs.
I don’t have Magic wheel eraser pads that work pretty well too I heard.

Some paint rubs on Mr.No’s body had been pretty resistant. With some very fine
sandpaper I “cleaned” them up easy. Because Mr.No’s overall paintwork isn’t supper
glossy I could use the “sandpaper method”, but you have to be super careful.

Mr.No looked pretty good after the deep clean and was ready to meet his wrestle
colleagues in the glas display. But Miracle 3 needed more thai cosmetics.

Step 2: Painting nose, lips & fingers

This is a premiere for me. I usually won’t do that…don’t need to that, because the
toys I buy are in good condition and there is no necessity for that kind of restoration.
In this special case I think that this figure will look 100% better with a “intact” face
and this is no “high end” toy I could destroy, if my “restoration” gonna fail.

Step 2.1: Mixing the perfect skin tone

This is the most challenging part of the “paint restoration”. Finding the exact
skin tone of Miracle 3’s nose and fingers, because I only want to paint the
parts where the original color is missing. Painting the whole nose would be
too easy and I want to keep as much of original paintwork as possible.

I use water based-based acrylic colors and mix the skin tone from white,
yellow and red. Here are a few photos of the paint process, I needed a few
layers until Miracle looked nice again.

Step 3: Enjoy

The two Luchas came put pretty cool. I’m happy with the result.

Step 4: Ready to Rumble!

So, that was my last DIY Brog for this year.
More pics etc in the BBS.

Today a little reanimation Brog.
The patient is a Sakura Zakuraman and the
story began with a Y!JP auction a few weeks ago.

I found this auction by accident and it immediately attracted my attention.
Not the fistless Bullmark Trang, it was the bit battle damaged, but blue
Zakuraman. Blue! I remember I’ve seen one with a green body years ago,
but I’m not 100% sure …or was he blue too? I didn’t save the auction pic.

Whatever. I wanted this Zakuraman, even in this bad condition, because I
had a joker. A second boxed specimen that I could use as “organ donor”.

When I got Zakuraman I wasn’t shocked. The yellow plastic battery
backpack was broken, the red clear plastic face part didn’t look too good
and his legs had lots of paint chips. Normally I would call this “junk”.

The opeation was pretty simple. 3 srews and Zakuraman falls apart.
Fascinating electronic parts inside ;-)

Here are a few detail photos of the Zakuraman operation.

BTW. The movable plastic cover in the blue Zakuraman’s chest is
darker than the red specimen’s versions. I know all hardcore toy
nerds love me for this insider info.

The reanimation of Zakuraman was pretty easy and with his
“new” legs, face and backpack he looks pretty cool.

Welcome back blue bro!

That’s it for today. Now it’s time to continue with my other restoration project,
which is a bit more complicated. Again Nakajima sofubis…

More photos etc in the BBS.

Talking about “I have reached a new low”, on a sozial network japanese
toy group…I’m not sure who won this contest. Josh with his Kamen Rider
Playskool-esque Kamen Rider Car or me, with this toy I show you today.

Whether you love or hate this toy, mankind could thank us toynerds that
we preserve these pieces of art for future generations ;-)
(Do you hear the angel’s choir in the background?)

Ok, back to the harsh Yahoo!Japan reality.
Some time ago this Bullmark Matsuo Tricycle from the Ufo Diapolon
(ＵＦＯ戦士ダイアポロン) series showed up on Y!JP.

Matsuo is one of the 3 friends of Takeshi, who is the son of the king of the
planet Apolon. He’s part of the american football team at the Blue Sky orphanage,
that’s why he has this outfit…more about UFO Diapolon, here.

To be honest, this was the first time I’ve seen this Tricycle.
Maybe I never really noticed the toy before, because I didn’t see it in the UFO
Diapolon context. There are not too many toys of the Miki, Goro, Matsuo
and Takeshi characters. I only know one Bullmark sofubi set of these guys.
Nothing compared to the myriad of Diapolon, Legger, Trang and Header toys
out there.

The starting price was pretty high I thought, too high for a Tricycle with
a little football boy on it. Oh, did I mentioned that I’m not interested
in sports at all! But for some reason I like the toy and saved it to my favorites.

The weeks went by and nothing happened. After being relisted several times,
the seller began to reduce the starting bid. Exciting..like a poker game.
I was pretty sure that I’m not the only guy watching this auction…Ciao Italia! ;-)

And to make the story complete. Start price was finally ok, for a Tricycle with
a stupid looking little football boy on it and I bid. I had one opponent,
but thank god no epic “OKU***-battle”, the auction ended pretty fast.
Only 800 yen more than the opening bid.

I think apart from the fact that this is a Tricycle with a super stupid looking little
football boy on it, the toy is pretty cute and the box artwork isn’t that bad too.

Here are a few detail shots of the toy. Click to enlarge.

AND NOW LADIES AD GENTLEMAN!
/italian caps lock mode actiated

The boy without his helmet. OMG!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥  Isn’t he cute!  ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Ok, a few of you might think he looks like a little idiot. Maybe they are right…

So better get lost little sucker!

Maybe I’m also an idiotic UFO Diapolon completist.
Whatever. I’m happy that this Tricycle with a ultra stupid looking little
football boy on it is in my collection ;-)

But he never will be a badass biker…sorry, triker like Diapolon!

More in the BBS.

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edit/add black background pic/Now it’s Ying – Yang. ;-)

“No, I don’t collect kaiju sofubis. Collecting kaijus gonna ruin me.”
Did I say that? Don’t remember. ;-)

Today it’s time for a bit extra love for the King of the Monsters. Godzilla.

A few weeks ago this Bullmark Godzilla showed up on Y!JP.
The auction fotos weren’t the best, but Gojira looked on them like a
vintage Bullmark version. After some research and the “yes, looks vintage”
(thanks Jim & Mike!), I placed my bid…and won it. Weeks later Gojira
arrived in germany with lots of other toys in a big parcel. After an intensive
cleaning, Godzilla really looked nice. I think I mentioned this before:
Dirt conserves condition

Enough talking…enjoy Gojira.

To be honest, this Gojira is looking more like some dinosaur.
But who cares. I love him and always wanted him!

More as usual in the BBS.