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

Sometimes the sequel is a disappointment. In this particular case it is not.

For those of you who know me. You know I sort of like Ga51’s. If there is a minty fresh one anywhere for sale, bets are I know about it. It is like some sickness I still haven’t figured out yet, but at this late stage of the game, I am not sure it makes any difference why anyway.

But through the years I have had one particular version of this toy craftily elude me better than the rest. It is one not one many even register on the radar. Not as groundbreaking as the first version ( small shoulder, dark blue legs) , or as coveted or shockingly beautiful as the third version yellow belly. Nor as iconic as the final two versions that we know as the standard Popy and Shogun Warrior Gaiking.

Go leaf through your copy of Green Arrow Grafitti and you get the gist of it.

http://www.toyboxdx.com/infolibrary/pubs/garrow13/index.php

Version two is in fact the hardest of the five* variations to locate for some reason. (Technically there are more, but this is based on smaller differences of construction and manufacture changes, not official versions per se.)
I have only seen two boxed in the past. One at Mandarake in 2003 in a beater box with some play wear for more than I wanted to pay and another in the very pages of our own data files, where the seed of my quest was planted. Thanks To Alt and Duban I became obsessed with locating this plain jane but uncommon variant. Even sending out pathetic pleas to dealers and collectors alike to see a MIB one could be had for the right price.

It became over time, a long standing joke in my head. Much like the Ultraman Leo zenmai, I resigned myself to the notion that this was something I might never conquer.

I even assist Mason in finding a loose one online and once I see it at his house realize my desire to find one is growing exponentially.

Then a month and a half ago I see that one shows up on Yahoo Japan. I contact the seller and ask if the belt sticker is intact and if there are any broken parts. The inner red plastic insert is notoriously fragile on the earlier versions and I speculate it is broken. My concerns are validated by a surprised seller who informs me he is going to take the auction down and re list it with the revised description, making note of the inner broken part. Obviously I figure it is not the end of the world and assume I will possibly win it for a lower price and simply switch out the part with another Ga51 later.

The seller never re lists it.

Again I am at the mercy of my running joke.

Fortunately for me another one serendipitously pops up from another seller a week later, and is apparently in a much better box and appears to be minty fresh. I sweat it out for 7 days and then complete the circle with a win early in the morning. I am happy my alarm went off in time.

Waiting for it, I assume it will get lost in the mail, or someone will steal it off my porch before I get home for work. Neither happens and I come home to the tell tale Tokyobuyers package.

Now I sit here and write about it in the past tense. I am strangely both relieved and saddened. Happy to find it, but now left with the feeling one gets after locating that elusive piece. Conquests are double edged swords, and there is much to be said about the journey being more fun than the destination.

Regardless here she is in all her glory.

So what makes this one different? Well there is not a whole hell of a lot, but then again the devil is in the details.

First off, this is the first one to have the white painted grill. The first version tended to be silver. Only the yellow belly shares this variation with this version.

Secondly it is the first one to use the same pale blue in the legs as in the shoulders. As noted before the first version has the dark blue coloration.

Really nothing to write home about, but in my world, it is a beautiful transitional piece between the major jump between the first and third version. A shy and quiet mutant who has savagely haunted my completist mind for a better part of a decade.

One I am really happy to finally call my own.

Y’know what I love about this hobby? It’s all the little mysteries one encounters… For some of us, the thrill of discovering something new is just as meaningful as the thrill of the hunt!

This micro enigma of mine all started coming together in the past week or so. It all began with thomas posting a very cool Japanese website with tons of pics of obscure toys. And since I’ve always been fascinated by underwater stuff, the special submarine mecha section was particularly killer!

Anyway, let me back up for a sec…see, this didn’t really begin with thomas’ post…

When I was a wee Bostonian in the early 80’s, fully immersed in Shogun Warrior and Force Five glory, I came across some super robot pencil-toppers at my grade-school’s “Field Day” one year. I had Grandizer and Star Poseidon. At least, those were the names I knew them as back then! They were, of course, Grendizer and Getter Poseidon. Anyway, I loved them to death and ever since getting back into toy collecting as an adult, I’ve always sought these little pencil adorning fuckers.

I’ve seen modern repops of these, often “painted” with a messy splash of color…but they just weren’t the same. See, the ones I had way back then were very dense, stiff PVC. The molding was super-clear, crisp, and clean. There were no paint apps whatsoever–just solid color. Heh…I remember my Grandizer was dark blue and my Poseidon was puke-green…

Anyway, a few months back, Nekrodave (fully aware of this little obsession of mine) pointed me out a couple eBay auctions for big lots of these modern pencil-toppers. I said, “fuck it”, and snatched ’em all up. Of course, they had my beloved Grandizer…but no Poseidon. :(

Eh well…the search continues.

These things are far more crude than their vintage counterparts. I’ve seen them in UFO catcher machines here and there…but had passed on them every time until now. The PVC is super-soft…almost keshigomu consistency. The molding is much mushier, with a lot of the detail softened out. But, hey, a big ass pile of ’em are still fun, right??

Among them are six individual sculpts in many different colors. Five of the sculpts are well-known robots: Grendy, Robo Kress from Machine Blasters, Mekanda Robo–looking rather odd without his antennae, Granzel from Kyodain, and Danguard Ace.

The thing is…who/what the fuck was that sixth sculpt!? I’d never seen this robot before:

Zero recollection of this robot from my youth–in pencil-topper form or otherwise–but I have seen him among these modern mushy pencil-toppers before. But I guess I’d just never bothered to investigate further…

Until now.

Now, back to the present…and thomas’ post.

Bored one day at work, I rummaged through the website he posted, noting cool things here and there…when I encountered this! No shit? Well, now we’re onto something! Nekrodave helped translate a bit and very shortly thereafter, we had a name, “Marinder“…and a Y!J search was underway!

The demand on these clearly isn’t very high, and despite a few boxed specimens being listed at 4k, I scored a MIB one for 1100 yen.

So, now, we certainly have more info on this guy than when we started…but does anyone know if there was a show/movie for this robot? A comic? I’m guessing he’s licensed and that there’s got to be some media for him. Afterall, each of the other pencil-toppers is a licensed character…and these two Marinder toys are SO different, I can’t imagine them NOT being legit.

If you have any info on Marinder or leads on more pencil-toppers, please post!

(more…)

One of those tins that you always tell yourself you will get around to getting once the bigger names are out of the way. Like Jeeg’s tin incarnation, it does not always bring the amount of respect it should. I finally got around to locating one in the condition I was comfortable with. Even though not a terribly difficult piece to find, the majority of boxes are in worn condition at best.

The self described “Warrior of Justice” and noble leader of Akumaizer Three, Zabitan has a demonic look that makes me think Kaman Rider and DevilMan might have a hidden drunken night of passion together back in 75′.

Although one of the few Takatoku tins, the Zabitan zenmai pound for pound is as beautiful as any Bullmark counterpart. This is in part due to the remarkable hand spray painting on the head, in addition to a overall sophisticated and classic color palette.

A true hidden gem among the easier to find vintage tin walkers.

Here is my Underdog-Bot-Foto-Lovestory. I choose Popy’s Gonbesu
from the Kyodain series, because he really is a special piece of metal.
You love or hate him. If you hate him you could use
him as a cannonball or play boule with him.
You dont know boule? Ask the french…

Thats Gonbesu, Skyzel & Granzel’s buddy. The robotic bowling ball.
I tell you, he’s real heavy. It took a few years till I bought this robot,
because there was  always something else on top of  my “buy list”.
Gonbesu is not very sexy, compared to his two sidekicks Skyzel & Granzel.
But if you hold him in your hand. Hmmm, he’s not that bad.
Why didn’t I buy him earlier…

One of his action features are his “spring-loaded-legs”.

If you open the cover on his front, you find to yellow
buttons. Push them and the “spring-mechanism” of
the legs will be released.

Gonbesu comes with 3 little metal tools.
He could hold them in his magnetic hands.

Welcome to the family Gonbesu!

Sorry for this long Brog for this mediocre robot.

cheers all.

…Gonbesu is searching his buddies. More in the BBS section: http://toyboxdx.com/phorum/read.php?4,201491

The birthday haul.. AWESOME. Just wanted to give a public shout out to all my pals here for spoiling me rotten. I’m not bragging here guys, I’m just pointing out how much this community throws down. After all the great summit stories I thought I would throw another positive example into the mix. Our community ROCKS!! Here we are 10+ years into this, a 1000 in internets years, and we just get closer. Grab your tissues kids..

Thanks again to everyone for not only the good wares, but good wishes and thoughts as well. You all know who you are. Love.

Sjoen

I am not delusional.

I know full well that there are maybe just a handful of people who like this stuff. And for those of us that do, information can be a bit scarce at times. And what we know is often limited, inaccurate or incomplete. I’ve tried to do my best to bring some of it to light over at CDX, but I feel I’ve only scratched the surface.

One thing I do know is that while the toys themselves may not be the greatest things out there, some of the box art is pretty neat. I’ve been buying these for years, but only recently decided to look at all the boxes together.

Eagle eyes will see parts of Great Mazinger, Combattler, Atoranger, Robo Kress, Daikengo and others mashed into nearly unrecognizable forms, while other images are much more obvious in their inspirations. Some of these (Gundam, Pegas) are even licensed toys. Two unique ones from the lot include the “Super Robot” as it’s the only one produced in Argentina and “Robot di Pace” which seems to take no inspiration from any other robot that I know.

Here is the ultimate watering pod for you!
Now you could water your zen garden with style.

Another absolute must-have for every serious Diapolon collector.
The Apolon Legger watering pod.

Not only a “plastic toy”.
A highly sophisticated design piece with lots of features.
Like 2 movable arms, ergonomic handle on the back and a big hole.
Yeah, you could fill it with water…not much…well…ok…
enough for a small zen garden.

Here are some markings on this Legger.
Looks like Takemi, hope I’m right or I have to rename this BROG.
Didn’t know, till I got this toy, that Takemi made Diapolon stuff.

Here you could see how big this guy is…

Giant BROG for a small toy.
Just found another watering pod robot on Yahoo Japan.
A Diapolon, same style as the Legger.

I won it!….sure…cause I have a big zen garden  ;-)

If you have more infos etc…BBS section: http://toyboxdx.com/phorum/read.php?4,201122,201122#msg-201122

“Goro takes one last long, slow drag off the Lucky Strike ,which now just a stub of its former self. The ember swells hot , and is quickly extinguished in the ashtray. His creation now complete, he takes a swig of Kirin and contemplates a pointless Porpus watercraft for Roku-chan”.

This is the shit I make up in my sleep deprived mind as I put the finishing touches on the Billiken pre painted vinyl kit at Walker’s.
My hands are cooking , and the tell tale chemical burn from the heat gun is causing me to hallucinate slightly. Work has predictably caused another 48 hour run on fumes, and I am happy to oblige my state with a little trip to the studio of paint and air compressors to meet with friends and go on a journey of my own at the same time.

Shutting the gun off, The metal barrel cools and a click clack of metal contraction is my momentary soundtrack.

He stands there. That little grinning bastard on the table… reminding me of a time when I looked everywhere for a toy of him. I spent the late 70’s and early 80s hoping in vain.

I’m mimicking his expression apparently. Someone comments I look like a kid standing there.

I love this character.

“Red Arone“, the brainchild of a group of children in a Toho contest in 1972, stands out among his brothers in terms of his ability to elicit a love him or hate him attitude. He is the end result of adult marketing prowess and the imagination/drawings of the kids who expanded upon the pre existing Tokusatsu archetype. It is this slight divergence from the status quo that makes me a fan.

Eventually renamed Jet Jaguar, he represents the first pure humanoid robot in Toho’s aging G franchise, and appears in what is arguably the one Godzilla movie we love to hate most.

Sure there is a kitchen sink element to his appearance from a pure design sense. Certainly he is a mutt of sorts. Some Ultraman purists will point out the obvious. But it is this disdain that makes me pull for him all the more.

He is a candy colored mess of contradiction. A synthesis of the jaded and the innocent minds of the time. Transparent? Yes. But perfect in his stupidity and funk factor.

How could that ever be a bad thing?

Soon I figure, it is not the lack of r.e.m or the fumes , but the effects of aging sentimentality that is the catalyst for this dumb smile.

punch ! Punch! PUNCH! drunk love.