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

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.

I worked on this BROG for some time, but always something else
prevented me from finishing it…like Kemler. But no excuses anymore,
here you are!

The story begun in germany nearly 40 years ago.
A country that is not only famous for great cars, tasty beer and
tactical submarines. NO. Also famous for the fact that you could
find vintage Zenmais in the forrest. Why do you think is a famous
forrest near Freiburg im Breisgau (south of germany) called
“Der schwarze Blechfiguren Wald”. Translated that means something
like “The black tin figures forrest”…

OK. Bullshit. This is not a good start for the BROG.
Have to add more action and realism in the story.

The story begun in April 1975 in Xuan Loc, Vietnam.
Captain P. Hershell (33rd Ranger Battalion), who just came back from Saigon…

OK. No “Missing in Action” or Rambo-esque story.

The truth now! I bought this 2 wonderful Zenmais on Y!JP a few months ago.
Nobody was really interested in these guys, so I got them without any epic
“bid-battles”. No wonder. The condition of this Ultraman & Ultra Seven Zenmai
wasn’t the best. I guess a solid C-0,4. But I immediately recognized the immense
“potential” of these rusted beauties.

What “potential”? At least potential as photomodels.

A few weeks later a pretty beat-up Ultraman Leo showed up on Y!JP,
but a few other “rust lover” also showed interest and the price went up.
So, no Leo for me.

Enough bla bla. Here are the two guy.
From the underwood to the glas display, rusted in dignity!

Finally they escaped the evil humid jungle. Nearly rusted away.
Now a dry & nice place waits for them. Hopefully for the next 30 years.

Now a few details shots. Click to enlarge.

Looks like a happy end.

No I only could hope that these 2 Survivors will be
accepted by the others.

That’s it! As usual more photos etc in the BBS.

I was working on another BROG when a parcel from japan arrived.
With a few other toys, finally a Marushin Kemler found his way
to germany. Amazing toy, love him! The other BROG has to wait now.
I read Matt’s Kemler BROG before I got Kemler and was aware that
the little green monster might make some trouble.

When I bought him on Y!JP it was a bit risky, because I had no clue if
he has stripes on his wings (no way to see it on the auction fotos).
The seller also wrote in his auction description, that Kemler has a
“few problems” with his rocket launcher.
Cool…sounded like the perfect auction to spent a few hundred bucks ;-)

…I always asked myself why Kemler is so expensive. Now I know why!

Because he has real diamond eyes. Hope the stones a real.

Happy end! Kemler was in perfect condition, the box is nice, BUT I couldn’t
see any red lever for the disk launcher and the red mouth rocket launcher was
fragmented in Kemlers mouth. Ok, no happy end.

The mouth rocket launcher was no problem, set the parts together, screw
him back into the mouth…function test…works…perfect.

But where’s the goddamn red lever?
Found him and the black plastic part with spring inside Kemler’s body,
when I opened the black back plate.

Kemlers plate wasn’t fixed with screws. Also the “spring mechanism” wasn’t fixed
with a screw to the plate and was loose inside the body.

The “repair” was easy. I just mounted the “spring mechaism” on the plate
with a screw and put everything together. The only problem was finding
a srew that has the right size and looks of the orginal Marshin screws.
I used a vintage one from a beat-up Bullmark Diapolon ST Gokin. Fits perfect!

Now you could “load” the disk and fire it. Usually when the mechanism isn’t fixed
to the plate, it won’t work when you push the disk inside. Because it simply fall apart.

Even cooler happy end! Kemler has his full fire-power back.

Here’s my litle disk firing movie.

More in Matt’s hijacked BBS.

P.S.: Why I used Ludwig van Beethoven as soundtrack for my film…WTF, ask YouTube…

;-)

Just got my hands on Cometdebris Kappa Shonen compliments of Koji Harmon (Thank Koji!!). This cool little guy is 6.5 inches of sofubi love! Three points of articulation and a beautiful color scheme lead to an incredibly well executed design and delivery that bring to mind the spirit of vintage kawaii sofubi such as Irutan, Kure Kure Takora, Nyarome and Unagi-Inu to name a few. Personally, I’m feeling a Fujio Akatsuka influnce, which endears me to this lil’ guy even more given my fondness for Akatusa-san’s work.

Judging by the killer artwork on the header, our lil’ Kappa buddy likes to skate as well.

Kappa Shonen and friends can be found @ the COMETDEBRIS website. Get while the gettin’ is good y’all!