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

Nearly 11 inches vintage vinyl !

Zabogaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I’m a big junkie for Mach Baron like some of my friends here. Come on, who doesn’t love a giant red robot that’s so beautifully designed he turns heads? I think the figures from Bullmark are just wonderful sculpts of art. With that said, I do have a pet peeve about them. So many were poorly painted. Mach looks like he has a bad spray on tan. Come on…where’s the respect?

I looked at my 10.5″ Bullmark sofubi one afternoon and thought, “I wonder if I could repaint him to show off his TRUE colors?” After researching and looking at many photos of Mach Baron, I narrowed down some colors and came up with a game plan. I started by using a thinner to remove as much of the excess blue silver color on his shins as possible and other colors incorrectly sprayed onto him. After that, it was time to mask off his belt, hands, and eyes. Then I applied two coats of bright red spray paint. When it dried, off came the masking tape and then the fine work of painting the white, silver and gold yellow. After about 3 hours invested in this makeover, I surprised myself with the results. He looks 100x better!!

Since it worked so well on the sofubi, I decided to give my MFV Mach Baron a facelift too.

And finally, here is the family portrait.

Josh: Mason, Regan and I decide to get brunch, and then head back and open some packages that arrived earlier in the day from Japan.

You all know the feeling. It is that birthday or holiday come early half giddiness..

Two boxes sit on my bed. One slightly larger than the other. Kanji scrawled and exploding on the surface.

I realize one of them holds a number of items Regan purchased on Yahoo Japan in the past couple months. I sense her excitement . I first open the larger box and find waiting a Banso G5, A vinyl Bullmark reissue of a Ultra 7 Batt op, and a GA 51 first version that I bought on a whim.

Mason looks on with interest at the later, and it occurs to me he only lacks a first version of the GA51 in his Gaiking collection.

Handing the GA51 to Mason, I tell him to complete his set. He happily obliges me and takes the toy.

Regan is chomping at the bit and I hand the knife to her and let the madness ensue…

But I will let her (and the photos) tell you about that.

Regan: The first box I unwrapped was the die-cast Takatoku Umi-Bozu. Oh god, I love this dude. I love his Kewpie-doll arms, his blonde coiffure and his crazed (extendable!) stare. I love his seemingly dubious red…friend….thing and his completely inexplicable marble…projectile….thing. This toy is like the embodiment of my early 20s – I have no idea what’s going on but I know that it’s AWESOME. Next up were the Irutan pieces: the standard-sized Bullmark vinyl, Grip die-cast and plastic necklace of completely unknown origin. All I really want to say about these toys is that I have never seen anyone so thrilled to be a cowboy dolphin. I’m never going to let him watch The Cove. Next was, well, I have no idea what this toy is. Josh maintains that it looks like a Kure Kure Takora reject. I really just love the irony of a wind-up octopus dressed like a sushi chef. Did I mention he has feet? ‘Cause he does. Lastly was the orgy of Rockbat: the Blazer motorcycle vinyl, the 2 Rockbat mini vinyls and, of course, the disco version. These toys are amazing – particularly the sparkly charm of the latter. I can feel you rolling your eyes right now but you know what? I am still a girl and I will make squeaky noises at Rockbat all I want.

Josh: After the girl plays with her prizes I manage to find a few more gems hidden among the others myself. I unwrap a underrated Yonezawa Red baron wind up, a few Gaiking puzzles and a Godzilla v.s Megalon soundtrack 7 inch.

Mason leads us to the kitchen and opens up Gaiking. Putting him together, he flys him around and we all sit back in our chairs drunk with nostalgia and happiness. Watching the moments of relived childhood wash over others is a gift in itself. We as a community need that. It is what keeps the toy boomerang alive and well.

Today was a reminder for me, why this hobby keeps us coming back.

OK, another quick one. Spent some time this weekend going through some of my super robot sofubi. Trying to create a “list” of what’s out there. Talk about an exercise in futility….

Wall O’ Sofubi: Just a quick couple shots of one of my wall shelves with carded standard sized Popy, Clover and Takatoku sofubi.

Bag O’ Sofubi: This is one of four big ziploc freezer bags packed full of bagged mini sofubi. These things look like couch pillows..

Also, behold the GREATEST packaging for a mini sofubi ever. If you feel you have found or have one that is better, please share but as far as I’m concerned this Baxinger is the best I’ve ever seen:

AND, last but not least, the GREATEST carded double set of super robot minis ever:

I’m coming to find that creating any sort of definitive list of super robot sofubi might just be impossible, but something is better than nothing I suppose. It boggles my mind how folks that catalog Kaiju have the patience to do so. There truly is NO end… NO END.. Stay tuned.

Some love for this all-time classic: Bullmark Apolon Header BP-24

Blue “Export” Box.

For my friend Josh Herbolsheimer..

Another circle is complete.

Serendipity is not something you wait expectantly for. It is like trying to manufacture wabi, which will leave you only familiar with failure and disappointment.

Things happen as they will.

Today a package came. One that really was almost 7 years in the making. Perhaps much less so than the 15 years with the version 2 Kamen Rider Angel http://toyboxdx.dsri.xyz/brog/?p=635 , but one that none the less was a long path of frustration and patience.

Angels Kamen Rider V1.

I sit with the box for a few minutes and clear my mind. I set up my laptop with an episode of Kamen Rider as a background and feel the burn of excitement well up. Better open the box before I cut myself on the knife with shaky hands.

Why the nervousness? Well like some of the others, we have a history together, maybe even some baggage.

First located in the pages of Toy Shop magazine in the early 2000s, it was , as with many of the rarer tins , long gone before you could call the seller.

A few years later, the same toy shows up in the pages of a 2006 Morphey auction. At the time, I was hyper focussed on winning the Ultraman Leo that was also in the same collection, and by now you all know how that went.

December of 2008, the exact same toy showed up yet again on Yahoo Japan, and I made an offer after the auction ended with no bids. The seller agreed to let it go for my offer and I happily sent the money to my buyer to secure it.

The seller had the same toy with another dealer who had listed it on Ebay at the same time for almost twice the price. As luck would have it, the auction ended without bids, but appeared to have been sold to another interested party.

It occurs to me this exact MIB specimen, appeared again and again, each time for the past 6 or so years, due to the fact that the damage on the box was instantly recognizable . It had passed hands many times over the years , yet managed to elude me at each turn.

So I waited again, realizing sometimes the toy comes to you when it is ready.

A little over a month ago, and out of the blue, a second showed itself, which was fresh to market and fell under the radar…I thought I must have had un-cashed in toy karma, or the universe was starting to feel bad for my pathetic attempts to obtain one. In addition to it being a second specimen, it was also mint in a much better box, and yet maintained the same superficial damage in the same area as the other box?!
This led me to believe my long term theory , that these were part of the same shipment of Angel/Bullmark tins might not be such an insane conclusion. Here we had two V1 versions with the nearly identical box damage, which also coincidently dovetailed with the V2 version tins, that again, shared similar condition details. There was and is a story here. One I do hope to finish… some day.

Until then I will have to satisfy my growing curiosity patiently with yet another “Angel”, that made its way home by leaving the cage door open.

Currently on its way from the motherland, comes the Bullmark/Angel Kaman Rider V1 zenmai. Brog to follow soon!
There is something about KR in tin that induces a lust that only a few other toys can match. Not least of which is the phenomenal box art that houses it. Tin and tatami is a sweet combination which sparks a similar feeling to seeing a 1969 Toyota GT 2000…it bleeds retro class, and does so elegantly.