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

I have a problem. I know it all too well. Luckily I have a supportive network made up of like minded souls, who know how to serve as a catalyst to my foolish brain.

I parted ways with a Gekko Kaman a little over a year ago. I regretted it, even though the condition of the toy and the box especially was not to my usual standard. Purchased at the 2006 Morphey auction, for what I thought at the time was a good deal, I sold it for the same price to finance a purchase, and to remove what was basically the only vintage batt op in my exclusively “walker” collection. Somehow it did not fit into the plan of holding out for the best conditioned toys and boxes I could locate.

When the “bug” gets you, it gets you, and there is not a lot you can do about it. There was a constant knawing feeling at the back of my mind anytime I looked at older photos of my toy case and saw The Gekko happily standing there next to his Osaka reissue brothers. I knew I had to bit the bullet and replace him.

This week I did just that to the detriment of my wallet once again. But it is a stress I don’t believe I will ever regret. The toy is mint and the box, although not “perfect” is good enough for me to not lose sleep over. It is an instance where love of the toy trumps whatever unresolved issues I have for sub par packaging.

Gekko will be home again … for good. ;-)

Sunday Macrobrog. Ark Kong

Being far away of having a focus in collecting japanese toys, my only “kind of focus”
is Rockbat & Blazer. Not a focus, more a obsession I would say.
I even bought some Bullmark Rockbat eraser-figures some weeks ago…please don’t tell my parents ;-)
There are lots of Rockbat toys I don’t have, but this is no problem. I’m always very excited when
I find something “new” on Yahoo, or see things like Uncle Warren’s Bullmark Rockbat Playset. Great!

The Bullmark Blazer Zenmai isn’t such a mysterious super scarce toy,  like the Single MFV Blazer
or the Playset. But he doesn’t pop up too often. I bought MY Blazer in 2 steps.

Step 1 was the Box.
Last year I bought the emty box. Some of you may remember the auctions of this seller on Yahoo around December.
Popy Jumbo machinder villain boxes, Bullmark Zenmai boxes, etc

Step 2 Blazer himself. Luckily a few weeks later a loose Blazer pops up. Perfect timing (karma?)
Super blurry auction fotos, very high starting price…perfect auction, argh.
Whats-a-reasonable-price-question-PM to Mr.Fraser…instant answer (thanks again Josh).
I was the only bidder and won him. Baaaang, fast job ;-)

I was a bit nervous about how the Blazer will look like. Because of the very bad auction fotos,
it was very difficult to judge how the condition will be. The seller didn’t answer my questions.
But no risk no fun … also I had a “good feeling”.

I had luck. Under a coat of dirt was a real nice Blazer. Sometimes dirt
could preserve the condition of a toy…like a bog body ;-)

Great little toy. I also love the box-art.
A very nice addition to my Blazer family and I believe not the last tin walker I would like to have.
I feel the Zenmai love!

More fotos in the BBS.
If you want to see the Bullmark Rockbat eraser-figures, tell me ;-)

THE BULLMARK “BIG” VINYLS OF WARREN SCHWARTZ

It’s been an incredible year or so in the land of vintage Japanese toy collecting.. It seems new discoveries and purchases are happening every week as opposed to only several per year in our little circle. Wether it’s the economy or just dumb luck, we have seen some very rare pieces come up for sale over the course of the last two years. From vinyl to diecast, and from jumbos to tin, just about everything once totally coveted is popping up on the regular for all to have a crack at.

Uncle Warren Schwartz, aka as the Jock Ewing (of Dallas fame) of our little clan, has been lucky enough to score several of these rarities as of late, and he is no way hesitant to share the love with us here at TBDX.com. So, here’s a quick blurp and some really great pics of two of the greatest vivntage Bullmark vinyls ever created! Enter.. BULLMARK’s BIG vinyls.

Per Warren (with a little backstory about his vs. mine):

“The BIG Blazer landed on my house a few years ago. I thought this was probably unique which is to say, no “series”. I became aware of a large Zaboga which has been listed on eBay by a guy from Hawaii off and on for a long time. Then you scored the Big Zaboga (under the radar) a couple of months ago. Since then I’d been searching for why the belt had “buttons” on either side at the waist, but the guy from Hawaii said he knew nothing of any missing parts to the one he had on auction. Both this one and yours was listed on eBay, but I’d never seen one on Yahool. This one appeared in November 2009, with a box, holsters, and missile firing mechanisms attached to the waist.

It turns out that it was another “BIG” in the “series”, if there is a series. No missiles though.

When it arrived, the mechanism turned out to be the same one for the Blazer (duh) in a different vinyl housing. Since the Blazer had the missiles I tried them out in the Zaboga, and of course they fit like a glass slipper, ref Cinderella. The missiles were big-sized like the vinyls, and I’ll send you a picture of the standard rubber-tipped Bullmark yellow missiles for comparison, but more interesting is that the missiles have an internal spring for firing instead of the spring being attached to the firing trigger. This is cool.

So for the record here are the TWO AMIGOS side by side. For some reason the Blazers are not exactly abundant, but you can find them. And I have no idea why the Zabogas are hard to find, why they are usually missing the holsters, guns and missiles, and why we haven’t run into any other boxes except for this one with water damage. Mysteries are good, and usually someone knows the answers.”

Well, there you have it. WAIT….. Hold the presses. We think there might be a Mach Baron. You heard me… If so, we’re no doubt looking at another $5K toy. Below is the picutre featured on the Blazer box:

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A quick side note, I know Bullmark made "Big" kaiju aka Kanegons, Baltan, Pegassa and Garamon. I don't think these were sold under the same moniker but I'm not 100% on that. Feel free to hit me up with info. Thanks! ES esjoen@toyboxdx.com

Time for a little Bullmark Ufo Diapolon Standard Size foto review.
I call him “blocky eye” variant of the ST vinyl Diapolon.

“Blocky eye”, “big eye” Diapolon…I don’t know if there’s a “official” name for this guy?

He’s not really a variant, with his body mold he’s a complete different & new,
compared to his “standard” brother.

This version of Diapolon is a bit more rarely I think,
compared to the “normal” standard size vinyl.
No, “high end” vinyl, but a nice addition to every Diapolon collection.
Here are the foot markings of this guy.

Finally a little group shot with the usual suspects.
Second Diapolon from left (in bag) is the “normal” ST size version.

I personally like the sculpture of him, all in all a nice piece of vinyl.

More fotos etc in the BBS.

When I look at this picture all I can hear is Ian MacKaye chanting:

BIG thanks to Uncle Warren for the MB talker!! UW is hands down the kindest, coolest and most generous person I know in this hobby.. He’s made many of my dreams into reality. I can’t thank him enough! Oh, and thanks to JF who sold UW his MIB MB talker. Enough acronyms/abbreviations for ya?

E

A great standard sized Bullmark Kaiju originally from Ultra Seven. Measuring in at 9.75 inches. The spray on this one in particular is awesome. Love the metallic blue/green mixed with red. Beautiful. Enjoy.

I received my first Arklon toy in the mail last night, and have been completely enamored with it since then. I won’t bore you with the same diatribe you’ve all heard about how the mechanical rendition of a classic monster in a toy that is 85% die-cast is fantastic. Something that occurred to me almost immediately was just how similar the Glyos toy concept is to the classic Arklon. Both come completely apart, and both are awesome for it.

2010 starts good!
Here’s the first toy I got this year. Ok I bought a few more, but these are all still in Japan and wait to be
packed and send to me. As always…it’s a never-ending story, all the time new stuff pops up on Yahoo.
But this Bullmark Missile Firing Zaboga found his way to germany. I won him on ebay and he came
from australia. First time I got a robot from down under.
The ebay item description said: “Mint condition includes the 2 rockets which were originally taped on the
inner tray  and the catalog…”
The description was mistaken. The condition is mint and he came with his 4 orginal rockets.
I love such mistakes ;-)

Box design is…well, you see it. Great!
I think I’ve been the first person who opened up the box. Found the “missing” 2 rockets
behind the little “pamphlet” inside the box. Yeah!

Zaboga has the same size as the Rockbat MFV’s, he’s about 9” (24cm) high.

You could store his rockets in 2 movable yellow holsters.
Remove his hands and Zaboga is ready to fire.

Here are some detail shots.

This is the little “pamphlet” that was inside the box. I add a few scans in the BBS section.

I wish that I bought him for this price ;-)

Hope you like it.
More pictures, scans etc in the BBS section.

Zabogaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

This is my last Rockbat & Blazer Brog for this year…I swear!

2009 was a good year for Bullmark Missile Firing Vinyls and Meka Machines for me.
Well, not only for me. Jim M got his Bullmark MG2, Erik got a Godam MFV and a few others
I think. If I forgot someone… feel free to post your Meka Machine & MFV hauls of 2009 in the BBS.
Ok, lets start with Rockbat and his buddy Blazer!

The box design is similar to their big brothers, the Meka Machines.

To be honest. Rockbat’s arms look a bit “unproportional ” with his golden gloves on.
But nobody is perfect ;-)
Blazer is coming with 4 rockets, 2 yellow rocket-launcher-hand-attachments an
his usual claw-hand-attachments. Rockbat only comes with his removable golden glowes
and 4 rockets.

Together they have lots of firepower and it’s easy for them to kick even the Terminator’s ass.

Here you could see the size of the two Missile Shooters compared to a few other family members.

Thats it guys. A few more fotos in the BBS…and again, I would love to see your
2009 MFV’s & Meka Machines hauls of ’09.