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

There are few toys in my collection that represent what Alen coined the “Karmic Boomerang” for me as this one. The only other that comes close is the result of the extreme generosity of a certain Uncle Warren, but thats for another blog.

Pan back a decade. The frenzy of competition for the right piece was fierce to put it mildly. The early days of ebay bidding wars was in full effect and even though we complain about prices now, we sometime selectively forget that even common toys by todays standards were perceived as much more “R@RE” than they are today, and bore prices that reflected it.

Tiring of the stress of what should be a fun hobby, I found a website, that mirrored my growing feelings about what the toys and the memories should be about.
How was it through my rush to collect , I sort of forgot a little bit about the funk, and why it was I was searching for these totems.
Perhaps this is the ever present sentiment that goes through its cyclical life span every few years and has become the mantra of the oldskoolers who watch wistfully as a new wave of people rediscover and reacquaint themselves with their childhood friends.

Why do we do it?

I found a kindred spirit when I first contact Alen about selling him my GB24. It was a toy he had expressed an interest in locating, and I felt perhaps it would find a better home with him. I was after all in the beginning stages of my c10 illness, and the toy although mint as one could be, the box had begun to beckon an upgrade. The voices since then have gotten louder, and my threshold for ignoring it, has lessened.
I contacted him and offered the toy at a third less than what I paid, simply because it felt like the right thing to do. The importance of the green, had to take a back seat to the importance of the T28 blue so to speak.

We met for the first time in Porter square mall in Cambridge, which was not far from where he lived at the time. My memory of the specifics fails me, but we met at the benches near the atm, and exchanged our greetings. Sushi followed. I felt comfortable almost immediately, and realized this beautiful toy was going to the best home possible.

From there, the friendship began, and endured. The combined faith in the goodness of our fellow collectors being the cornerstone to what is so utterly fantastic about this niche of nerdiness.
It took me much longer to find the right replacement. Like a number of other pieces in the collection that I sold off in hopes of finding a upgrade, it took years. The better part of nine plus in fact.

I thought it would never happen.

But when I did find it, as luck would have it, it was when money was tight and any hope of scoring it was not likely. Lamenting the loss, I casually mentioned it to my old friend, who without hesitating , graciously spotted me for the purchase.
I was floored and grateful and amazed. Well maybe not amazed as I knew Alen’s character enough to know, he understood it was never about the money. It was about the pursuit and love of the toy , and what they represented. It was about the friendship above all else. About the kids who never met, but the adults who did, and cultivated a place that would serve as a home to others like us. A land of misfit toy collectors.

So it came full circle. A generosity of a decade past came back. The boomerang is alive and well, and for that I am glad. Probably more than I could rightly express.

So what to learn from this? I figure I have rambelled on enough as it is, but here it is in its most distilled form.

Life is short, so love thy chogokin neighbor bitches.

Karmic toy boomerang is go.

Out.

Messing around on a lazy Saturday morning before work… I’ve had a number of vinyl kaiju show up lately, along with more of my YHJ from last week and started messing around. The kaiju is Junker V from Wombat Toys.

Getter 3 and the Scopedog try to hold off Junker V while the civilians flee!

But it’s no use!

Can no one stand up to this terrible monster?!?

Look! The Goggle team has arrived to help with evacuation and stop the monster!

POW! Goggle Jet takes down Junker V after Goggle Dump gets trapped while saving civvies.

But no! The monster is back up!

We need Goggle V! Form up!

Goggle V online! Prepare for battle!

“Have at you!”

The day is saved!

Sanjeev stopped by his vault and took this shot of his bad ass Gaiking missile firing vinyl accompanied by the likes of Bazoller, Skyler and Nessar mini sofubi. Sanjeevery I say!

“Sun is shinin’ the weather is sweet. Make’s you want to move…” No no no, wait, kill the Bob Marley.. Que the Akira Kushida!! That’s it! “Taiyou ga moshimo nakatta. Chikyuu wa tachimachi kooritsuku ..”. Perfect, now we’re talking. Ahh, Sun Vulcan Jumbo Machinder greatness. Behold its beauty!!

“Iiguru! Shakku! Banzea!” – “Eagle! Shark! Panther!”

I love the show, I love the toys and I REALLY love the fucking song. Man, you guys, that was my JAM!! No Lionel’s “Dancing On The Ceiling” for me (although it was a huge hit at the skating rink). I’ve been accused of singing this bastard of a song out loud in Japanese bars accompanied by young women while devastatingly embarrassing my friend Mattew Alt.

What’s up Alt? Jim thought it was hilarious, right? Right…

I’m a fan I guess. I’ve been singing that awesome song for 27 some odd years..

See… I even had the Sun Vulcan guys over to hang out on my very outdated TV-tray while I watched bootleged VHS tapes of daytime NHK programing (notice the “Eagle! Shark! Panther!” in reverse order).

Nowadays, I can karaoke “Baku-Ra No Sanvulcan” in the comfort of my own living room with my newly acquired SV Jumbo Machinder, who by the way is the only one I can get to kick it with me whilst I do so… Give us a cold bottle of shochu, a couple bottles of hoppy and it’s on!

“Follow The Sun, Catch The Sun. Taiyou sentai Sunvulcan!!!!!” Have a listen:

As an added bonus here I give you scans of my reading material circa September 1981. Notice my beloved Popy Sunvulcan Jumbo Machinder had more than one use.. As a tactical prop in the show, the SV Jumbo showed it’s stuff pictured here from the August 1981 episodes..

BIG PROPS TO AY, TO WHOM THIS WOULD HAVE NOT BEEN POSSIBLE. LOVE YA SENPAI!

bandai MF mach baron . nothing against red baron but but i will take this robot anyday .

This was my gateway. The handshake, the door that led to an ever winding path to madness.

Walking into Day Old Antiques has its price. The ferryman is unassuming and has a badass collection of punk 7 inch records and a lazy but intense depth of knowledge that would bitchslap any hipster out of his comfort zone and well crafted nonchalance.
He is as crafty boatman. The sarcastic enabler .

You hand him a coin.

Smack dab in the glass floor case sits little Mr “He’s a Samurai” , ready and willing to suck you dry of your college art supply money.

Just one fix. A taste.

You can always stop right?

Black Flag’s Six Pack thumps in the background, but loses the fight and gives in to the Der Ring des Nibelungen you now have created as a soundtrack in your own melting brain … because at this moment, that toy in the case is the one you never got as a kid and always, always wanted.

Always.

(Melodrama is key here.)

Its the first MIB Chogokin you have bought in almost 10 years, and it is the one that opened the crack in the dam. Don’t bother resisting.

Mike hands it to you, and all the years of Friday afternoons on Channel 25 flood back. The soundtrack shifts again. Jim Terry is your daddy.

Everyone in the room knows it son.

You are screwed. Lock, stock and barrel.

And you are OK with that.

No matter how many Popy boxed Ga 51s you see over the years since then, this little Shogun box will always and forever be your favorite friend… the designated driver that took you on your path to oblivion, which only a Robot skull can accomplish.

Booya.

Jumbo Machinders and I have a weird relationship… for the money I’ve always felt some of them were lacking… they have limited articulation and some of the early ones are kinda goofy and bland looking (especially among the Mattel Shogun Warriors ones). Some, on the other hand, are pure awesome… the gimmicks on some of them are sublime, but the cooler JMs always command significantly higher prices. I happened upon this Gaiking on ebay, listed as having both fists able to shoot, which meant that it had two jointed elbows as well ( likely a hackjob from parts), turning a normally very static design into something a bit more dynamic, and alot more dangerous.

I won’t be picking up JMs in anything more than a casual capacity still, but now that I have one, I see the appeal. Gaiking here is a behemoth of plastic, and stands out in a crowd. The firing gimmicks are also wonderful… Gaiking has already rocket-punched multiple family members, and the chest missiles make a great retreat weapon! The Unifive Gaiking may be more ‘authentic’, and the ‘real’ SW Gaking is more collectible, but really, this Gaiking is the one for me.

No room on the shelf for this guy.