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

I’ve been all wicky in the wacky woo for sofubi minis lately. These came in the mail today:

I’ve always loved the mechanical designs of Leiji Matsumoto. The ships he came up with were just fantastic, futuristic but still holding onto design elements of a bygone era.

My Favorite ship he designed was the Arcadia, specifically the Blue Arcadia seen in the Harlock TV series and Manga. Now you need to think back to a time before Aoshima and Taito were on the scene releasing high quality fantastic representations of this great ship.

I spent months going through different contacts trying to track down one of the pla models that were made back in the 70’s by Takara and/or Bandai. One day after I’d all but given up I got an e-mail from a well known vintage model kit dealer located in NJ saying that he’d just acquired a “rare” Takara kit of the Arcadia for the “low low” price of $120…. Like I said it was an obsession… I sent the money order out and waited a week.

What Came was a tiny, poorly made model, devoid of any realistic details or proportions in a box with kick ass graphics and an original price tag that listed the original selling price at a WHOPPING 78 yen.

I never assembled the kit cause I considered it more of a collectible than something to mess with, though I did take resin casts and built up a couple ones for my own amusement and sold some crude repros to some buddies of mine. And of course right after this whole ordeal I managed to find one of the Blue Arcadias that Jesnet made which was bigger better detailed and pre-painted for about $60…..*sigh* the lengths we go through for our obsessions. To this day I still hunt down new and interesting representations of the arcadia, the latest being this gem of a sofubi made by Takatoku.

And the journey continues.

You know it is love, when your heart skips a beat, as you stare at the glow of the auction screen. Going out to dinner this month seems like less of a priority , and eating instant ramen becomes a standby pastime. When the objective part of your brain fights back, and tells you it is a fucked up toy, while your geek gets all hot a bothered by its camp factor. Yeah the arms are short and gimpy. Yeah the thing is small, and yeah the wheels in the chest seem like a good idea, but don’t translate to the most fun toy in the world.

With a wink and a sigh, the love of the funk will wash away the power of the practical demons that try to whisper in your ear. Screw reality, screw practicality, I want super deformed soulfulness, gimp arms and all.
Riding the high from my last Kamen Rider tin discovery, prompts a scanning the net for more of the same.

In the special Tin edition of Figure Oh, I see three Kamen tins. The famed( and coveted) Bullmark battery op, the elusive Angel version 1 walker, and this guy. This particular toy interested me simply because unlike the others it had an almost kid-like proportion. I picture elves making this toy.

The only other tin that I know of with this function is a piece that might have predated it by a few years..most likey the late 60’s. I am not sure of the size of this HORIKAWA FLYING ROBOT, but they appear to share the same concept.

This Kamen is made by Bullmark and appears to be made around the same time as the battery op, predating both Angel tins.
This is by far the smallest tin walker I have ever seen. Shocking is a word that comes to mind, when it arrived in the mail. Expecting it to be in the standard 9-10 inches, it seemed dwarfed at the 6-6.5 or so inches it clocks in at. It feels akin to the Super Robot mini Marmit tins of a few years back. This however almost adds to its charm, as its size gives it a fragility and presence that is gemlike.

It mainly functions by reving the wheels on the chest off the floor and placing it on its legs. The motion of the wheels activates the walking mechanism, which moves the toy forward. As another option, the toys arms can be repositioned, and placed flat on his belly, pushing along the floor while making the classic “badadadadadadadada” whine. This of course is his “flying” position… though I don’t recall Kamen ever flying.

It is pure and unadulterated toy. It has no slickness, nor modernity. The function is awkward at best and the construction though solid, feels minature and vulnerable.

That is what makes it work. It pretends to be nothing more than what it is… a childs plaything.

The packaging lies. No one should collect these. But because of my sickness I felt compelled to obey the packaging and make them “collectable”. Do they do anything for me from a design perspective? No. Do they have any redeeming qualities that I can say make them worth having? No. They are simply representations of Gaiking, and no matter how much they suck, I find myself drawn to waste what room I have in my display case to house them. I admit it. Not only that, But somehow I felt a need to find any variant I could. Why? Well because they came in different boxes silly.

Shoot me.

The Astekaiser tin from Yonezawa has always been one of my favorites. It is completely unapologetic in its garish colors and design. The 1970’s Japanese hero perfectly encapsulated. Total personification of “da funk”. Astekaiser is the big boss with the oversized pinky ring, among a worthy gang of characters . I think it is his “Big Wheel on crack” bike however that sets him at another level, in which even the likes of the beloved Kamen Rider, seems tame in comparison.

How can you not want to ride that thing out of a Karaoke bar at 3am smashed on Calpis Sours ?

3D Battle Chocolate!!! (Compliments of Tokyu Hands)

After Josh Fraser (he’s the ST version of Josh Bernard) had dinner, we played with some toys. During our unsuccessful attempt at making funny for the internet, Josh made the observation that Rodimus Prime has a gigantic crotch area. Here’s a good look at it just for you.

-Andrew

My man “repairtechjon”, aka Jonathan Riddick, posted a link to this ridiculous auctions end in the cafe..

Godsigma for chump change. $$$

The price of shampoo bottles are going way the hell up and it seems the poor slobs perpetuating this sad phenomenon are idiots like you and I…

Just check out this “hottie”.. Are you into it??

Of course you answered yes.. But $3300USD beautiful??? C’mon..

This is just out of fucking control… The reality is that there were more than 5+ bidders with unique feedback driving the madness, which confirms that people are just that god damned nuts.

I can tell you with certainty, that there are no tier 2 or 3 Jumbo Machinders to be had at a retail level for reasonable prices in Japan. None that I can find at least. I’ll be checking Kobe and Nagoya in the next couple of days and update this post if I find any..

Nakano Broadway Mandarake in Tokyo has a Sun Vulcan (loose) and a Poseidon (boxed c8-)for $1K each and that’s pretty much the most variety you will find in the shops these days.. Every shop has “one”, but that one is either a Maz Z/great, Getter Dragon or Raydeen. Sucks ass..

This will absolutely be my last trip to Japan exclusively for toy shopping. I’m not saying I won’t go out of my way to check a toy store out here and there, but I won’t be going hardcore and be mission toy hunting anymore. There are far more worthwhile things to do here than burn the midnight oil over some lost idea of finding the diamond in the rough..

Everything worthy, with the exception of the elite Mandarake live auctions (ask Alt per Saito), goes directly to the internet these days. Every shop owner that isn’t hoarding their collection over here in Japan does exactly that. They throw it on YJA and let it ride.

Anyway, when I see a sorry one armed Dangaurd A jumbo going for $600 I know it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. So, if you’re going for it, I’ll be seeing you guys on the field. Better bring your JM “a” game…

I admit it. I’m koo-koo for soft vinyl robots. Not just any robots: they’ve got to be “real” robot characters from the Eighties. Why? Because nobody else cares, and I’ve taken it upon myself, like Mother Theresa, to give these leprous bastard children the cardboard box under my stairs they so richly deserve. And this is your lucky day, because you get to meet the undisputed king of my collection: the Clover “Treker (sic) Beagle Treker Cruser (sic) The Main Machine of ‘The Gorilla’ (sic)” Srungle. Sick. Intended for mental ages of five or lesser, it is an impressionist, shroomy portrayal of a robot that looks like an ambulatory coffee maker at the best of times. Let the Srung times roll with a trip back to the old Srungle datafile.