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

So, as part of my Virtual-On buying spree, I picked up these:

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As announced in my first Virtual-On Real Model review, next up on my list of Real Models is Viper II. Viper II is the most agile Virtuaroid in the original Virtual-On game, and despite its sucky armour it also happens to be my favourite one (because, uh, see end of Brog).

The first player color Viper II was number 06 in Sega’s Real Model line-up, and it was later released again in its second player version as #26 – again, like all P2 versions a limited release. It comes in the same handy sleeved packaging as the other Real Models. Included are a disc, its V-Converter Booster with attached wings, and its right-arm-mounted weapon (and some paperwork, not pictured):

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After oggling dozens of 1/3000 Takatoku SDF-1 auctions in the last few months, and seeing them all end up higher than what I was willing to pay (really, 12k yen for a beaten up incomplete 1/3000 SDF-1 that makes my Strike Valk look pristine in comparison? Er, no.), I gave up, and bought an obviously unloved 1/6300 SDF-1 instead (for, oh irony, 3,000 yen). It might be one of this year’s better decisions.

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Sometimes the sequel is a disappointment. In this particular case it is not.

For those of you who know me. You know I sort of like Ga51’s. If there is a minty fresh one anywhere for sale, bets are I know about it. It is like some sickness I still haven’t figured out yet, but at this late stage of the game, I am not sure it makes any difference why anyway.

But through the years I have had one particular version of this toy craftily elude me better than the rest. It is one not one many even register on the radar. Not as groundbreaking as the first version ( small shoulder, dark blue legs) , or as coveted or shockingly beautiful as the third version yellow belly. Nor as iconic as the final two versions that we know as the standard Popy and Shogun Warrior Gaiking.

Go leaf through your copy of Green Arrow Grafitti and you get the gist of it.

http://www.toyboxdx.com/infolibrary/pubs/garrow13/index.php

Version two is in fact the hardest of the five* variations to locate for some reason. (Technically there are more, but this is based on smaller differences of construction and manufacture changes, not official versions per se.)
I have only seen two boxed in the past. One at Mandarake in 2003 in a beater box with some play wear for more than I wanted to pay and another in the very pages of our own data files, where the seed of my quest was planted. Thanks To Alt and Duban I became obsessed with locating this plain jane but uncommon variant. Even sending out pathetic pleas to dealers and collectors alike to see a MIB one could be had for the right price.

It became over time, a long standing joke in my head. Much like the Ultraman Leo zenmai, I resigned myself to the notion that this was something I might never conquer.

I even assist Mason in finding a loose one online and once I see it at his house realize my desire to find one is growing exponentially.

Then a month and a half ago I see that one shows up on Yahoo Japan. I contact the seller and ask if the belt sticker is intact and if there are any broken parts. The inner red plastic insert is notoriously fragile on the earlier versions and I speculate it is broken. My concerns are validated by a surprised seller who informs me he is going to take the auction down and re list it with the revised description, making note of the inner broken part. Obviously I figure it is not the end of the world and assume I will possibly win it for a lower price and simply switch out the part with another Ga51 later.

The seller never re lists it.

Again I am at the mercy of my running joke.

Fortunately for me another one serendipitously pops up from another seller a week later, and is apparently in a much better box and appears to be minty fresh. I sweat it out for 7 days and then complete the circle with a win early in the morning. I am happy my alarm went off in time.

Waiting for it, I assume it will get lost in the mail, or someone will steal it off my porch before I get home for work. Neither happens and I come home to the tell tale Tokyobuyers package.

Now I sit here and write about it in the past tense. I am strangely both relieved and saddened. Happy to find it, but now left with the feeling one gets after locating that elusive piece. Conquests are double edged swords, and there is much to be said about the journey being more fun than the destination.

Regardless here she is in all her glory.

So what makes this one different? Well there is not a whole hell of a lot, but then again the devil is in the details.

First off, this is the first one to have the white painted grill. The first version tended to be silver. Only the yellow belly shares this variation with this version.

Secondly it is the first one to use the same pale blue in the legs as in the shoulders. As noted before the first version has the dark blue coloration.

Really nothing to write home about, but in my world, it is a beautiful transitional piece between the major jump between the first and third version. A shy and quiet mutant who has savagely haunted my completist mind for a better part of a decade.

One I am really happy to finally call my own.

I’m not much into SOCs, much less another Mazinger (ok, technically it’s Energer-Z), but this one jumped out at me. I primarily bought it for the colors…they really make this toy “pop”. It doesn’t hurt that it’s got alot of diecast in it, and a ton of articulation (it appears to be on par with the GX-45). It’s got the standard magnetic arms and rocket punch, and comes with tiny Koji on bike. A very worthwhile addition.

A multi-part review in which I continue raving about little known Virtual-On toys…

Sega’s Real Model series seems to be mostly known for the rather immobile anime character statues and Evangelion Evas that made up most of it. However, Sega also released a small number of mechs (“Virtuaroids”) from their “Cyber Troopers Virtual-On” robot fighting game. These are considerably more articulated than the other releases. Five different Virtuaroid models were released: Temjin, Viper II, Raiden, Fei-Yen, and Apharmd. In this review I will cover two of them: Temjin and Raiden (Real Models 05 and 08, respectively), and their P2 (Player 2) recolors released later on. I hope to review the rest of them later on (hence the ‘Pt. 1’ in the title).
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“Goro takes one last long, slow drag off the Lucky Strike ,which now just a stub of its former self. The ember swells hot , and is quickly extinguished in the ashtray. His creation now complete, he takes a swig of Kirin and contemplates a pointless Porpus watercraft for Roku-chan”.

This is the shit I make up in my sleep deprived mind as I put the finishing touches on the Billiken pre painted vinyl kit at Walker’s.
My hands are cooking , and the tell tale chemical burn from the heat gun is causing me to hallucinate slightly. Work has predictably caused another 48 hour run on fumes, and I am happy to oblige my state with a little trip to the studio of paint and air compressors to meet with friends and go on a journey of my own at the same time.

Shutting the gun off, The metal barrel cools and a click clack of metal contraction is my momentary soundtrack.

He stands there. That little grinning bastard on the table… reminding me of a time when I looked everywhere for a toy of him. I spent the late 70’s and early 80s hoping in vain.

I’m mimicking his expression apparently. Someone comments I look like a kid standing there.

I love this character.

“Red Arone“, the brainchild of a group of children in a Toho contest in 1972, stands out among his brothers in terms of his ability to elicit a love him or hate him attitude. He is the end result of adult marketing prowess and the imagination/drawings of the kids who expanded upon the pre existing Tokusatsu archetype. It is this slight divergence from the status quo that makes me a fan.

Eventually renamed Jet Jaguar, he represents the first pure humanoid robot in Toho’s aging G franchise, and appears in what is arguably the one Godzilla movie we love to hate most.

Sure there is a kitchen sink element to his appearance from a pure design sense. Certainly he is a mutt of sorts. Some Ultraman purists will point out the obvious. But it is this disdain that makes me pull for him all the more.

He is a candy colored mess of contradiction. A synthesis of the jaded and the innocent minds of the time. Transparent? Yes. But perfect in his stupidity and funk factor.

How could that ever be a bad thing?

Soon I figure, it is not the lack of r.e.m or the fumes , but the effects of aging sentimentality that is the catalyst for this dumb smile.

punch ! Punch! PUNCH! drunk love.