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August 27, 2003

Holy Moley

Filed under: Toy News — Rumble Crew @ 10:29 pm

Simple. A word not used too often to describe the toys that tickle our fancy. But that’s what the Takatoku Zenda Mogura is…a simple, gokin mole.

There are no fancy combinations. It’s a single piece of vintage goodness, and the only extra parts you get are missiles that load into the launchers on its back and into the tip of the drill-type nose. And when fired, the projectiles launch with a force that surpasses many modern missile-firing mechanisms. Danger.

There are no confusing transformations. It’s got two modes: on all fours or upright. You choose. The launchers can be positioned so that they are next to one another or spread apart. When in the upright position, the head can be pulled to expose a transparent neck that cocks the head in an upward direction. It’s funny how the little fella looks at me with the same amount of curiosity that I’m looking at it with.

There is ample diecast content. The main body and head (minus the drill and hat) are diecast, and the rest is plastic. It’s a hefty one for being small in stature. And no, the treads aren’t rubber and they don’t move.

So what’s the appeal?

Look at the pictures. If you don’t get it, you never will. Besides, when’s the last time you had a diecast mole in your collection?

monk1210

August 26, 2003

Powered Convoy Commercial

Filed under: Toy News — Rumble Crew @ 3:52 pm

I’ve always had an affinity for Powered Convoy.


Well, that’s not exactly true. Ultra Magnus was a worthless loser in Transformers: The Movie. I left the theatre at the ripe age of six wanting an Optimus and a Rodimus toy. I didn’t want an Ultra Magnus. I kinda liked Ultra Magnus once I discovered that his toy included a version of Optimus Prime’s cab. One Christmas, instead of the original Optimus Prime I opted for a Jetfire, and by the time I had the opportunity to request Optimus again, he was already off the shelves. However, Ultra Magnus was something of a second chance. Sure, I couldn’t get the regular trailer, but the extra armor was intruiging. One problem: Those colors were just awful. Instead of looking like a more powerful Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus looked like Optimus Prime’s flamboyant brother. I wished I could just get an upgraded Optimus Prime, if I couldn’t get the original.

pic.php?article_key=247?_table=images&name=pcad8.jpg

Years later, I found out that just such a thing existed in the original Japanese Diaclone line. As soon as I first saw pictures of Powered Convoy on the Internet I was obsessed with it. Sure, I’d gotten my own original Optimus Prime earlier, but this was the toy that I had dreamed of when I was a child. It was real all this time and I didn’t even know it!

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Powered Convoy’s color scheme was so well designed that the trailer went beautifully with either Powered Convoy’s blue cab or Battle Convoy’s (and hence Optimus Prime’s) more traditional red cab. Hey, in Italy, Gig released Powered Convoys with both blue cabs and red cabs in their Transformer line, which at that time was a strange mismash of Diaclone, Microchange, several other Takara toy lines, and Transformers. Either way the toy looks beautiful.

pic.php?article_key=247?_table=images&name=pcad9.jpg

Since then I’ve tracked down several Powered Convoys of my own (one Italian Powered Convoy with a blue cab, one with a red cab, and one Japanese one), and have written a series of articles on the toy at my website (http://www.masterforce.org), but I always wanted to be able to provide the television commercial online. At long last (over three years later), thanks to a little help from a certain monk, I now have Powered Convoy’s commercial ready for your viewing pleasure. Just hop on over to http://www.masterforce.org and check it out for yourself in our new Commercial Sign (http://www.masterforce.org/4.1/cs1.html) section!


Enjoy this piece of Japanese toy heritage.


P.S. If you have any requests for other old Takara Diaclone, Microman, or Henshin Cyborg commercials, let me know.

Ginrai

Marmit VOTOMS

Filed under: Toy News — Rumble Crew @ 12:04 pm

Let’s cut to the chase: Marmit is making VOTOMS toys! Here’s what we know…



Please note that all of the items pictured are prototypes, and that the final product may vary. A special thanks goes out to Marmit and the enigmatic Mr. Facets for the scoop on these. Keep watching the Rumble for updates!

Roger

August 21, 2003

Life of the Married Collector

Filed under: Toy News — Rumble Crew @ 3:39 pm

Hello. My name is Myles and I am a collectorholic. I have a constant burning desire to purchase Japanese toy robots. I spend endless hours perusing the online photographs of other people’s expansive and colorful collections with envy. Damn you all!


However, as with many collectors, I also have a wife who not only acts as a roadblock to my carefree purchasing, but also deflates my tires and hides the keys. And I have a three year old son who likes to “just look” at my collection with his hands.


I am relatively new to the robot collecting madness, but I am not new to Japanese robots or collecting in general. When I was much younger (I am a young-at-heart thirty-five year-old), I remember playing with Micronauts. I loved these toys, but then I remember going to Toys-R-Us and discovering the Shogun Warriors. In particular, I discovered the Gaiking two-in-one. That skull! And the diecast content! I was instantly sold.


In my youth, I only owned Gaiking, the Raideen two-in-one, the Daitetsujin Shigcon jet, and the Daimos tranzer, all of which I still have today (although only Raideen is complete). But I remember coveting my friend’s Varidorin and Daitetsujin Shigcon tank.


However, I was an avid collector since before that time. I started off with postcards, baseball cards, and stamps (used of course, but that didn’t matter to me – I was a kid). I moved on to coins, and eventually to comic books. I now have a closet full of comics that I thought I would have been able to retire on. However, it seems that every other kid in America had the same notion, and my collection cannot be liquidated for the millions I had envisioned as a child.


It seems that collecting also ran in my family. Growing up, my father had over three thousand videotapes, each with three movies. All of these were categorized, of course. But videotaping came after he stopped collecting LPs (I would have to guess he had at least 10,000 albums, mostly Jazz) and books (an entire room full – floor to ceiling, mostly historical). It turns out that my grandfather was also a collector. Only his collections were worth even less than mine!! He had passed away several years ago, and only recently, when my grandmother moved into a nursing home, I was bequeathed his collection of stamps and coins. It seems his stamp collection, which I always thought to be priceless, had a definitive price based on the poor condition of the stamps. And his coin collection wasn’t really a coin collection at all – it contained predominantly medallions generated from a particular private mint. Boxes and boxes full of crap. Oh well. Anyway, the point is that my collecting bug must be genetic.


About a year ago, I had the opportunity to reclaim some of my former items from my parents’ basement. I rediscovered my Shogun Warriors toys. And in the process, I rediscovered my youth. Shortly after, my wife foolishly introduced me to Ebay. It was then that other products in this toy line came flashing back to my memory, and I learned that there were hundreds of other amazing toys that I had never known about, but immediately had to have.


Since I could not justify (at least to my wife) spending significant funds on “toys,” I started to purchase inexpensive, beat-up items. I finally won my first Jumbo Machinders, a group of three Great Mazingers that were in poor condition, poorer condition, and worst condition. But at least I had them! And I was amazed at the size of these items! I just had to have more.


Over the past year, I spent hours upon hours searching Ebay for damaged or mislisted items, all the while assuring my wife that THIS was finally the item that I would give to my son to play with or I would resell for a whopping profit. Of course, once I had the items in my hands, I just couldn’t do it. I refused to resell them (especially if I didn’t already have similar items in my collection), and there was no way in hell I was going to let my three year old bash a prized item repeatedly on the floor, destroying a relic of my youth or a marvel of toy technology. Eventually, I acquired items that were repeats of ones I already owned or that were in very poor condition (as opposed to the items in my collection, that were just in poor condition) that I would relinquish to my son to do with as he pleased. As much as I love my son, I just can’t watch him destroy a collector’s piece.


I now have a small army, but my collection looks like an army that has been through war. Almost every item is missing something. But at least I can now say I own a Zargon (minus several parts) or a Dangard Ace two-in-one (missing the fists and wings, of course; and the head won’t lock in). That’s why I keep purchasing these damaged or incomplete items – so my collection will be thorough. That’s what collectors do. They buy until they have everything imaginable. That’s why I still have a Milli Vanilli CD in my music collection (yes – I admit it). Because I have to have everything!!!!


Of course my wife doesn’t understand. Because she is not a collector. Its just not in her blood. She yells at me every time I spend money we can’t afford to “waste” on these “toys that I don’t even play with!” Can you imagine?!?! That’s like expecting me to open and read a comic book that was issued in a sealed bag. Its just not done!


Over the past year, I have become very familiar with the Popy line of items, and I am slowly becoming familiar with the other manufacturers. I understand that the giant Tetsujin-28 and the Gaiking / Daiku Maryu combo set (GA-50) are the Holy Grails of toydom (with the exception of Jumbo Machinders, which I have not yet really delved into). But I have also come to realize that I will never own these items. To be a Holy Grail, you have to believe that this is something that one day you can acquire if you just try hard enough and are persistent enough (and shell out enough bucks). With that in mind, I have established my own Holy Grails – the Soul of Chogokin Daiku Maryu (GX-05), the Daimos DX (GA-85), and the Grendizer and Spacer DX set (GA-37). So until I win the lottery or one of the many individuals who post their collections on the web (just to keep reminding me how pathetic mine is) wills me their amassed rows and rows of diecast and plastic, it looks like even the combining Voltes V or Combattler sets are out of reach.


But my quest for a Holy Grail is a long and hard one, much like the Knights of the Round Table. I must first get past Morgana, a.k.a. my wife. She is furious that I still purchase robots that “just sit in the closet.” Keep in mind that these items are not in a closet (well, except for my Machinders), but in a rarely used and heavily cluttered office cramped onto just two shelves surrounded by her crap. I would love to display them prominently in my living room or at least in my bedroom, but there is no way she will allow that.


She claims I don’t do anything with them. But I do – I go in almost every day to sneak a peak at my collection, like a little boy slipping away to quickly flip through a few pages of his father’s Playboy magazine. Just those few seconds are enough to raise my spirits for the day.


I suppose I should be grateful to her. Without my wife, I would have one hell of a robot collection, but I would probably have to resort to consuming the shipping boxes for meals. Self-control is not my strong suit when it comes to these things.


When I am walking down the street with my wife, she occasionally points to a sleek, expensive sports car and says jokingly that if I were still single, I would be driving that. Little does she know that if I were single, I would much rather have a Daimos DX sitting on my shelf. But I will never tell her that – she thinks I’m crazy enough as is.

Kingboy D

August 20, 2003

Bullmark’s Back!

Filed under: Toy News — Rumble Crew @ 12:10 am

My toy site, Bullmark Toys, is back! Check it out for yourself at:

http://www.BullmarkToys.com!

Jason Park

August 19, 2003

East Coast Chogokin Summit 2003

Filed under: Toy News — Rumble Crew @ 11:56 pm

Well a few days ago a few chogo-nuts got together at Josh’s house, and what happened next was one of the better experinces I’ve had in a while.

I arrived with a getter jumbo under one arm and a gundam hand in the other. I walked in to find toys strewn about Josh’s basement and a bunch of toy nuts talking about their craft..I was already in heaven.

After the giant Gundam was brought in and everyone got thier chance to examine and drool over it, name tags were handed out. we talked for a bit, and I got my chance to look around Josh’s toy room.

I was of course shell shocked, he has some fantastic pieces! Anyway, food was put on soon after I arrived and we all gathered outside for food, drink and tales of lost treasures.

The highlight was Mason telling his tale of losing out on a $60 MIB Godaikin Tetsujin 28… Poor guy! This was the first time I heard about the late “Mr.Big’s” toy store in Massachusetts, and it made me wish I was few years older and had lived near the place — it sounded like it was quite a stop for toys. The subject of discussion went between tales of old toy stores, lost treasures, and went into the area of trying to get toys through customs and airport security without being labeled a terrorist or a pedophile….at least the security gaurds didn’t take a hacksaw to poor Godzilla!

As time wore on we had to stop the talking and get going to ROBOZONE….. whoa..I’m still spinning after seeing that place, toys toys toys and more toys the place was jam packed!!! I’d say it would take someone several days to really go through that place throughly, and you’d still miss things.

I went a tad bit overboard there, quickly purchasing several items which included a Clover DX Gundam, MIB Soltic, and a jumbo arm attachment.

We all finished our transactions, and I walked away sobbing because I still found stuff after i’d spent all my cash…!

Upon returning to josh’s place more trading and talking was done, we all got a chance to see a proto type bootled GA-01 (third version i think). I picked up a few good items here, including a great set of Dragun fists (thanks Josh!!!) I’d needed for a custom jumbo project, and a nice, but loose ST Dangard Ace, just to name a few.

Later, we all retired to the living room to watch a dvd of Josh’s trip to japan, it included a few shots of shops in tokyo, and a perfect representation of what you’d see when you went into Forest Gangu….I’m still salivating at some of the stuff sitting in that place…..*cough*

anyway, because I had a 4 hour drive ahead of me I had to leave at that point. I packed up my stuff, said my goodbyes and was off… I came away from this trip with alot of things, very few of them material. Firstly it was cool to see people and attach names to faces, plus I was able to get my first up close look at a jumbo villian (thanks Dave!!!). On top of that I had a chance to be treated as an equal amongst people who would normally probably not want much to do with me. Being able to have a conversation with someone years older than me and not feel nervouse er anything was awsome.. And it was great to finally get some recognition for my gundam, after the months of work designing and building it, it was great to get guys going nuts over it…..I can’t wait till next year, I’ll be sure to save up a bit for the next trip to robozone…Thanks again for having me Josh, it was a blast!!

Jerilock

August 16, 2003

This Month’s Cover…

Filed under: Toy News — Rumble Crew @ 10:56 am

Tim Brisko’s stellar cover features the luscious (and ludicrously rare) missile-firing vinyl of the dangerously-close-to-an-expletive-sounding Goodam. Good ol’ Goodam hit the shelves thanks to the long-dead toy manufacturer Sanzen in 1976.

Gowappa Goodam (“Five Kids: Goodam”), as the series is known, is a product of the famed animation studio Tatsunoko Productions. It was a not-particularly-successful attempt to fuse the five-man Gatchaman team concept with the giant robot phenomenon. The twist is that it’s one of the few super robot shows to feature a female lead character, which may account for the robot’s glaringly red-pink paint scheme (but not the unrelentingly chunky body, which resembles a sumo wrestler more than a woman.)

This particular portrayal of Goodam features pop-off forearms that conceal a pair of missile launchers (actuated by those yellow buttons on the shoulders). It’s only a scant inch or so taller than an SOC Mazinger, but boasts a good twice the volume. And it also happens to be one of the single coolest — and most difficult to find — Japanese toys I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.

Matt

August 11, 2003

Super7 #3

Filed under: Toy News — Rumble Crew @ 1:20 pm

Did you know that Super7 issue #3 is out? Did you know that in addition to the Optimus Prime cover story, it has stories about Inazuman, Henshin Cyborg, and Bullmark Bullpet die-casts? Did you know that you can now buy this issue or subscribe at the Super7 web store?

Well, now you know. And knowing is half the battle.

Roger

August 9, 2003

Giant Robot

Filed under: Toy News — Rumble Crew @ 11:52 pm

Who wants to own a giant 6-foot robot of his childhood dream? I do. I just don’t have the room for it. They aren’t cheap either. But just imagine a couple of them standing guard over your house. You could customize the room to look like a secret base. Or, how about putting a Mazinger at the bottom of your swimming pool? Umm…… I am tempted, really really tempted. If someone actually gets one, post a rumble with a picture.

You can find the robots here at JUNGLE Co., Ltd.

Note from Matt: these seem to be the same fiberglas statues sold by Inukuma, but this marks the first time I’ve ever seen them sold on an English-language site. Check Inukuma’s page directly for the full line — gotta dig that Jumbo Machinder Tweety Bird.

Eric

G-G-G-Guren Gosu C3!!!

Filed under: Toy News — Rumble Crew @ 3:53 pm

Well it sure is turning into an interesting week in the world of Jumbo Machinder Villains. First a real Garada K7 shows up in a most unexpected way, and now… easily the second hardest to find villain, Guren Gosu C3, the Green Ghost himself, of which only only a handful were even known to exist, up on the Yahoo Japan auction block.

seanbonner
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