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

A long weekend, a bunch of Astekaizers and ready is a Brog
about this funky japanese wrestler from the 70ties.
The TV show Pro Wrestling Star Astekaizer was premiered
in 1976 and was a mix of live action and animation, created by Go Nagai.
Yonezawa made a few Astekaizer toys. I focus on Astekaizer himself today.

Lets start with the big sofubi (No.14).

The size is ca. 8,3 inches (21cm). He only has a very simple action feature.
He could turn his arms around and you could remove his rubber-forearm-blades.
I’m not sure if you really could call this is an “action feature”  ;-)
These rubber parts are very loose attached…thats why most loose specimen are incomplete.

I really love the box of this guy. To be precise, I love all the Astekaizer boxes!
…and now you have the answer why this sucker is so expensive these days:
because of the diamond in his forehead!

Here are some detail shots of his rubber forearms and chest plate.

Lets continue with the “Standard” Diecast Astekaizer (No.1).
Again great box art and this time Astekaizer has some real action features.
There are two variations of the No.1 Astekaizer. The boxes look nearly the same,
but inside, one is packed in styrofoam and the other in foamed material.

They also have a different switches for the blade pop out mechanism on
their wrists/forearms and the illustration for this mechanism differ on
the back of the box.

Astekaizer has 3 action features. Removable chest plate (!), pop out chrome blades and
one of the best features ever: Missile firing feet!

Now its time for the mini Astekaizer (No.2). Also diecast with movable
blades in his forearms.

Here is the small sofubi Astekaizer. He comes in a plastic bag with cardboard header.

Thats it for today. More stuff as usual in the BBS.

Warren, Alen and I all meet for lunch today at Ginza in Chinatown. I have only been to the other location in Brookline, but have high hopes regardless as the food is always excellent.

Uncle W brings a package and hands me a gift for my better half… a mini sofubi to go with his big brother on her shelf. He then gives Alen a missile firing Takatoku Gokai Tiger and Alen poses for the inevitable photo. The low res IPhone photo.
Yen brings out the Voltron USBs and Uncle admires it as I pick out what I want to eat. They have Anago (sea eel) and all feels right with the world.

We are all tired, busy, and feeling the stress of the holiday seasons. But it is good to get together once in a while and just decompress with good food, friends and toys. Another mini summit to the rescue.

Snapped this pic on the way down the coast in August. We stopped on The Avenue of the Giants and decided Diapolon should strike a pose.

Back of the header card.

Lets wrestle!

Last weekend we went to Wizard Comicon in Boston at the Hynes convention center.

http://www.wizardworld.com

Though a small venue ( the Democratic convention with Obama as the guest speaker was next door and made for an interesting mix of people in the building between the two ongoing events) we did manage to find some stuff that was of interest. For twenty bucks we scored a box of cool vintage Yokai ,Super robot, and Ultraman books. Check it out…

Sofubi, diecast, magnemo, transforming and missile firing… Oh, did I mention it comes in a window box?? This one’s got it all.

The kind of Yen appreciation we all enjoy.

Many happy Neko wishes and sofubi dreams Alen.

Another reason to not drink the water. Nekro Dave sends in this AWESOME header card from a Mexican boot.

Terebi Magazine May 1976.