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

This little baddie was a gift from a good pal last year. Probably my favorite Nakajima piece, next to the magnemo sofubi. Thought I would shoot some quick pics.

Battle Fever J is pretty sick. I personally LOVE the “BF” on the chest. A friend of mine recently called it the “graffiti BF” in a negative context. Well, I for one think this is Tokusatsu and Super Sentai Robots at their finest. Featured in this post is the elusive Popy Pura Dera Battle Fever Robo J (バトルフィーバーロボ Batoru FÄ«bā Robo) and a well loved Masao Den (伝正夫 Den Masao) / Battle Japan (バトルジャパン Batoru Japan) mini sofubi both circa 1979. Feel the FEVER…

BEST Sentai costumes EVER!!

My Mom is awesome. One summer when I was 17, she took me on an 6-8 hour road trip to some random dude’s house for this strange gathering of geeks called the East Coast Chogokin Summit. I think she had more fun there than I did, hanging with the toy widows, checking out the rocket punch on the scores made there etc. She’s always been into this stuff. About a year ago my folks came for a visit, I’d just gotten a glow Rat Bat Spider sofubi and had forgotten to put it away before they arrived. Of course mom saw it went “wow this thing is cool” and instantly picked it up and started messing with it. When we met up for x-mas I brought the morphy’s catalog with me to show my dad since he’s a collector of militaria and wanted to know about my first live auction experience compared to some of his. He flipped through it a bit and set it down, then mom picked it up and flipped through it as well. In a very odd sort of role reversal moment she came up to me with the book in hand, poking at the Bullmark Icarus Seijin sofubi with a look of child-like glee in her eye saying how awesome it was and asking how hard they were to track down. Suffice it to say I made it my mission to pick one up for her. When they came for a visit a few weeks ago I presented it to her as an early happy mother’s day gift. It was a huge hit as I’m sure y’all can imagine. Just when you think you’ve heard all the stories and quirks that come from this hobby, something else comes around the corner.

I threw up a quick post quickly last month here about the bad ass Nekosaur Z that Gatchabert did up for me but felt the need to take a group shot. Man, this thing really delivers. I love the old school overspray. Check out the similarities with the Popy mini sofubi Great Mazinger. Big ups to the MAN, Sifu Alen Yen for bringing this bad ass figure into existence and some real big ups to Bert Gatchalian aka Gatachabert for the SICK interpretation ala Go Nagai. His work never ceases to amaze.

Purchase your very own Nekosaur sofubi HERE.

You can also follow the work of Bert Gatchalian HERE.

Impressions of the master caretaker via the heated brains of Josh and Regan:

Josh: It has become a pilgrimage. A place you think about when you leave, and A place you look forward to visiting again, because you NEVER get to see all that it has to offer.

Warren Schwartz is the personification of the Karmic toy boomerang. The robot toy original who with a genuine smile, finds himself to be the caretaker of one of the most comprehensive collections in North America. It has been so since 1986, where Warren went on his first trip to the motherland and began what would become a collection only the most obsessed of us could fathom, let alone attempt.

Eight years ago Alen Yen and Matt Alt took the trip and expressed their views on the power of the Schwartz. They had to create a viewer advisory label for their Rumble due to the player hating of those early days. Luckily as time progressed, so hopefully did the level of courtesy among the community, and so this sequel is uncut and uncensored for your pleasure. Hell the coverage is even coed this time around.

Regan (pronounced like the former president or the space gun) and I drive over to Warren’s to meet for lunch. Although she has met him at Dim sum, It is her first time seeing his collection. She seems excited, and I can tell, not just because she is doing her Tyrannosaurus imitation ( a bottle of wine later and you will witness it too) … I also remember the first time I went up those stairs to the attic filled with the familiar smell of old cardboard and styrofoam awaiting.

Regan: I don’t have a Tyrannosaurus impression. I just have very short arms…jerk. I was, however, very excited to get to know Warren and see the infamous collection. It’s immediately obvious that the adoration and reverence paid to both is well fitting.

Josh: We are greeted with the tell tale boxes and bags filled to the brim with diecast tin and vinyl. The sun is out, and the room is filled with an almost cliche like movie light . The dust in the room is dancing on the rays and I get one of those fuzzy feelings you get when your a kid on the first day of summer vacation.

Regan: At this point I believe Josh was getting a little misty-eyed and I began to feel the sanctity of the place myself. Boxes line both sides of the room, the contents of each meticulously cataloged and labeled. Kaiju and robots are peeking out from every shelf. There’s a jumbo Bandai Godzilla and Bullmark Battenger next to a vase with a hand-painted pastoral scene. It’s organized chaos and it’s beautiful. Even the enthusiastic poodle waits respectfully for us in the hallway

Josh: “Uncle”, with a playful smirk, starts taking out missile firing things and talker things and combining things and walking things. The aging paper fills our waiting noses, and like anyone who has opened a jumbo machinder after years in storage… it is the smell of memories and fall leaves. Warren’s attic is the real life representation of the wardrobe out of C.S Lewis’s own crazed imagination. Except in this story, there is a robot instead of a faun to greet us.
Like a surreal toy alchemist, he graciously takes out an array of rarities including some major vinyl grails of various sorts. Not least of which was the his complete boxed Astro Mu collection, a remarkable Groizer X talker, a wonderful Rockbat sofubi boxset ( although the box was a c-1 and looked as if it would infect the handler with anthrax ), as well as a complete mint in box “BIG” Zaboga Missile firing vinyl, ( which by looking at the box we realized there may in fact be a Mach Baron version as well ) a lust inducing 18 to 20 inch Red baron vinyl ( of which there are only two recorded) and the very coveted Red baron Missile firing vinyl, with a never before seen box. The last item we both held with great care, as the box by itself was worth more than a mimb GA50.

Regan: In one of the more surreal moments of my life, which seem to have come in greater frequency since spending time with Mr. Fraser, I am tasked with outfitting an Astro Mu 5 figure . In my entire fashion career, he was the most difficult creature I have ever had to dress, second only to an angry Siamese I stuffed into a Frankenstein costume.

Oh god, the Missile Firing Red Baron…I don’t think I breathed while we had it out of the box. I had flashbacks to being an altar girl in a Catholic church when I was a kid – just a blur of ‘don’tdropitdon’tdropitdon’tdropit.’

Josh: A sobering thought for sure. But regardless or rarity, cost or any other factor that would make the average collector hesitate to let a friend, let alone a relative stranger handle and play with these gems. Uncle has his priorities straight, and the friendship outweighs the funk any day of the week.

Regan is grinning, as she and a Diapolon store display make friends, while Warren like a good-natured curator looks for another grail to offer.

Regan: It’s true. If I were 12, I would give Diapolon half of a necklace that said ‘Friends 4-ever’.

Josh: Today has been one to remember, and neither one of us will forget. Thanks, as always Sifu.

Regan: Though I am slightly less schmoopy than my associate, I must agree completely. It is an honor to know Warren and witness the labor of love that is his collection. It was a good day.

Bert Gatchalian of skullbrain.com busted out this incredible custom homage to Go Nagai himself. Neko am LOVE. Mazinger Z eat your heart out!!!

CLICK HERE TO BID IT NOW

This past Sunday, Alen wanted to get together with a few locals to hand off and unveil the ever so sexy Nekosaur Sofubi.
Of course we were all excited to get ours and also have an opportunity to catch up and eat some killer dim sum in the interim.

Alen( “Godfather”) , Warren( “Uncle”) , Josh B, Melanie, Mason, Jessie, Dave, Sanjeev, Regan and I all met at 11 am in Woburn at China Pearl, for what proved to be some killer nerd talk and devastating DX pork buns.

Warren and Dave confer while the Nekosaurs keep watch.

It was a great setting to exchange toys, have show and tell, and discuss future plans for world domination through toys.

Alen and Sanjeev discuss how to steal Warren’s Ultra “Father” when “Uncle” is not looking.

Warren of course, brought rare and wonderful toys to share, among which was a beautiful clear Ultraman Father vinyl, as well as Red Baron clear vinyl on card and an AMAZING Calculator Robot with actual Doll/Teddy bear eyes. This of course gave everyone great ideas for future Neko offerings and made great table displays for our ever increasing plates of Dim sum. Although I threw out a few ideas/concepts that raised eyebrows and certainly made a few people not so subtly inch their chairs away.

Apparently no one wants a clear sofubi with sea monkeys in it. ;-/

“No”…”I am your Father”.

One major topic of discussion was the “Orange Variant” Bazolar. A topic brought up a few weeks back which certainly intrigued more than a few collectors. It was after a little time that the general consensus was that it was simply a factor of age, sunlight, paint or post modification, and not an official mutant of years gone by. Somewhat disappointing for a Gaiking completist like myself, but cool looking none the less.

Josh tries to hypnotize me with the Bazolar

While Alen almost mistakes the toy for a Pork bun.

Warren then astounds us with the Teddy bear eyes sofubi.

And Regan lovingly approves.

It is times like this that remind me of how many solid folks there are in the community , and how the toys now are simply side distractions to the friendships that have cultivated over the decade or so together.

Alen calls, and we makes plans to meet. Warren is game and I pick up master Yen and will my way through Chinatown looking for parking among the snowbanks.

I love spur of the moment meeting with the Yen and the Schwartz.

Where the preview of the Nekosaur Sofubi made it’s packaging debut.

And the pork dumplings were pretty good as well.

-Josh

I wake up this morning and everything is white.
No, didn’t take drugs…only the first snow had fallen here.
Time for a sofubi-winter-foto.

Mr.Condorman freeze his balls off.

Post your japanese-toys-in-snow-fotos in the BBS.

I’ve never made a secret of my thing for lion kings. I like ’em round and big. And while Toynami’s brand new 9″ vinyl portrayal of Voltron is a lot svelter than Popy’s sumo wrestler-esque classic 10″ chunky combining Golion sofubi, it’s also an eighth of the price. At $25, this is a tempting treat indeed.