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

I tell myself I buy these for the kaiju but another, stronger voice says that, with the purchase of this kind of pap, It’s too late for simple excuses.

                You know you’re in trouble when you can’t figure out which fetish you’re responding to: über-cool, designer kitsch or your favorite character license. Whatever the reason, Medicom’s ursa ultras have invaded.

                Initially available only at various JP toy festivals, three sets have now been released: Ultraman, Katokutai, Dada, and Zetton were in the first set last year, to be followed by Ultra Seven, Ultra Keibitai, Eleking, Metron, Imit Ultra Seven, Kingjoe, and Pegassa in two similar releases this year.

                There really isn’t much more that can be said. Be@rbricks are sturdy little things and will stand there obligingly enough. You can position their arms and hands, balance them on one foot, pivot them at the waist -what have you. Then, of course, you can wonder when more will be released and whether you’ll be able to find them at a reasonable price. Every once in a while you’ll get to fight off the nagging suspicion that you’ve been had -all the traditional toy collector fun!

The specs for the High Complete Model Progressive line, Bandai’s sequel to their old ’80s-vintage HCM series, are pretty impressive.

1500 yen a pop. Just three and a half inches high, yet jointed out the wazoo, with fun details like little hydraulic pistons and removable armor plates. Sturdy styrene plastic construction with none of that floppy flacidity you’ve come to associate with PVC toys.

And yet it’s the same old tired handful of First Gundam characters. Look, I love Gundam. He’s a great guy. He got me interested in Japanese toys in the first place. But man, even I’m starting to get tired of the status quo.

Never fear. As it turns out, the HCM-Pro are modular! Was this intentional? Beats me. But they’re kinda like Gundam lego! (Or perhaps “Gundam Ark“?) At least, within their own little families. The Zeon and Federation suits feature ever-so-slightly different ball joint and peg diameters, effectively preventing cross-breeding. Incest is best, I guess! (Uh.. did I just type that?) But don’t take my word for it. Check out these nutty combinations.

How ya like me now?

Gundamcannon!

Who am I?

Gorilladam!

Here’s to hoping they keep it up for future releases — and if Bandai P.R. is any indication, there’s plenty more to come. I really dug the play value of the l’il suckers. If you’ve got even a teensy, tiny bit of interest in the things, pick up a handful and get combinin’!

I became involved with the design of Zanbot 3 at the beginning of the process, when it was still a five-unit combining robot. I recall the flow of work being that first Kunio Okawara drew a rough sketch of a three-unit combining base, then Ryouji Hirayama smoothed out the lines, and then I went in and added various details. Yasuhiko Yoshikazu and Hirayama did the final clean up.

This project marked the first time Studio Nue worked with Sunrise, and this is where I learned one of the fundamentals of robot design, “one point, many directions” (note: a method of design that places emphasis on the lines that radiate from the center of the design outward.) We were specifically asked to use it to design Zanbot. We used the technique to shape all of Zanbot 3’s lines. For example, the fins on the waist were initially positioned higher and were round, but if you do that, it disrupts the flow from the center of the design. That’s why they have the shape they do and are positioned where they are.

We were incredibly busy at the time and did a lot of rough sketches. Studio Nue was capable of cleaning up its own roughs, but we just didn’t have enough time to make them good enough to use in animation. I remember us begging Sunrise to let us off the hook just before having to turn them in. (Laughs) During that process I created the perspective drawings for each vehicle and designed the cockpits. I had originally drawn different cockpits for each of the three vehicles, but circumstances dictated that we only use a single common cockpit in the end, which is a shame.

The Zanbo Magnum was created with the help of then-president of Studio Nue Kenichi Matsuzaki, who was a total military fanatic and came up with all sorts of ideas. It feels like I tried to incorporate every single one of them into the drawings. I came up with the Holster Jet myself.

I didn’t put too much thought into how Zanbot 3’s head would be stored away. At first I drew a picture of the Zanbird with the head poking out of the tail, but even I felt like “this doesn’t really cut it.” In the end it was decided to store the head in the body, but manufacturing costs, the limits of technology at the time, safety considerations and such meant that Clover (note: the toy company that sponsored the show) couldn’t replicate the feature in their toys. It was Clover’s first animation production as well, so they made all sorts of design requests to Sunrise, who told them what was possible and what wasn’t, and there was a lot of back-and-forth fumbling around. That was the era.

But now, there’s a toy maker who’s willing to give their all to make a perfect three-dimensional representation of the character as seen onscreen. It really shows how times have changed. It’s also miraculous that there’s an older audience out there willing to buy the toys, and this project and production is a reflection of that. You know, Sunrise and we put our all into making something for the kids, who’ve grown up to be fathers and now adult customers. It’s really touching.

[Credits: Interview conducted by Akira Tanizaki. Appeared on page 3 of the guidebook provided for the Bandai Soul of Chogokin Zanbot 3.]

This has happened to all of us at one time or another. You read something about a toy you never knew or cared much about, and then, soon after, THE CRAVING sets in.

Well, this happened to me recently, but in this case, I zapped myself: it was me writing the article. You see, this tale began with two non-robotic blockheads, myself and Rob Duban. Super7 Magazine had tasked me with writing a Dougram article, and I figured I’d get more familiar with the pieces I didn’t already have by digging through the Duban Archives.

We did it proper: 40-ouncers were broken out and we began carefully liberating the toys from their cardboard and styrofoam cryo-chambers: the 1/48 Dougram, the Magnetype, and so on, and while I admired them, there was a strange reassurance as to why I didn’t own these: for whatever reason, they didn’t float my boat. That was, until we uncrated the Blockhead.

In my opinion, the cream of the 1980s “real robot” toys are the 1/72 Dual Models. They have the best of the best: great designs, solid construction, and kick-ass packaging. However, the Blockhead stands out because:

• Blockhead Is Big – Yeah, yeah, yeah! It’s not small, no, no, no! Even with those hard-to-find antennae attached, the Dougram and Soltic only come up to the shoulder of the Blockhead.
• The Visible Blockhead – The robutt comes with a set of translucent armor so you can see his futuristic innards.
• Not Your Mom’s Box – Unlike the “art box” versions of the Dougram and Soltic, which require a little bit of hunting to acquire, all Blockhead boxes feature a classic Okawara painting of Ol’ Blocky, printed on that sensual textured cardboard.

Not that there aren’t a couple of downsides:

• Low In Zinc – The metal chest that the Dougram and Soltic is missing here The Blockhead only has metal in the feet and the spring-loaded shins. That’s it.
• Losing His Head – The head is held on pretty loosely, compared to the Dougram and Soltic. However, unless you want to hang him upside down, this usually isn’t an issue.
• Red Is For Girls – Why Takara chose to make the red Blockhead instead of the much more manly desert tan one is a mystery. I guess it could be worse, Char’s Pepto Bismol pink…

Once I got back home, I started writing the article, and as you could expect, once I started writing about the Blockhead I started asking myself why in the great blue hell I didn’t have one. I reached out to my pal Tadayuki in Japan and asked him to start hunting for me, because I didn’t have much hope for finding one on the home front for a reasonable price. Days became weeks, then months, and still the lust burned deep within…

Eventually, my daily eBay searches yielded success. I shot, I scored! Amazingly, I was the only one bidding on it, so the price was more than nice. I was so ecstatic that I neglected to tell Tada that I found one. Of course, roughly eight hours after the end of the auction, he emailed me to tell me that he got one on Yahoo Japan. It was already paid for and on the way to him. Again, the price was right, so I thanked him and bought that one.

But what was I supposed to do with two of these? I thought about it, and finally I came up with a solution here. What the hell, they say the economy’s picking up, and we can go back to lighting our cigars with $100 bills, right?

For more of that down-home Dougram you crave, check out Super7 #5, with pictures by Rob Duban and words by yours truly. Buy it at your local book store or through their web site. I hope you enjoy it, and feel free to send me pictures of toys being crushed by cars.

For a long while there I considered the Takatoku Ultraman Leo gokin an unsubstantiated myth. I’ve been watching eBay and other internet sources for Japanese toys since late ’97 and had yet to see evidence of one outside the TBDX Datafiles. Did it really exist?

The more I poked around the further my doubt increased.

For a long while there I considered the Takatoku Ultraman Leo gokin an unsubstantiated myth. I’ve been watching eBay and other internet sources for Japanese toys since late ’97 and had yet to see evidence of one outside the TBDX Datafiles. Did it really exist?

                The more I poked around the further my doubt increased.

                I brought my question up during chat once and one of the more learned of our stripe swore there was an auction running at that very moment for the toy, yet the link he sent me was for a Eidai Jumbo Grip Leo -a nice piece, to be sure- but definitely not Takatoku.

                No other shred of proof surfaced until just this year when another kind toy freak sent me a scan of the Ultra Leo toy as marketed in one of the little Takatoku catalog inserts.

                My faith shifted but I still wasn’t entirely convinced. We were only talking about another promotional picture  -a marketing tool that sometimes proves more pie in the sky than indication of existing merchandise.

                Then, out of the blue, an auction.

                After nearly a year of decent, adult behavior, I find myself up at an insane hour, pledging a similarly indefensible amount of money for a toy I know almost zilch about.

                Winning the auction, I commence twitching until it arrives at my door some three days later.

                Now I have the Z-Gokin Ultra Leo in my hands: it is tight, sturdy and . . . small.

Smallest of all the vintage Ultagokins I’m aware of; coming in right below the Victora Ultraman 80 at just over 11cm tall.

                While not as beguilingly funky as the Grip toy, Takatoku’s ST Leo is not without its charm- but for the head and poinkers, the crisp lines of its body are written in pleasant, hefty metal, the traditional and familiar stiffness of its carriage somehow warming my heart.

                Happy, I take it to the shelf and fold it into a crowd of its brethren, secure in the knowledge that my wife need never know the depth of my sins.

Super7 #5 is out! Booska! Akumaizer-3! Mechagodzilla! Minya! Momoko! The History of Optimus Prime, Part 3! Designer Plushes! A Dougram article written by yours truly with photos by Robert Duban! Details about the Super7 retail store! More exclamation points! Pick up your copy or subscribe at their web site, or find it at your local major book store! Do it NOW!!!

In celebration of 50 years of Godzilla in America, Marusan-USA is announcing the release of Marusan’s first USA exclusive Godzilla figure, Godzilla 1954. Pre-orders are being accepted on their website here. Estimated shipping date is June 15, 2004. Future 2004 USA exclusive releases of Godzilla 1955 and Angurus 1955 are expected in July and August.

In celebration of 50 years of Godzilla in America, Marusan-USA is announcing the release of Marusan’s first USA exclusive Godzilla figure, Godzilla 1954. Pre-orders are being accepted on their website here. Estimated shipping date is June 15, 2004. Future 2004 USA exclusive releases of Godzilla 1955 and Angurus 1955 are expected in July and August. — Roger