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

I love robot sofubi. I especially love Gundam sofubi. Minister Alt is to blame for this.. That’s right YOU, it’s all your fault you cheap bastard. Well, in reality, they certainly are not cheap anymore. Such total CRAP! The perfect kind in my opinion..

I have an unrequited love for carded sets of Gundam sofubi. Unfortunately, they are often elusive and very sought after these days. This one in particular is just amazing:

Gotta catch em all!! har har… Nevermind..

I’m a huge fan. If it comes in a little plastic purse for me to carry around I love it even more. These are the red headed stepchildren of Gundam collecting for a reason. They are absolutely terrible. They are “BAD”. In my opinion they are Michael Jackson “BAD”. Or as Run D.M.C. would say “Not bad meaning bad, but bad meaning good!”. Yep.

Toy Karma seems to be on the move… after a cryptic message from The Chairman read simply ‘give me your address’, I did not know what to expect. Never would I have guessed that after he helped me secure my first TT Macross vinyl, the GBP, he would surprise me with my favorite of the TT Macross vinyls, the Glaug, with its awesome vinyl charm! I couldn’t believe it when I opened the package. I LOVE this sculpt, with those big poofy arms in place of the lean and sleek lines of the Glaug. All the right ideas are there in the sculpt, but with that utilitarian-minded uncompromising vintage vinyl aesthetic. Truly a fantastic toy, for which I am truly grateful to our generous Chairman!

Martial arts has been part of my life for about a decade. I have a sifu whom I owe much to. Someone who has shown me a path to better myself, and how to interact with others.

There is another though, that has simply through his consistent goodness and never ending exuberance, shown me the way.

Boomerang in T minus 10…9…8

“Uncle” Warren, the bright eyed, platnium curl and pepper haired, captain of the perverbial ship of gokin, vinyl, and tin.
The silent, spiritual sentinal who blazed a path from which our toy DNA spirals outward and onward, talks with a quiet and steady cadence.

“Josh, hold up, I have something for you”.

You can’t fake this, buy it, or manufacture it.

Warren Schwartz’s grace is not in how large his collection is, or how long he has been acquiring. Likely more than any of us on both counts anyway.
It is in the kindness of a heart that wishes to not only share his love and knowledge of the Japanese toy foodgroups, and ultimately the care and respect he shows his fellow collector.

Warren runs upstairs and reappears with a Popy box in hand. He seems almost child-like in his excitement. It is a thing I had lusted for when first seeing it not an hour previous. One I know all too well. One up until this point, I never thought I would ever have.

…7…6…5

My first meeting with Warren was the fateful week that Day Old Antiques had closed its doors for the final time.

Like my first meeting with Alen, I was not only impressed by Warren’s nature but the resulting feeling I had known him for years.
Deciding that another meet up should be in the works, we met for sushi and then took a trip to his house to see the famed collection.

It has been written about before, so I certainly will not go into detail, but suffice to say I was speechless at the magnitude and the care in which he quietly stored everything. Row upon row of brown paper bags and boxes, complete with hand written description cards of each one’s content. Each one describing entire runs of toys.

This is Zen. This is what love looks like physically condensed.

…4…3…2

When at Day Old, I had with me one of the many custom containers used for transporting Popy GA 51’s. Shyly I spoke to my new acquaintance about my goofy desire in locating the perfect box one day.

Um, your OCD is showing.

Ironically, up until that point, I only had a Shogun Warrior box, that would be worthy of such a container, as it seemed that in the early days of seeking out these treasures, A Popy version seemed few and far between in any condition above a c8.

Warren hands me the Ark. It is gem mint. It has a sheen and a glow I rarely see on vintage.
I don’t get truly emotional over toys, but this was a moment where choking up a bit did not seem unwarranted.

…1

“I think you should have this. Just when you get a chance, send me your box in the mail.”

I nod.

What do you say in such a moment?

I look up, throat tight, and a sting at the corner of each eye.

Hold steady son.

Warren stands there, his Buddha smile seems to clarify everything for me. A thought begins to crystalize. I have a boomerang in my back pocket and a desire to throw it hard.

My heart is beating fast, and I realize I am in the presence of true benevolence.

Thank you sifu.

Sanjeev stopped by his vault and took this shot of his bad ass Gaiking missile firing vinyl accompanied by the likes of Bazoller, Skyler and Nessar mini sofubi. Sanjeevery I say!

Not so common!

Goshogun is one of the coolest 80’s super robots out there. The peacock wings and the big ass sword are a force to be reckoned with. I acquired most of the Takatoku Z Gokin Goshogun stuff years ago, I should have known it was only a matter of time until I completed the circle with the vinyls.

Out of all the Takatoku super robot standard sized vinyls the Goshogun is very hard to come by. The Sankan Oh and the Daikyozin are close runners up, but I’ve only seen the Goshogun for sale three times so far. I lucked out walking into Tokyo’s Gojira Ya and seeing one on a bookshelf literally the moment I walked in. It wasn’t for sale, but before I knew it a cool 10,000Y bill took it home. No backing card (which can be the best part due to the outrageously cool artwork), but hey it was the last standard sized Takatoku vinyl I needed to finish the line.

Not much to say about the piece itself. Unfortunately Takatoku decided the trademark peacock wings were not important, which was a HUGE mistake in my opinion. I included a couple shots of the bagged mini that does have the wings, so you can imagine how awesome the standard size would have looked.

Now the last on my list is the elusive large carded set that contains the Goodsunder, TriThree, mini Goshogun sofubi and another vehicle. I’ve seen it for sale in Tokyo for $500?! Yeah, I don’t think so.. Check it out here.

Alas, the standard measures in at 7″ while the mini is at 5.25″. Maybe not the most thrilling sofubi ever, but if it just had wings… Nevermind. GooooOOO SHOGUN!! Yeah, whatever..

Gordian Warrior (闘士ゴーディアン ?) was a popular anime series aired in 1979 to 1981 in Japan. It is also referred to as Champion of Gordian or Gardian.

Gordian was the first DX Chogokin/Godaikin I had as a kid, therefore I’ve always had a strong affinity for this character. It would be safe to say that I’ve been pining over ol’ Gordian since about 1981. It was the whole matryoshka doll gimmick that always had me really fascinated. There was absolutely nothing around that you could compare it to at the time. I recall my grandfather being totally fascinated by the design and functionality. I will never forget how astounded he was that us “kids” had such amazing toys to play with. After all, growing up in post WWI Europe he widdled his fucking toys out of wood. His interest alone just solidified the fact that Gordian was something special. Totally revolutionary..

Gordian vinyls.. Not so much.

Anyway.. Gordian, like many of shows I watched growing up (God Mars, Sunvulcan, Tetsujin28, Dunbine, Dynaman etc), is definitely a major area of my collecting focus. I’m now slowly but surely collecting anything and everything associated with each character/show, no mater how trivial. For example, I happen to own several Tetsujin 28 beach balls, a God Mars pencil box, Dunbine chopsticks and tin Gordian rice boxes. Sad but true. You really should see what I can do with a beach ball a pencil box and a set of chopsticks. It’s AMAZING I tell you!

So, after a year or so of compulsively searching I finally scored the Popy Chogokin Clint GB-13, and in January Alen broke me off the Popy Pla DX Gordian (known as the crappiest Popy toy of all time), so the Gordian bender was totally on. It was go time.

Obviously, I just had to complete the circle with these bad boys..

The full set:

The best part about amassing everything in each series for me is scoring the vinyls. They SUCK!! They REALLY suck. But, they suck in a such a very good way. As much as “sucking” can be good.. These Gordian vinyls are surprisingly far more well done than the vinyl representations of the aforementioned characters/shows from the same time period. With the exception of the Popy Tetsujin “BIG” vinyl, I would venture to say that these vinyls, Garbin especially, are some of Popy’s best super robot vinyl designs and delivery.

Garbin:

Delinger:

Protteser:

Daigo Otaki:

Back sides for good measure:

Overall, these are most likely pretty underwhelming to the average gokin collector who is pimping the DX or the ST Chogokin versions of these characters. They don’t “do” anything, like combine. What they do “DO”, is emit the “funk”. They contain that aesthetic bad-assness that keeps me coming back for more.. Over and over and year after year, I’m constantly finding new and exciting representations of my favorite super robot characters in sofubi form.

Love them or hate them, you’ve got to admit they’ve got charm. These vinyls might not be an example of Popy’s finest hour, but I’m certianly not apologizing for them and neither should you. Call it a guilty pleasure.. Indulge at your own risk.

The Marusan Toy blog reports that Wataru Masuda, former president of legendary toy and model maker Nitto, has passed away.

Nitto is perhaps best known as the manufacturer of Kow Yokoyama’s “SF3D Original” (now Machinen Krieger) model kits. A formidable presence on the Japanese toy scene in the ’60s and ’70s, their “Gamera” and “Gappa” soft vinyl figures (shown above) are considered classics of the art form.