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

Standard sized sofubi by Nakajima 1975.

Standard size sofubi by Popy 1977. My pathetic attempt at Sifu Brisko’s style..

…and the Robo-Bike-Week continous.
Today Aoshin’s Spin Action Diapolon Trike.

Licensed by Bullmark, this huge plastic trike comes in a very nice box.
Great artwork all around.

This toy is battery operated.
Put two batteries int the compartment at the back of the trike,
switch on the “switch” and Diapolon starts to ride like hell.
The “spin action” feature let the trike drive forward and a little
wheel (under the trike) lifts up the front of the vehicle.
YEAHH… Diapolon makes wheelies  ;-)

As the Lone Ranger would say: YIHAAAAA…HI HO SILVER

What can I say? Ben inspired me with his Mogera pics.

So…more Bullmark love for y’all!

As you may or may not know, I scored this guy from Alen in a monumental Summit trade a few weeks ago. Monumental because it’s started me down the path of vintage Bullmark kaiju…something I’ve feared (and thus avoided!) for years now.

No longer! The Bullmark cherry has been popped!

A few weeks ago I found this Bullmark UFO Diapolon motorcycle on Yahoo.
I couldn’t resist and bought it directly. The combination of Diapolon
and a Honda 750 four is pure 70ties funk…could only be topped by
a Blazer & Honda ;-)

Diapolon comes in a nice box with the “usual” friction-drive & sparkling-engine
motorbike. No more gadegts. A missile firing feature would have been cool, like the
Blazer & Zaboga version of this bike. But nobody is perfect.

The handlebar and the other metal parts of the bike had
been tarnished. I polished them, but didn’t get the full “bling” back.
But the bike still looks cool…no wonder – its a Honda (wow, cool rhyme)

Diapolon has a date with his biker-buddy Blazer…

Here’s a little overview-shot of Diapolon’s on motorbikes/trikes.
The big trike is from Aoshin, the rest is Bullmark.

I really like bots on bikes, even when it makes no sense.

More fotos in the BBS.

A Yonezawa sparkler makes its way onto my shelf due to the kindness of a fellow collector.
Despite the insanity of recent prices and the fierce competition among bidders as of late, it is acts like this which keep my faith alive, that the child-like love is what fuels us at all the core.

Throw the boomerang hard next time you can. It will always come back.

I’ve looked at vintage kaiju longingly for a while now, but I decided early on that I was going to be very particular about the vintage figures I’d pick up. I knew that my number one priority was a Bullmark classic, the 1957 Moguera, released way back in 1970. Collecting modern vinyls, they are very much made for adult collectors in a style reflective of the vinyl toys of old, but if I was going to pick up any real vintage figures, I wanted them to reflect that plaything aspect, and one of the biggest aspects representative of these being toys for children is writing on the foot. Many vintage figures have a kid’s name written on the bottom of the foot, so that those kids could keep track of their figures during the most chaotic of sandbox battles. I searched high and low for months for just the right Moguera: unbroken, in played with condition, and proudly emblazoned with something on the foot. I was expecting ‘the one’ to have a kid’s name on the foot, but a remarkably unique specimen popped up on YJA that I just had to have. Instead of a child’s name, this Moguera had the character’s name written on the foot. The marking is clearly vintage, and adds a unique bit of character to the toy. Who knows why ‘Moguera’ is written on its foot… perhaps the child owner couldn’t remember all the characters names?

When the figure finally came, it was pure bliss. I finally got to experience the ubiquitous Bullmark smell, and I could swear there was vintage sandbox sand stuff crusted into some of the deeper details of the figure. The actual figure is also fantastic. There are spots on the figure where you can still make out tool marks from where the original sculpt was only cleaned up ‘enough’. These were designed for kids, and, while handcrafted, were effectively pumped out the door. Everything about the figure has a utilitarian charm… effective but simple paint, chunky detail, and tons of dorky character.

This is my Moguera… here’s to forty more years of fun!

Nearly 11 inches vintage vinyl !

Zabogaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Gobots gab? Goodness gracious.

I’m a big junkie for Mach Baron like some of my friends here. Come on, who doesn’t love a giant red robot that’s so beautifully designed he turns heads? I think the figures from Bullmark are just wonderful sculpts of art. With that said, I do have a pet peeve about them. So many were poorly painted. Mach looks like he has a bad spray on tan. Come on…where’s the respect?

I looked at my 10.5″ Bullmark sofubi one afternoon and thought, “I wonder if I could repaint him to show off his TRUE colors?” After researching and looking at many photos of Mach Baron, I narrowed down some colors and came up with a game plan. I started by using a thinner to remove as much of the excess blue silver color on his shins as possible and other colors incorrectly sprayed onto him. After that, it was time to mask off his belt, hands, and eyes. Then I applied two coats of bright red spray paint. When it dried, off came the masking tape and then the fine work of painting the white, silver and gold yellow. After about 3 hours invested in this makeover, I surprised myself with the results. He looks 100x better!!

Since it worked so well on the sofubi, I decided to give my MFV Mach Baron a facelift too.

And finally, here is the family portrait.