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

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

Yo! Erik… It was awesome meeting you in SFO.
Thank you for sharing your collection. Most of
all, thanks for this guy!

Your heart races in the closing seconds.

There has been a lot of talk of grails as of late.

There are grails… Then there are Grails.

First seen in the Metal Box brog, the giant Red baron is head and shoulders above his other vinyl brothers and in actuality sits nicely in scale with the Villian Machinders at 18 inches tall.

http://www.metal-box.jp/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/blog090520a.jpg

But where did it come from and is this in fact a store display as some have suggested? Since there are so few to begin with, and as of yet no packaging has been located, that debate will certainly continue for some time.

But perhaps Warren’s email exchange (below) with the original owner might shed some light onto the origins of this amazing toy.

“Dear Bev,
I’m very excited about this piece ~ thank you so much for listing ‘him’.
I would appreciate it if you could give me any information about how you came by it –
For instance, are you a toy dealer? Was it part of a lot? Was it a gift?
Do you collect or have other Japanese robots?
Or do you have particular ones which you plan to auction in the future?
Did you travel to Japan to get him?
Who owned him before you did… i.e. what is his ‘provenance?’

Any other information you have would be great! And finally, thank you for putting this up for auction!

All the best,
Warren.

“Dear Warren:

Sincerely,
Bev

“Dear Bev,
Thank you so much. It explains the circumstances of the toy, and why there is no box, and how it came into your possession. You’re right, it’s not particularly unusual that you were stationed in Japan and your son enjoyed toys bought from his allowance. But the environment in which the toy was sold is interesting to me.
My wife has been a member of the Boston Symphony for 35 years, and because the orchestra had a conductor who was Japanese he took the orchestra to Japan on tour. In 1986 I accompanied her for the first time and spent time in a number of cities visited by the tour. During rehearsals I would roam the town centers where the toy shops caught my eye, and particularly the shops which had vintage robots from the golden era of Japanese toys. I collected many of them, and shipped them back home where I have an expanding collection. I am an architect in Boston and have fallen in love with the forms, colors, and history of the Japanese creative mind, and the toys!

All the best,
Warren”.

“Dear Warren:
I mailed the robot this morning. I sent it parcel post (which should be 6 – 10 days delivery time) with insurance. By the way, since you said that you were interested in it’s “environment”, the name of those little stores were “mama-san” stores. Because Ishikawa was a small town, that’s all we had.

Bev”

Scale as compared to missile firing red Baron

There is something to be said about the rarity of a toy, and perhaps the story behind it’s manufacture and company history. But to me there is something even more charming about the actual “history” and story each of these objects have through their journey through the years. Much like children’s names written on the bottom of the feet of many vinyls, there is a humanity that goes with this hobby that can be sometime forgotten if you don’t look carefully. Much like all of us, each of these toys has their own unique past.
The auction certainly was an exciting one, and the toy is really a work of art, but I find it even more beautiful knowing its humble beginnings, and who and where “he” came from.

Nakajima Tekkaman Mini Size versus Eidai Grip Tekkaman.
Which Tekkaman is the better toy? I’m trying to find an answer today.
I know that any serious robot collector asked himself that question ;-)

Lets start with the Box.

The Nakajima Small Size version comes with a very beautiful box, same artwork style as
his bigger “standard” size brother. Ok, same artwork style as all Nakajima gokin boxes.
Nice combination of illustration-style on the front and foto elements on the other sides.

The Grip Tekkaman comes in the usual Grip “plastic-dome” box, with “instruction sheet art”
on the back and a nice colorful illustration inside.

Two different styles of packaging.

I really like the Grip “you-see-what-you-get” style, but the Nakajima box is a bit more “practical”
and the artwork is very nice…with “practical” I refer to the very small size of the box. Thats an
advantage when your display is cramped with robots ;-)
So I would say 1:0 for Nakajima.

Quality & Details

Both Tekkamans  are made nearly enirely out of metal. Only the heads and
the forearms of the Grip version are plastic. The build quality of them is
very good. Also they are both very movable, with all the joints they have.

Detailing is very nice too.

So, in this category there is no real winner. 1 point for both.
Nakajima still in front with 2:1.

Now Accessories & Action Features

The Nakajima Tekkaman comes with a yellow whip and a stylish golden stand.
Grip’s Tekkaman only with his silver spear and 2 plastic fists/forearms.

The stand is a nice feature for displaying Tekkaman…but the fists of the Grip
are worth one point! You could shoot them.

2:2, we have a tie.
Sounds like a happy end? Yes, why not.

So the question which one is the better toy is answered. If you like Tekkaman,
you have to buy them both. If you have another opinion, let me hear it  in the BBS.

Actually this was an auction for a lighter, where the buyer wanted to know the scale as compared to five deadstock GA -51s

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.

First time I got in contact with Condorman was 1981, the Disney movie.
Loved that movie as the kid, specially the black Porsche’s of the villians.
But that movie had nothing to do with the Condorman…

…of the japanese tokuatsu series from 1975. Created by Kohan Kawauchi (aka Yasunori Kawauchi),
who also created the  first japanese superhero television show in 1958 , Moonlight Mask (Gekko Kamen).

Lets start with the little Grip Condorman!

Condorman comes in the typical Grip stype packaging. The one I bought
only came with a small Grip catalog. There are 2 more Condorman toys
made by Grip. The Mach Condor (Condorman’s cool Datsun) and the
Condorman Base.

He’s made out of diecast and his head is soft vinyl. The quality of this little
toy is great. Arms & legs are movable and he has many nice details.

That’s it for the little Condorman.
You still could get him for small money…go and get one!

More fotos in the BBS.