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

How long it is I’ve suffered

(And whined and bitched and rent

What’s left of my poor patchy hair)

And typed my fingers bent

Dispatches to the Mother Land

To Jersey and Hong Kong

Wherein I’ve sung my sickly

Never ending greedy song:

 

“Find for me these bits of barf

These mini malformed mutts

These teensy tiny reproducted

Elusive vinyl runts!

Find them for me and dear friends

Upon my thanks you’ll sup

Not to mention your relief

When fin’ly I shut up”

 

Then from old HK came lo

The news I’d longed to hear

A chance to get the latest sets

But oh the price was dear!

I gulped and wondered at the chance

Hesitating now with doubt

But how the world seemed well again

When I drained my bank account

 

When I see olive packages

My heart leaps from my chest

From far they travel to my home

And inside treasures rest

Today an green bound box arrived

And I’m filled with nerdy joy

Two sets of brand new SOB

Sets four and five -Oh Boy!

 

I will not bore you with the set

seen here once before

Undoubtedly even the best kaiju

Make most of you all snore

But series five if I’m not wrong

Has not been seen here yet

So let me introduce to you

this latest wacky set:

 

Antlar Redking Miculas

(redeco’d don’t you know)

And we can’t forget third Kanegon

With his nifty glow

Ultra Jack and 7 are new

(not that you’d give a darn)

Lastly goofy Takkong

And sewage-like Zazarn

 

And there you have it Gundam fans

Poor verse for your delight

And pictures of some crap that proves

Ol’ Corey’s just not right

And if I might address the folks

Who’ve made these hard to find:

Thanks a lot there Bandai

Kiss my ripe behind

 

                cae 9-19-03

I dropped by the Bandai Museum in sunny, far-flung Matsudo, Chiba (near Tokyo) yesterday. And boy, was I in for a surprise.

You can keep the rest of the museum — a bunch of Bandai employees dressed up in kimono and anime uniforms, pretending that Mobile Suit Gundam is real. (Seriously. I paid my extra 300 yen to see the “Gundam Museum” on the seventh floor, only to be met by an intense young staff member standing next to a life-sized Zaku head who told me excitedly that they’d ‘just captured a Zeon mobile suit and were reverse-engineering it in the other room!’ I asked him where the bathroom was.)

But the 6th floor… Ah, Wonder Forest. The operative theme is Machinder. They’re hanging from the walls, perched in false balconies, peeking out from little stands high atop support pillars. And one of them happens to be none other than Garada K-7. Yes, an actual, honest-to-god Popy Garada K-7 “Kikaiju.” Holy Grail of the Jumbo Machinder collecting world.

There it was. Hanging right there in front of my eyes. Literally. You’d think a (probably) $10,000+ toy would command some sort of intricate security system, like maybe a sheet of frickin’ glass or something. Yet there it was, lashed to a balustrade sort of thing a little above eye level with baling wire, for God’s sake! BALING WIRE!

Not only is it out in the open, it’s practically within touching distance if you’re tall enough. And it’s also shunted into a little area in the dark without any kind of plaque, explanation, or indication that it’s, quite possibly, one of only two or three in the world. And for good measure, they tossed a Gren Ghost C-3 up there as well, an almost equally difficult-to-find toy. At least Garada had a clear view — ol’ Gren Ghost was stuffed in behind some fake ivy and a Bandai sign!

To be honest, the whole thing kinda turned me off. From the role-playing Bandai staffers, to the really odd display of the toys, to the fact that every path ended at a little Bandai shop of one sort or another, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being had. At least admission to the main building is free.

But what bothers me more than anything else, I think, is that I see certain rare toys as something more than they once were — I see them as art. Seeing a legend like Garada K-7 — the Japanese toy world’s equivalent of the Mona Lisa (sure! look at that smile on his face!) — strapped up over a Gundam hot-dog stand, with little thought and even less respect, left me feeling vaguely sad.

What is there to say about San Diego Comic-Con, other than that it really is the biggest geek-fest in America?

Of course, I felt right at home. The exhibitors’ room wasn’t as good this year as it was last year if you were looking for Japanese super robot or mecha toys, but there was a very strong presence of kaiju toy dealers, with a good selection of both vintage and new items.

The Super7 Magazine crew was there in force, with a show-exclusive variant of Bear Model’s Godzilla ’74 figure for sale. I finally got to meet editors Mark Nagata and Brian Flynn face to face, after trading and corresponding with them for years. StrangeCo was also there, showing off their Cosmouse vinyl as well as all three versions of the Dorbel vinyl I reported on last week. Kaiju lovers, take note: Dorbel is solid vinyl, and truly impressive in person.

As for the toy news, let’s break it down by license…

Robotech: The big news from Toynami was the Masterpiece Alpha, which features an excellent sculpt, die-cast content spread throughout, and a little fold-up Cyclone that fits in a hatch behind the cockpit. Scale is 1/55 (about 6″), price is $80, release dates start at the end of this year, and if sales are good they will make a Beta for it, so use your dollar votes if you want to see this happen. And it has a waist joint! The Robotech panel also told us that an SDF-1 toy was considered by Toynami, but not deemed worth the effort since the molds could only be used once, unlike the VF-1 and Alpha ones. Aside from the new Super-Poseables, no other toys were annoucned.

Gundam: Bandai showed us the first episode of Zeta Gundam in English, which filled my heart with blood. Although they weren’t displayed at the show, the Arch Enemy Gundam and Gelgoog are still scheduled for release. I asked if a green Gelgoog exclusive was in the cards. Since the average Zeon grunt really doesn’t fit into the category of an “arch enemy”, they said they didn’t plan on doing this.

Maschinen Krieger: Diamond had a huge display of these little Yellow Submarine 1/35 guys, including prototypes for a new set of Working SAFS, and two versions of the Fireball SG. Pooyan’s Halloween suits have also been confirmed for production. All of these look great.

Five Star Stories: Kinokuniya Books had what was probably the most impressive display of the show, dozens of completed Five Star Stories models being shown off to promote their translation of the manga. The centerpiece was the huge Jagd Mirage kit, which was probably about three or four feet tall. No toys announced, though.

Transformers: Hasbro showed off a Unicorn toy. It was weird, it didn’t look like a unicorn, because it had not one horn but two.

Star Wars: Why am I writing about Star Wars on Toybox DX, you ask? Because if you haven’t heard already, a 13″, six pound die-cast Millenium Falcon is coming down the price for the not-so-low price of $300 from Code 3. It looks very impressive, and will probably appeal to die-cast addicts. An X-Wing is also being released, but it isn’t to scale with the Falcon. Why? I have no idea.

So there you have it. Not a complete report on everything that was at the show, just the stuff I care about. And in the end, isn’t that what’s important?

And now, the pictures:

Die-Cast Code 3 Millenium Falcon
Toynami Herculoids toys
That Transformers Unicorn thing
A Star Wars toy I’m sure none of you care about
Mark Nagata of Super 7, with Antoinette and Jim of StrangeCo
The sleeper hit of the show: Playwell’s Titanium figures
Ugly Dolls in garbage cans
Die-Cast Code 3 X-Wing
Maschinen Krieger display at Diamond
More Maschinen Krieger
Even more Maschinen Krieger
Gigantic Jagd Mirage kit at Kinokuniya display
Killer Tomato schmoozes with booth babes
Brian Flynn of Super 7 poses with vinyl booty
Ken stands up to the Victory
Roger stands up to the Victory
Harvey stands up to the Victory
Corey’s new fixation: Junkyard Dom
My sole toy purchase: an M-1 Go glow mini Greenmons, complete with waist joint!

Designer vinyls, boutique vinyls, whatever you call them, they’re really not my thing. But then I met Mantra.

Mantra is the clumsy, but well-meaning monster brainchild of cartoonist Jim Woodring, and he was born when Japanese gallery Presspop approached Jim to do a vinyl figure. “They asked for designs, I sent them a few,” he told me. “They chose Mantra. I drew him from four angles and did color schemes. The sculpture [by Presspop’s artisan Kondou] looks exactly like the drawings. I was floored when I saw it.”

This isn’t the first time Jim Woodring’s work has been realized in plastic. Six of his designs were part of Sony’s Time Capsule series, which made various artists’ creations available in gashapon toy form. Nonetheless, he was still impressed by the painstaking attention to detail during the creation process. “Presspop and Kondou were very conscientious about getting everything just right. There was considerable last-minute cogitation about what color the orifice between his tentacles should be.”

I asked Jim where the design came from. “I don’t know. The idea was to make a figure that could stand among the well-known Japanese movie monster toys. He came out a little clean and pretty for that, though.” Kaiju fans might see him as what Gezora would look like if he attacked the Yellow Submarine.

“I really like the thing and am thrilled to see this poor creature brought into existence like this,” but Jim admits, “God only knows what people who contemplate him see.”

Like most collector-oriented vinyl figures, Mantra comes bagged with an header card based on Jim’s paintings. He’s 22 cm tall, the same size as a standard Bullmark, and is available in both “cool” and “warm” color variations. The vinyl isn’t as thick as an M-1 Go figure, but the paint job is very impressive.

Mantra is available directly from Presspop, and sells for 6800 yen plus 2400 yen shipping for one or two figures. Buyers outside Japan who want to adopt Mantra should contact Presspop via the email address on their web site, and they accept international postal money orders.

Jim hints that there may be more Woodring-themed creations coming down the pike, so keep your eyes peeled.

Links
Jim Woodring: http://www.jimwoodring.com/
Mantra figure: http://www.jimwoodring.com/misc/mantra.html
Mantra art: http://www.jimwoodring.com/strangerpages/getback.html
Presspop: http://www.presspop.com/
Mantra page: http://www.presspop.com/author/jim/MANTARA.html

Wondering what’s up with this strangely avocado-esque rendition of Garamon? This alluringly internal-organ-esqe rendition of Takkong? They’re reissues of toys from Popy’s “King Zaurus” series of kaiju vinyls — major hits in 1970’s Japan. Why do you care?

Because they’re being sold by Popy, that’s why.

Yeah, THAT Popy. It’s true — Bandai’s dusting off the hallowed Popy brand-name! What this means in the “bigger picture” isn’t exactly clear. Details are scarce at the moment. For the time being, however, it appears that Popy will be taking the place of “B-Club,” the brand Bandai has used up until now when reissuing ’70s vinyl toys.

Garamon and Takkong will hit the streets later this month at 2,800 yen a pop; look for Ultraseven and Eleking to follow shortly thereafter.

Will Popy remain a marginalized brand of reissue vinyls? Or will we start seeing some diecast reissues, too? One can only hope… Stay tuned for more info!

Just a quick overview of the show and the goods I brought home.

Club Daikaiju had their full product lineup on sale, including a gaggle of Gorgos. He was pretty tight-lipped about upcoming products, but what does this mean?

My friends Tadayuki and Masaru from Japan were there as well, with a nice selection of merchandise at the table, as well as great gifts for me:

From Masaru, these Macross gashapon figures. I was really impressed by these. In addition to the amazingly poseable battroids (articulation at the head, shoulders, biceps, wrists, waist, hips, knees [bend and twist], and feet), the fighter mode Valkyries have a nice suprise: styrene! Yep, no more “gashapon disease” resulting in droopy wings.

From Tadayuki, a set of Soul of Bullmark 4. Like the previous three sets, these SOBs are scaled-down ¥200 replicas of old Bullmark vinyls. Unlike the previous series, instead of being sold in gashapon machines, they are now available bagged, boarded, boxed, and pre-assembled where candy toys are sold. Three of the characters are reissues from previous sets: Namegon (now a glowie), Baltan (now blue), and Ultraman (same body with the second version head). The switch to candy toy format from gashapon was due to disappointing sales, but hopefully this change will breathe new life into the line. After all, I still have room in the egg for more.

So did I actually buy anything for myself? Yep. I finally snagged that set of glow mini vinyls of Godzilla and Mechagodzilla that was sold as an exclusive at HMV, along with the normal versions. The detailing on these little guys is really amazing, nearly as good as the full-size figures, and the glow on the exclusives is excellent.

The next Chiller Theatre show is in on Halloween Weekend (duh), and if you would like to attend, check out their web site here.

att Alt sucks. And he has shit for taste.

He would have you believe that there isn’t sufficient metal content in the new GD-45 Chogokin Mecha Godzilla.  What the hell does he know?

This thing is heavy.  The legs are child-bearin’ fat and they are all metal.  A large portion of the chest is metal too.  This thing rocks. 

I have long been a sucker for die cast kaiju.  Vinyls are cool, but I have always been lured into the soporific gaze of such classic zinc embodiments of the monster such as the Ark Redking or Gamola.  Something about the weight, the gimmicks, and certainly the sheer presence and funk.

What the GD-45 lacks in old school funk, which it certainly does, it makes up for in crazy engineering and overall presentation.  Furthermore, it doesn’t disappoint in the quality department, Bandai’s finest engineering at work.  Aesthetically, I was really on the fence with this one, the design appeared to me to be heavily influenced by modern day monster maniac, Todd McFarlane.   Once I received it though, I was pleasantly surprised; the design has even begun to win me over.  It actually has a H.R. Geiger feel to it, and I am really getting into the neo-mecha feel of the modern day Mecha Godzilla. 

All in all, I wouldn’t trade in my Bullmarks for it, but it is a nice modern addition to the pathetic obsession I have for die cast monsters.

-Tim

—Tim Brisko

I have a confession to make: Aside from the footage that showed up in that Kia commercial, I’ve never seen Gorgo. All I know about the movie is that it involves a baby monster and its mama stomping the hell out of London. That and Leonard Maltin called the special effects “exciting”.

Year after year, the refrain I’ve always heard from monster toy collectors was, “Damn, when is someone going to make a Gorgo figure?” Well, that’s what a bold, enterprising Jersey boy went out and did.

No, not me. It was Jim Cirronella from Club Daikaiju, working in conjunction with the kings of kaiju sofubi, M-1 Go. The end result is as impressive as their previous collaborations, Reptilicus and the Rat-Bat-Spider.

As far as the size goes, Mama is slightly bigger than a standard Bullmark vinyl with articulation at the arms, legs, and tail, while Baby is a tad smaller than the mini-size vinyls with the standard waist joint. The vinyl is very thick, and the hand-painted details are excellent.

As vinyl monster toys go, it really doesn’t get any better than this. Even if you’ve never seen the movie. I give it a solid “A”. Pick yours up at Godzilla Shop (you can find Gorgo here) or your local monster toy dealer.

Click on the thumbnails to check out more pictures of the duo, and check out Gorgo’s page at M-1 Go’s official site. Heed Baby’s warning, though: “Don’t touch me!”

We began the 2001 Toy of the Year wrap-up with the words “2001 has been a truly incredible year for Japanese toys” and it looks like we didn’t lose any of that momentum going into 2002. The 2002 TOTY ballot featured more toys than any prior year, and arguably the most diverse contestants thus far. The main difference between 2002 and years past is that there was really no single item that stood head and shoulders above the rest in terms of quality and innovation. Rather, there were numerous solid efforts from the Bandais, Yamatos and Miracle Houses of the world, which made it a guessing game up right until the last minute the polls closed.

So, without further ado, we give you the…

	Candidate	Percent
	Yamato 1/48 VF-1A Hikaru-Type Valkyrie	17.7%
	Miricle House Shin Seki Gokin Mazinkaiser	15.0%
	Bandai GX-10 Boss Borot	12.2%
	Bandai Gouraijin DX	7.5%
	Bandai Movie Monsters Series Titanosaurus	7.1%
	1/4 Mascot Robot Haro (original green)	6.4%
	DX MSiA Sazabi	6.0%
	Uni 5 VariDorin	5.8%
	G X – 0 7OVA Mazinger Z	5.2%
	Zoids Gojulas GIGA	4.7%
	Metal Grade RX-78 Gundam	4.3%
	HY2M RX-78 Gundam	4.1%
	Soul Of Chogokin GX-01R OAV Mazinger Z	2.6%
	Deluxe MSiA Burning Gundam	1.3%

2002 Toy of The Year: Yamato 1/48 VF-1A Hikaru-Type Valkyrie
2002 may well be remembered as the year of the Valkyrie, seeing 7 new toys from Bandai and 5 from Yamato. Although the Bandai re-issues made some small evolutionary improvements in the tried-and-true Takatoku design, it took Yamato’s new totally-over-top 1/48 scale VF-1A valkyrie to grab folks’ attention. Featuring a crazy transformation that manages to stay faithful to the anime and yet requires no disassembly or extra parts, as well as an insane level of detail, and (finally) a solid ratcheted toy-like feel to it, the 1/48 does not fail to impress.

Special thanks to the readers at Macrossworld for ensuring that this toy received the attention that it deserved.

Second Place: Miracle House Shin Seki Gokin Mazinkaiser
Only narrowly edged out of first place by 2.7%, the Miracle House Shin Seki Gokin Mazinkaiser proves once again that the majority of ToyboxDX readers subsist on a diet of mostly zinc. Virtually solid metal save for his head, hands and his enormous wings, this bad boy very nearly took the vote due to his sheer weight and shelf presence alone.

Third Place: Bandai GX-10 Boss Borot
2002 gave us six SOC releases from Bandai, which was an unprecedented release schedule in this much-beloved retro toy line. Oddly enough, the one release that grabbed SOC fans this year was certainly the goofiest and unrespected toy in the line thus far; Boss Borot. Love him or hate him, big Boss only finished 2.8% behind Mazinkaiser and largely split the gokin vote, giving the almost completely plastic Yamato 1/48 the opening it needed to take the TOTY crown. It’s also worth pointing out that Hobby Project’s Boss Borot took the first ever ToyboxDX TOTY prize.

Fourth Place: Bandai Gouraijin DX
How did a diecast transforming set of beetles with rubber tires and treads end up so far down on this list with only 7.5% of the vote? Probably because sentai is an acquired taste and has the additional baggage on this side of the Atlantic of being seen as Power Rangers fodder. Hopefully Bandai America will bring Gouraijin over here with minor changes so that more fans can get the chance to experience this big, black bad boy.

 
Fifth Place: Bandai Movie Monsters Series Titanosaurus
Although an important kaiju piece and an unquestionable favorite among vinyl toy fans, Titanosaurus met the same fate as virtually all Japanese monsters and wasn’t quite strong enough to overpower the gokin before him.

 

 

 

Sixth Place: 1/4 Mascot Robot Haro (original green)
Another wacky toy from this year’s ballot, Haro was certainly a very much under-represented Gundam character until very recently. Unfortunately, this little guy practically demanded a working knowledge of Japanese to get much enjoyment out of him, which rather severely restricted his popularity among collectors. Haro certainly seems to be a big hit in Japan, however, with multi-colored versions recently hitting the shelves.

Seventh Place: DX MSiA Sazabi
Bandai’s 12″ version of Char’s Sazabi certainly made a lot of waves when it arrived earlier in the year, and for good reason; it was the first villain in the DX line, potentially opening the door for all kinds of antagonist-goodness down the road. Featuring better proportions than the Master Grade kit (well, except for those hands) and a good share of ABS and loads of weapons and gimmicks, all for about $30, this thing was snapped up by collectors the second it hit the shelves.

Eighth Place: Uni 5 VariDorin
One of the crazy vehicles from the much-beloved Go-Rangers series, the Uni 5 Varidorin put up a showing similar to last year’s GodPhoenix. Huge, and mostly diecast, with 4 independently motorized props and loads of gimmicks, the wacky design (and the fall-off-if-you-look-at-them-funny cannons) was perhaps a little too retro for many modern collectors.


Ninth Place: GX-07 OVA Mazinger Z
A solid, black, glossy super poseable entry in the SOC line. Sadly, for many collectors it was “just another @#$%^* Mazinger” and promptly shoved to the back of the toy shelf by most. There’s probably some poetic justice about Boss Borot out-shining Mazinger in there somewhere…

Tenth Place: Zoids Gojulas GIGA
At a whopping 41cm in length, Gojulas is one of the largest and most impressive Zoids ever released. Weighing in at 10th place, however, shows that Zoids that don’t have quite the traction in the community as other toy lines.

 

 

 

Eleventh Place: Metal Grade RX-78 Gundam Released at a wallet-busting 38,000 yen price point, this sucker definitely wasn’t for everyone. Certainly there’s lots to love about a 1/100 scale 100% solid diecast metal RX-78. Bandai unquestionably lost a lot of potential buyers at that pricepoint, and probably several more over their decision to release it as a bare metal kit, but you have to hand it to them for the balls that it took to bring this thing to market. Of course, even the Metal Grade wasn’t quite as crazy as…

Twelfth Place: HY2M RX-78 Gundam
A 75cm (29 1/2″) RX-78. Released at 78,000 yen, plus an additional 12,000 – 15,000 yen just for shipping, the H2YM certainly separates the men from the boys (or the wallet from the otaku…) Only the Japanese could release a piece like this in the middle of a recession and still manage to have them sell out in no time…

 

Thirteenth Place: Soul Of Chogokin GX-01R OAV Mazinger Z
Released to a resounding “eh”, although the execution of the GX-01R is virtually flawless, it’s “yet another @#$%^* Mazinger” in the SOC line. Although impossible to disparage the toy on its own merits, SOC completists everywhere now quake in fear of a possible GX-01R2…

 

 

Fourteenth Place: Deluxe MSiA Burning Gundam
2002 was the year that many Toyboxers started referring to MSiA as “rubber Gundams”, which pretty much sums up many older collector’s feelings for the line. Certainly the winner when it comes to price and breadth, 3″ PVC toys still fall into the “toy crack” category and have yet to make any serious inroads when it comes to Toy of The Year…