Some of the robot toy collection of Warren Schwartz (known around Toybox DX as the “toy Yoda”), will be on display at Louisiana State University’s Museum of Art beginning April 19th. Read all about it here.
Well, I’m sure I can’t be the only crazy fool but I have definitely fallen hook, line and sinker for CM’s Corporation’s Brave Gohkin Patlabors. You know the drill by now: They being ‘small toy companies catering to a specialised collector market’, will always find a way to maximise profits either through repaints and variants (rare or otherwise). In the case of these gorgeous Ingrams, it’s all in the head… literally.
First, CM’s released the Movie Ver. in early March where each set contained one (1!) body with the optional parts for either Izumi’s No. 1 head, or Ohta’s No. 2 head. Then just before April, the TV Ver. comes out with options for either No.1 or No. 3 heads. Hard to understand? Not if you’re a Patlabor fan, it isn’t…
Fans of the first movie will probably buy 2 of the Movie Ver. sets to own both No. 1 and No. 2. However, I suspect many more Patlabor fans love the TV and OVA series even more and would want to have the expanded line-up of all three Ingrams. With the cunning switcheroo on the TV-edition set, a fan will have to somehow acquire a No. 2 head from the Movie-edition, plus another TV-edition set to have the ‘anime correct’ shield emblem and stun-baton. Unless you have a buddy to exchange parts with, you may very well end up buying 4 sets in total. Like me!
Anyway, no regrets. The toy is really wonderfully realised with an abundance of diecast content and more than sufficient poseability in the cloth-shrouded joints. The inclusion of working patrol lights, opening cockpit hatches, slide-up seat and hatch-actuated revolver-cannon compartment are everything I have hoped for in a DX Patlabor toy.
I could never have as much satisfaction with any of the old Bandai toys from the 90s… Not with the brick-like 1/32 ‘lights & sound’ Ingram, and certainly not with the frustratingly pose-limited 1/60 Cloth-Gear series. The current Patlabor output from Kaiyodo’s Revoltech is mighty sweet for action figures, but with the CM’s Ingram I have found an ‘SOC worthy’ incarnation of one of my favorite Yutaka Izubuchi mecha designs.
What else is on the horizon from CM’s Corp? Well, I have already been induced to purchase my very first sofubi because of the excellence displayed in the Ingram: The limited edition ‘in-scale’ Tyrant 2000 worker labor.
Judging from the multiple re-stockings of the Ingram here in Singapore, I certainly hope CM’s continues with a Brave Gohkin of the badass Griffon. That’s the version with the wings right? Or the underwater one? I’ll take ’em all, thank you!
There was a failed experiment, “American Otaku”
Has it really been almost four years?
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.
The “Real Color” version of the Soul of Chogokin Xabungle, sold as a mail-away premium in Bandai’s Project The Soul of Chogokin book, has finally hit the streets.
I haven’t managed to get my hands on one yet, but there’s a great review showing the differences between it and the previously released version at the Japanese-language site GanHoo. Another brief review can be found at Yacolog.
For those who can’t decipher Japanese, the big changes are a brighter paint job, inked-in panel lines, and the addition of a handful of accessories (a missile launcher and three pint-sized “Walker Machines,” to be exact.) Bust out them credit cards — they’ve already hit the online auctions, going for a premium of from 25% to 100% of the original 6,200 yen price.
