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

No, I don’t collect Ultraman stuff. My only vintage piece is this Popy set.
I also have a few 80ties Bandai Ultraman kaijus. That’s it. I think I’m more
a “Mirrorman guy” ;-)

I “rediscover” this piece last friday and thought it deserves some extra love.

Bought this Popy Ultaman 80 (ウルトラマン80) set more than 20 years ago.
I was a complete newbie at this time and had no clue how many (endless) cool
japanese toys are out there. Finding informations about these toys was pretty
difficult at this time. No ebay, no wikipedia, no TBDX, nothing.

I was into Shogun Warriors, tin robots, Popy Chogokins, Micronauts and many
none japanese toys at this time. I bought most of the stuff on flea markets and from
a toy dealer I knew personally here in germany. This guy was pretty cool. He was
specialized on superhero stuff, but also had cool japanese pieces from time to time.
He was travelling around in italy and got the toys from old toy stores, but also
went to big toy shows in the USA a few times a year. Great times! Buying and
finding toys was a real adventure.

I bought my Mattel Astro Robot Jumbos, lots of Shogun Warriors, tons of Popy
Chogokins etc over the years from him. His name was Peter Bergner, he also
had a store in Cologne. This was the german version of  Kimono my House, only
without the japanese toys ;-)

The guy had a world famous Spiderman collection. He had everything you could imagine,
even a real Spidey costume from one of the 70ties movies.

…ok, back to the Ultraman set.
I remember that Peter bought the sofubi set on a toy show in Florida,
because he thought it could be something for me. I think I paid something
like $50 for it. This was lots of money for me at this time, a poor student.

Enough sentimental nostalgic memories. Here’s the toy…lets go.

It’s a “double blister box” with a pop-up flip side. Pretty cool!

The set comes with 13 figures.

13 figures, 13 faces.

I like the artwork of this box. The sofubis look nice inside the blister
box, but even better when they are in the pop-up “diorama”.
Like a little store display.

The set comes with a little Popy Ultraman 80 catalog

Great set. I’m glad that bought it.
Finally a few foot markings…

“No, I don’t collect kaiju sofubis. Collecting kaijus gonna ruin me.”
Did I say that? Don’t remember. ;-)

Today it’s time for a bit extra love for the King of the Monsters. Godzilla.

A few weeks ago this Bullmark Godzilla showed up on Y!JP.
The auction fotos weren’t the best, but Gojira looked on them like a
vintage Bullmark version. After some research and the “yes, looks vintage”
(thanks Jim & Mike!), I placed my bid…and won it. Weeks later Gojira
arrived in germany with lots of other toys in a big parcel. After an intensive
cleaning, Godzilla really looked nice. I think I mentioned this before:
Dirt conserves condition

Enough talking…enjoy Gojira.

To be honest, this Gojira is looking more like some dinosaur.
But who cares. I love him and always wanted him!

More as usual in the BBS.

It happened last year. I scanned as usual Tekkaman auctions on Yahoo Japan
and…BANG…there was this strange looking Tekkaman vinyl.
Never seen this guy before, or after this auction again. Nobody bid und him,
so far I remember. No wonder. He looked horrible on the auction fotos.
Well, don’t mean his general styling. He looked super dirty.

When he arrived a few weeks later I could say. YES, he was super dirty!
Looked that he spent the last 20 years in an oil spill. Poor oily, slimy, stinking bastard.
But after a few hours of intensive cleaning he looked pretty nice.
And again: Shit preserves condition.

Here’s the man! He stands 9,45 inches (24 cm) tall, completely vinyl and he could
move his arms & upper part of his body.

He don’t look that bad. Maybe his arms are a “bit” deformed.
But if you photograph him from below, his arms look “ok” ;-)

It seems that my Tekkaman had some serious fights during his long toy life.
His fists are pretty worn and he also lost the tip of one of his “horns”.

Ok…his arms look strange. Non-stop-biceps-posing-style.

Posing with the Nakajima standard size sofubi and the big Talker.

He has no markings on his feet or somewhere else. Poor little no-name bastard!
Lets be generous and give him a cool name: Tekkaman BPKO sofubi

If you know his parents —> BBS

UFOロボグレンダイザー
Size ca. 20 cm / 7,9 inches

The box has seen better days…who cares…

Standard size sofubi from Bullmark, with removable mask.
Smart ass baby face.

Mirrorman was Tsuburaya’s first non “Ultra” superhero TV production from 1971.

Ladies and gentlemen…I proudly present another nerd Brog from the Rockbat universe ;-)

Today I focus on Rockbat’s archenemy, GONG.
WAIT…I always thought this  hairy beast is called GONG, because GONG is
written on his chest armor…this would be too easy, I was totally wrong.
My personal japanese to english translating & extra information god, Mr. Matt Alt brought
light into this mystery. Thanks again Matt!

“His name is Doradanuki, or “Stray Tanuki.” A tanuki is a raccoon-dog. It’s a real animal
but also seen as a trickster in Japanese folklore. (The Studio Ghibli movie “Pom Poko” is
all about them). Normally, their secret power is all in their testicles, but Doradanuki
doesn’t seem to have any! ;) ”

So, adieu GONG…hello DORADANUKI!

I only know of these 3 versions of Doradanuki, all made by Bullmark.
The “nearly” standard size version is from the Rockbat 5 figures carded set.
The small sofubi is from the 4 figures carded set and the mini sofubi looks
like he’s from the Rockbat playset.
…wow I created a new sofubi category. The “nearly” standard size sofubi ;-)

The sizes of the Doradanukis are 5,4” (13,7 cm) for the big one,
4,1” (10,5 cm) for the small version and 3,5” (9 cm) for the mini version.

Here are 2 groupshots. The Doradanukis side by side and together
with the rest of the Rockbat gang.

Finally some action fotos.
Doradanuki always trys to kick Rockbat’s Ass…but in the end he always gets the spanking.

As always…more fotos etc in the BBS.

OK guys… This right here is one of the holy grails of Super Robot sofubi collecting. I give you the Popy standard sized (7″+) Goggle FIIIIVVVVEEUUUHHH!! Next to the standard sized Daltanias, Sun Vulcan and Daimos, this is very difficult to find. There’s nothing really to report as it just stands there, but man is it cool.. So crappy. That’s so part of the allure for me. This would be my bath time Goggle V circa 1981, as I couldn’t very well take my Google chogokin into the bath.. Enjoy!

Back of the header card.