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 January 25, 2001 |
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CURRENT RUMBLE |
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Acceptance, Pulling apart, and Transparency Joe Buck 1.25.01 |
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I, like the rest of America acknowledging the other election of last year, accept that the SOC Grendizer is "our" Toy of the Year. But I must admit that I still think about the
one that could have been.
Ol' Yellow (or red) eyes himself, Reptilicus. You can read the Mechaman column or my ramblings on him on the BBS if it hasn't been cleared out already as to why it is an important toy, but I thought I would bring something new and "unseen" to the table. Take a look at Reptilicus over at the amazing Club Tokyo site. Look at the figure. See how all the weight is in the front of him? His head is sticking out pretty far on a trunk that is already heavy and far away from the tail. I wondered how in the world they were able to keep him upright. Flashback to a couple months ago when I was on the phone with Roger Harkavy. He asks me if I had ever noticed the little stickers inside ultra kaiju and the like (Bandai uses these in the factories to date when the piece was made. For example on the right you have a tail from the old sculpt of Eleking. It is dated "96-9" meaning September of 1996, as opposed to the new Eleking sculpt on the left is dated "00-06" meaning June of 2000.) I told him yeah I had known about them for a long time, because as any vinyl cat knows- SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO PULL YOUR VINYL APART. Why? To see how the individual pieces are sculpted. Perhaps catch a whiff to see if your Minya you might be buying is legit as opposed to one of the many bootlegs that have flooded the market. (Here's the deal as to why vinyl folks sniff these puppies. New ones smell. They are still exuding stuff from the vinyl. Most older ones as a rule have finished this process and in turn do not have a large plasticy scent. Also it takes me back to childhood at Pony Toy-Go-Round surrounded by schwag I couldn't get til adulthood and at a substantially higher price) Before you get too carried away and start pulling apart your Gorosaurus or M-1, I do not advise that you do this. I have gotten caught doing this before with pieces I was barely able to get together again, much to Felicia's pity and consternation. Newer soft vinyls, say the new ultrakaijus perhaps, with the ability to be replaced for cheap, not have the paint or plastic crack and not needing to use blow dryers to put em back together are the only ones that I have successfully been able to temporarily amputate without harm. Back to that phone call with Rog. He mentions that he has been helping out Jim of Club Daikaiju and M-1 put together the scourge of Denmark. Lots of talk about how many layers of special vinyl sticking paint and clear finish coats go on when Harkavy makes mention that he has been putting his balls into tail. After I am done doing a spit take of the beverage I am drinking, he goes on to clarify. You see, one of the keys to having Reptilicus upright is the addition of pachinko balls secured into the tail. Of which said Mechaman was applying. I was fascinated by this. Very clever. A uniquely Japanese solution if you will. But I stored this information away until I was able to get my own Scandinavian lizard. I work in a place where sadly, it is necessary to have a bomb scanner. A depressing reality of the job. A reminder that tens of thousands of dollars need to be spent so someone does not kill myself or my coworkers because of the work we do. But when life gives you lemons... See I would never in a million years pull apart an M-1. Sacrilege I say. Even more I say I might ruin the paint job that was slaved over by hand or mess with that super chunky vinyl that Nishimura uses. But I had to know what was going on inside that tail. So I brought Yellow Eyes with me to work. And popped him through the bomb scanner. The pictures that you see here are a somewhat overhead view. You can see his head in the front, his wings towards the middle, and Roger's balls at the end. I was amazed. What follows is a transcript of an AOL Instant Message session at the moment of discovery: buck: So I scanned Roger's balls.And it is you know? A first for our community. A toy made by both Japanese and American hands. May God bless Reptilicus, and Roger's balls. 
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