full issue

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973775700416
JAPAN ESE TO Y CU LTU R E
|jj|ffV N ESE S O F T - V I N Y L S / J U M B O im C H I N D J jR S / DIE-CAWCS
W ICRO M AN / TIN
A R T BY: C O O P / T IM B IS K U P / M A R J N Q N ~nVE
S P O O N S / W ALD
V IN T A G E U L T R A M A N / N I T T ® D E N JIN Z A B O i|S ^
IM B O R G A C E
KIKAIDA / KIKAIDA-01 / <®>DZ1LLA / ASXR
M U / MORE
Ill Illlll
llll Ill S U P E R -7 |||
V1/no.1
03
Editorial
by M ark Nagata
10
Jum b o M achinder O verview
by Sean Bonner
13
A stro-M u
by W arren Schwartz
21
Kikaida and Kikaida-01
by Sanford Mok
29
U ltram an figu res by Marusan and Bullm ark
by Mark Nagata
37
The First Godzilla
by Brian Flynn and M ike Johnson
44
M asudaya Light-U ps and Sparkers
by Brian Flynn
46
Jum b org Old and New: Part One
byTree
48
Intervie w w ith T h e Briefs
by Jim b o
50
Denjin Zaboga Go!
by Chad Hensley
52
N itto and Gamera: A H istory
by M ark Suggs
55
A rt G allery
F eaturing:T im Brisko, Coop, M artin O ntiveros,Tim
Biskup, Bwana Spoons, Alex W ald, Mark Nagata, Jim
1 1 1 1 s u p e r - ? 111 m i m u in
VOLUM E 1 / ISSUE 1
Founding Fathers
Mark Nagata
Brian Flynn
Jim bo
Publisher
Super-7 Media, Inc.
Editor
Mark Nagata
Design
Brian Flynn / Hybrid Design, Inc.
Marketing / Sales
ShannonT. Stewart
shannon@ super7m agazine.com
Mark Suggs
suggs@ super7m agazine.com
Gracious Contributers
Sanford Mok, Elaine Mok, M ike Johnson,
Sean Bonner, SteveT., KirkT., Alex W ald,
Warren Scwartz, Bwana Spoons, M att A lt,
KirkTanaguchi, Chad Hensley,Tree, M ark
Suggs, M artin O ntiveros, C oop,T im Biskup,
Tim Brisko, Alex W ald, J im b o , Jim Cironella
and Club Daikaiju, M asato Shono and
Shono-Planning, M ark Jones, Peter Ruttan.
American Distribution
Tower Books, D iam ond Comics, m ore soon!
Hong-Kong Distribution
M ike & Marco D istributio n
O ther International Distribution
sales@ super7magazine.com
Printing
Transcontinental P rinting/ LGM Graphics
in W innipeg, Canada.
attn: M ike Bradley 1.800.661.0052 x24
Advertising
ads@ super7magazine.com
Editorial / Submissions
m ark@ super7m agazine.com
Contact / Goodie Boxes
Super-7 Magazine
PMB 370, 350 Bay St., suite 100
San Francsico, Ca. 94133
415.922.6612
w w w .super7m agazine.com
Thanks to all our advertisers and supporters fo r
m aking th is possible. We really appreciate it,
and w e look fo rw a rd to seeing you in issue #2!
02
Legal
The advertising and articles appearing w ith in th is publication
reflect the op in ion s and attitudes o f th e ir respective authors and
n ot necessarily those o f the pu blishe r or other persons affiliated
w ith this p u b lic a tio n . A ll rights to the photographs, artw ork and
articles contained in this publication are co p yrig h t owned by the ir
respective creators. A ll rig h ts to any character names and/or
likenesses are co p yrig h t ow ned by th e ir respective owners, and
no a s su m p tio n o f o w n e rs h ip is m ade by th is p u blicatio n.
Everything else contained herein is ©2002 super-7 magazine, and
m ay n o t be rep rod uced in part or w h o le w ith o u t w ritte n
perm ission fro m super-7 magazine as w e ll as any con tribu to rs if
applicable. In the end, it's a magazine about toys - so relax.
,| III E D IT O R IA L
|
Los Angeles. Christm as 1973.
That was when I was firs t exposed to toys fro m japan. M y aunt
and her fa m ily w ho were stationed at a m ilita ry base in japan,
sent a huge box o f toys to me fo r Christmas. One by one, I opened
figures th a t ju st blew me away. I had no idea w h at the names of
them were, but I knew these were cool toys. I'd call them seaweed
guy (Zazon, from Return o f U ltram an ) o r lion man (Lionm aru) or
green guy w ith star on his head (M irrorm an).
Unfortunately, that w o u ld be the last tim e a package like that
w ould show up, as m y aunt and her fa m ily returned to the US.
I w ould start m y collecting again in the late 80's, buying Bandai
toys and such from stores like Pony Toy Go Round in LA, and
Kim ono My House in Em eryville. W ith in a short period, I made my
firs t m ajor toy trade w ith Super Collector, Sanford Mok. I am now
hooked fo r life. Opening the box from Sanford was as close to
replicating X-mas '73 as I w ill ever get. I recieved w h a t w o u ld be
the core o f m y vintage U ltram an collection.
Than comes the internet. I chance upon som eone in japan w ho
understands english, and even better is w illin g to search fo r old
toys. I make a transaction and it goes very sm oothly. Than he
offers m ore, and I buy. M ore, I buy, m ore, buy, buy-buybuy
I ll 11You get the d rift....
Oh yeah, this guy's name is Masato Shono.
In the fo llo w in g years, I w o u ld not on ly see M asato's business
grow, but my collection lite ra lly explodes. I w o u ld put up m y firs t
w ebsite w ith m y U ltram an collectio n. Ebay enters the picture,
than Yahoo Japan. U ltram an w ebsite num ber tw o launches, and I
take my firs t trip to Japan.
In a nutshell, that's m y story...I'm still try in g to finish my U ltram an
collection (ha-ha)
im possible ?
Probably, but the hu nt is w h a t keeps me (and o th e r crazy
collectors) going.
But one thin g seemed to be m issing from all this, and th a t was a
book or magazine in English about these cool toys. W ell, the book
is com ing from Jim b o (see article in th is issue), and you are now
holding, w h at we hope w ill be, a 3-4 tim es a year publication.
W e'll try to always have a good cross section o f articles on vin yl
figures, diecast, and other crazy stuff.
This has been a lo t o f w ork, but it's been fun too. I hope opening
this 'zine w il be like X-m as '73 fo r you.
Mark Nagata 10/31/02
em ail: m ark@ super7m agazine.com
Illu s tra tio n by M ark Nagata
03
Ill |
S H O R T S ||
HI!
Hill
HI
So, w h a t’s w ith these dum b plastic tow e rs you say? I'll tell...but
firs t a little background in fo rm a tio n on them . I've heard some
collectors say, ''.w hy are they includ in g a Eiffel Tower w ith my
kaiju?" W ell, sparky it m ay look like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but it
a in't. It's the Tokyo Tower, in Japan, which was com pleted in 1958
and was inspired by the Eiffel Tower. Anyw ays, a m onsters gotta
destroy o r hold som ething in it's hands...so various com panies
use th is landm ark to include w ith th e ir toys. Here's a guide to your
tow e rs, left to right:
1. M1 Tower - thick vin yl, legs on base are cut out, slig h tly shorter
than the o rigin al tow ers.
2. B ullm arkT ow er - There are actually fo u r versions o f this tower.
The red exam ple w ith silver indented spike you see pictured here
w ith the flash in g still attached, the same version, but w ith the
flash in g rem oved, a red version w ith a blue painted spike that
contains no indentions, and a ye llo w vinyl version. The yellow
vin yl version was on ly available w ith the Bullm ark giant-size King
G hidorah, and the red version came w ith various Bullm ark giantsize kaiju. A ll to w e rs th a t came w ith the giant-size figures had the
fla sh in g rem oved, but can be eith er the blue o r silver tipped
versions. Later, as B ullm ark m ade figure-packs o f overrun vinyls,
the y included to w e rs like th is one, where the flashing was not
rem oved. The flashing is easily cut o ff and indistinguishable from
a pre-cut version.
3. Bandai 1991 Tower - Came w ith the Gomora and Red King 1991
Bandai g ia n t size re p ro d u ctio n figu res. Has an added second
observation pla tfo rm on the tow er, as w ell as a tw o -sto ry building
underneath the base of the tow er, and is com pletely unpainted.
The base is s lig h tly rounded and has a round hole in the bottom .
4. M odern toys to w e r - Came w ith Gamera giant-size vinyl, and is
a fa ith fu l, but sm aller version o f the origin al to w e r w ith addition
o f a bu ild in g underneath the base of the tow e r's legs, and is made
o f a s lig h tly thicker vin yl.T h e base is in te n tio n a lly squared o ff and
has a square hole in the bottom .
5. M a rm it to w e r - a sm aller unpainted version on a triangular
base, and easily disting uish ab le from the previous towers.
FRESH OUT OFTHE MOLDI
C hronicle Books is p u b lish in g a large coffee table style book
fea tu rin g photos of Japanese toys. Overseen by ou r ow n Jim bo
M atison, it w ill be title d "S o Crazy Japanese Toys!" I snuck a peek
at the book in its rough layout form and it looks great. Great
design and even better photos, (see the photo of Gesura on the
left fo r a sam ple!)
Photo by Micheal Gariington and Jim Matison
A ll o f the toys are in the book are based on TV shows, old and
new, no an im a tion or m ovies.The book is split in to 5 categories:
1. Men In Rubber - A ll o f y o u r good U ltram an types.
2. Rockin' Chicks - Fuji,Tackle and m ore!
3. Cute N' C uddly -Y o u know you like Booska and Robocon.
4. M otor Heroes - Kamen Riders, Barom-1 and all th e ir peers.
5. Freaky Foes - A ll the bad-ass kaiju you can handle.
The book is to be released spring 2003 and w ill be distributed
everyw here. W e're w o rkin g on a feature article about "So Crazy
Japanese T oys!" fo r the next issue o f Super-7, look fo r even more
in fo rm a tio n then!
04
S U P E R -7 M A G A Z IN E E X C L U S IV E F IG U R E F R O M B E A R M O D E L /S H O N O -K IK A K U
HEDORAH™ T H E SMOG M O N STER
T his Lim iteel E d itio n V in y l is a v a ila b le
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Super 7 Magazine is not affiliated with Shono-Kikaku, Bear Model or Club Daikaiju. and is not assuming responsibilty for the fulfilm ent of either offer. Please allow 6-8 weeks from
the postmark deadline for your order. Only original coupons from the magazine accepted, no reproductions of any kind. Super-7 is not responsible for lost or misdirected coupons.
S u p e r 7 E d itio n S o rg o w ith B a b y S o rg o , L im ite d to 7 5 vinyl fig u re
s ets. G orgo s ta n d s ro u gh ly 9 "/2 4 c m ta ll, a n d B a b y G orgo s ta n d s
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| M A G IC B O X B L U E S ||
BY: M A T T A L T
Ten A.M. It's freezing outsize, raining, and I'm on a packed train.
I've already been up fo r four-and-a-half hours already, thanks to
jet-lag, and I'm tire d as hell. But I could have a bu lle t in my belly
and it co u ld n 't slow me dow n: I'm on the hunt.
I get like th is w henever I go back to Japan. In fact, the m inute I
step o ff the plane and in to the stale, sm o ky air o f Narita
International A irp o rt, I can feel m y chest tigh ten and m y breathing
quicken. It doubles after I step o ff the Narita Express tra in and into
Shinjuku Station d o w n to w n. I'm fin a lly back again.Too bad I d o n 't
usually get in until seven or eigh t in the evening. M ost o f the
shops are already closed o r closing.
The efficient under-seat heaters w arm the cabin of the Chuo-line
train; as I recline on a seat I was fortun ate enough to snatch as I
boarded, I a lm o st doze o ff to the re p e titiv e lu ll o f the tra in
clattering along the tracks. A lm ost. I snap back in to focus as I
rem em ber the Magic Box ad in the newest issue o f Hobby Japan:
there were some serious deals listed in there. Emphasis on were:
by the tim e I managed to get the magazine, several days had
elapsed since publication. The die-hards and freaks have already
p ro b a b ly picked the shop clean o f bargains like to y -h u n g ry
pirhana. W hatever the case, I can't let do u b t stop me: I'm like a
toy-seeking cruise m issile that's ju st been arm ed and launched.
Too late to tu rn back now, and Alen w ill kill me if I d o n 't fin d him
the cheap set o f Scram ble Dash w in g s I prom ised him fo r his
Jum bo Great Mazinger.
The train arrives and I stum ble bleary-eyed out o f the station,
w in d in g m y w ay throu gh a la byrin th o f streets. Even the sem i­
suburban areas feel like som ething out of Blade Runner here, and
the glaring neon signboards, diesel-sm elling air, and filth y snow
packed in the g u tte rs d o n 't help m y 'la g -h a n g o ve r-in d u ce d
condition. In spite o f m yself, I look up in to the gray sky, raise my
fists, and laugh as a g rim y rain pelts m y face . Fellow pedestrians
quickly move to the other side o f the street, but I d o n 't care. I'm a
block fro m the store, five thousand m iles away fro m m y birthplace,
and I've never fe lt closer to home.
"The store" is som ething o f a m isnom er. M agic Box is one o f the
old e st and largest use d-toy stores, and the recent craze fo r
vintage diecast has filled th e ir pockets like never before. In the
past few years they've expanded th e ir o rigin al hum ble shop into a
gaggle o f spin-o ff stores, subsum ing alm ost the entire block in the
process. T iny shops, aim ed at m icro sco p ic d e lin e a tio n s in an
06
already-narrow hobby, line the side o f the road. I pass Paper Star,
the poster, m enko, and trading-card store. I trudg e past M icro, the
shop dedicated to gum ball-m achine and other tin y robot toys. I'm
a lm o st w a y la id by Seikatsu, som e bizzare new M agic-Box
fo rm u la tio n w ith a crud ely-m im eo grap he d "W elcom e toToy's H ell"
sign hanging in the w indo w . Come to thin k o f it, they ALL had that
hanging in th e ir w indo w s. Have to check tha t out later, but it's an
appropriate sentim ent fo r this little journey. Abandon all hope of
leaving solvent, ye w h o enter here. Ah, there's M agic III.
The door-chim es jin g le and the tw o w om en behind the register
look up fo r a m om ent, o n ly m ild ly surprised to see a gaijin face in
th e ir store, before th e y return to m e ticu lo u sly w ra p p in g old
chogokin boxes w ith tra n sp a re n t plastic. How could I forget?
M agic Box ONLY hires attractive fem ale clerks, presum ably to
attract love-starved otaku to the store like bait on a fishing-line.
Not to m ention quashing any hope of negotiating prices: they're
th e re fo r w in d o w -d re s s in g , not as to y-e xp e rts. Nice job.
Surrounded by dusty, decaying boxes o f character-toys, stiflin g
air, and fanboys a-plenty, this m ust be akin to serving tim e on a
plane o f hell fo r them . Bad g irls in a previous life? W e'll never
know.
I'm startled out o f m y reverie by the sharp, acrid aroma tha t only
com es fro m assem bling hundreds o f old diecast and vinyl toys
to g e th e r in a cram ped space. Hard to breathe, but no matter: the
sig ht before me takes m y breath away anyway. Floor to ceiling,
w a ll to w a ll, shelving everyw here - and on it, pile after pile o f
carefully arranged to y boxes, nary a space between them . W alls of
super-alloy, entire universes o f vintage toys.T rying to take it all in,
I tw irl like a ballerina, transfixed, eyes sparking like a little pixieg irl w h o 's ju s t g o tte n the pony she's alw ays w anted.
O verstim ulatio n. The clerks regard me fo r a m om ent and begin
w h ispe rin g. Never m ind, I'm in heaven. Or "Toy's Hell," depending
on you r vie w p o in t.
Bingo. There's the VF-1J Takatoku I'd been looking for. Not bad fo r
only having been in the store th irty seconds. Bingo, there's the
Scrander w ings. W oah, a set o f all three D iapolon diecasts. And
the big score: a Robot Factory Gardian, a Jum b o M achinder Dol,
and a pair of Nakajim a Jum bos ofTekkaman and Pegas.Talk about
a target-rich en viro nm en t; I'm nearing oversaturation levels here.
M icrom an, D ougram , G undam ...N o m atter w here I tu rn m y vision
is fille d by vintage toy.T h an k God I can still blink. O therwise I'd be
starting to feel like young Alex fro m A Clockwork Orange.
I silently rifle throu gh the wad o f bills in m y pocket. Tim e to bust a
move. I flash the ladies m y m ost w in n in g smile.
"I hope you w ill fo rg ive me fo r in tru d in g at w h at appears to be
such an inconvenient tim e," I say in my m ost polite Japanese. "B u t
if it w o uld not be to o much troub le , I should very much appreciate
if you w o uld show me several o f the item s w hich I have interest
in." Blank stare from the ladies. Usually, I have to pry 'em o ff me
after an act like this, but my stalw art little shop-clerks stand all but
unm oved. Tough crow d. S uddenly I get it. They've ju s t finished
a rtfully w rapping each and every piece in the store, and Captain
Am erica storm s in asking fo r them to take them out. Maybe it's
tim e fo r tha t w in n in g sm ile again. "I apologize fo r m y persistence
in this matter," I add som ew hat unhelpfully.
"D o n 't w o rry about it. Being persistent is ju st fine," says one o f the
wom en, her dow nw ard-averted eyes te llin g the true story. Or am I
ju s t being paranoid? Probably. These m u lti-c u ltu ra l exchanges
always leave m y head spinning. Or it could ju s t be the cheap sake
I drank on the plane-ride over here.
W hatever the case, a pile o f boxes steadily accum ulates on the
counter as I check piece after piece. As always, I'm agonizing over
"p o te n tia ls": Tekkaman ju m b o , or Pegas? I d o n ’t have the m oney
fo r both. And the Valkyries...
"Sir, were you aware w e 're having a fifty-p e rce n t-o ff sale tod ay?"
asks one of the clerk-clones, startling me out o f my reverie.
M y ja w d ro p p in g , I can o n ly nod to acknow ledge her. I'm
absolutely du m bfounded. This is all-bu t unheard of. W ordlessly,
un con tro lla bly, I begin to pile ten-thousand-yen note after tenthousand-yen note on the counter w ith a visib ly shaking hand.
Shaking because o f the shock o f the discount - or because o f the
fact th a t I know th is means I'm going to spend double w hat I
in itia lly planned. And here I was, thin kin g I could q u it anytime...
"Ah, w hich w ill it be, sir?"
"All," say I w ith a tone o f finality.
C om pletely unsurprised, one clerk begins counting the m ountain
o f bills piled on the counter as the oth er stuffs m y acquisitions
into plastic bags. They're ob vio usly m ore than fa m ilia r w ith this
kind o f obsessive, p a th o lo g ica lly w a lle t-d ra in in g toy-m ania. In
fact, the th o u g h t o f how the hell I'm going to get a pair o f tw ofo o t-ta ll boxed Jum bos back in m y suitcase hasn't even entered
my d isco u n t-a d d le d brain yet. N ot to m e n tio n the te rro r of
carrying them hom e on a crush-friendly, crow ded train.
My w a lle t lightened, I bid m y disaffected young friends a fond
farew ell and step outside the m usty shop. The rain has stopped,
and the sun shines w eakly th ro u g h a rap id ly-th in nin g cloud cover.
I fill m y lungs w ith cold Tokyo air. There's no tim e fo r worry. It's
going to be a good trip.
And th is is ju s t the firs t store o f the day.
07
| M Y F R IE N D T H E M IC R O N A U T ||
BY: B W A N A S P O O N S
MFTM Report >1.0
" M y H e ro "
"The prince o f all m ic ro s "- N inety percent die-cast, and m y best
m icro buddy, is the Space Glider. The translucent colors of the
tim e travelers used to seem cooler, but in 2002 translucents have
lost a bit o f th e ir luster. See th ru is com m onplace in the toy
industry. Think o f how m any color variants o f ghost, o r flam e, or
glow there are of yo u r favo rite U ltram onster, or m icrom an, and
com pare th a t to last tim e you held the die cast Woo in yo u r palm,
duh, never. The w e ig h t and feel o f the Space g lid e r in the hand
harkens back to an earlier tim e. His stream lined torso, sim ple
w ing pack, and g lad iator type helm et are visions o f a sim pler
future. Space glide r kicks ass.
There are now three generations of Space Glider.
First came the o rigin al M icrom an version, w hich was part o f the
1975 Super Steel series. M211 Ken, in gold and silver, M212 Kelly,
in green and silver, and M213 Kim, in blue and silver.These were
very w e ll designed.The colors were very true, and as you w ill see
in a second,Takara, the o rigin al producer d id n 't skim p (except fo r
the helm ets, which were all blue).
Then in 1976 M ego Corp. released the "Space G lider'.'This is the
skimpy, cut corners version we all grew up w ith . There w ere three
colors w ith no names to confuse o u r tin y A m erican brains, ju st
green, gold, and blue, all w ith silver.The colors were dulled dow n,
rivets replaced the screws m aking them im possible to repair, and
they fixed him up w ith a fat head. The same fat head th a t Mego
w o u ld also later slap on to the Pharoid. U nlike the M icrom an
version, the Space G lider's head on ly came in gold, not anodized
to match the colors o f the figu re. As an added bonus, M ego also
took away the m ovem ent in the ankles.
The m ost recent, the th ird generation o f Space G liders should be
in stores as you read this. Abram s, the ow ne r of the M icronauts
license has given Palisades the rights to put out M icronauts again.
In the lineup o f the firs t release is Space Glider, There are fo u r
color com bos: blue/black, green/silver, silver/go ld, and red/silver.
These look to be a de finite im p rovem e nt q u a lity w ise over the old
M ego Space G liders. Each comes w ith it's ow n color coded helm et,
w h at looks to be a new head sculpt, and a blaster to kill people
w ith if you get bored. Palisades is also doing som ething really
cool w ith the re p ro d u c tio n s -T h e y are producing on ly th e ir ow n
original colors, so there w ill be no confusion w ith the vintage
goods, and the value o f the vin ta ge ones w o n 't bottom out either.
A couple of the colors stink, but all in all I th in k this is a great idea,
and w ill lead to a bit m ore success w ith the new pups.
Space G lider rules.
08
gPHouse of Col/eM
•B
fS B S L :
Dr. Tongue’s, 1408 E. Burnside, Portland, Or. 97214
www.drtonguestoys.com (503) 233-8915
Specializing in exclusives from
M l,B a re M odel,M arm it,M edicom
JRYANJ
V in tage Popy Diecast
V intage B ullm ark Vinyls
Contact me w ith your w a n t lists.
I travel to Japan n early every m onth.
Email me a tjry a n j@ s a n .rr.c o m
or call (8 5 8 )4 8 3 0 3 2 4 and leave a message.
Look fo r my auctions on ebay under
muw.coolstuffirideos.com
T O Y S V I D E O S
P O STE RS
| J U M B O M A C H IN D E R S |
I III I
I
BY: S E A N B O N N E R
Jum b o M ach in ders- W hat's rare? That's a big question. People
w rite to me all the tim e asking how rare a particular ju m bo is.
M aybe they saw it fo r sale and w ant to know if they should rush to
get it o r if the y can w a it 'till next tim e. Maybe they have one they
are try in g to sell and w a nt to know w here to begin price wise.
M o tiv a tio n s m ay vary, but it's a dam n com m o n question
regardless. I also hear fro m a lo t o f people w ho w ant to start
collecting ju m b o s and need to know where to start. Som etim es
instead o f asking they ju s t proclaim , "I'm going to start collecting
ju m bo s, and I'd like to start w ith Doublas M-2, please tell me
w h ere to fin d one'.' As if i t ’s th a t easy. HA! So, the question
rem ains... W hat is rare, and ju s t how damn rare is it?
From in qu irie s like these to cryptic e-m ails from Tom Franck & late
n ig h t drunken answ ering machine messages from M att A lt, it's
o b vio u sly som ething everyone is curious about. So in perfect toynerd fashion I decided to put tog ether a line up. Before we go any
further, there are few thin gs you should take into account when
reading this:
•T h is is based solely on op in ion . M y opinion, and I'm ju st some
jerk w ith a bunch o f toys, so take th a t how ever you want.
• Some pieces are easier to com e by in some parts o f the w orld
th a t in others, fo r th is list, I'm basing the list on fin d in g thin gs in
the US.
• I'm on ly in clud in g th in g s I have seen, or know fo r sure to exist.
There's a lo t o f lore o u t the re ab ou t som e pieces and th e ir
existence, and I could make a w h o le list o f nothing but rum ors. So
fo r th is argum ents sake, it's gotta be certifiable.
• On th a t same note, there are a lot o f bootlegs, reissues, and
w h a t not out there th a t I d o n 't even w ant to get mixed up w ith , so
o n ly o rig in a l Japanese ju m b o s are taken in to account here.
Shoguns, U ni-fives, o r Mexican knock offs are not a piece o f this
action.
• The num ber one easiest to fin d ju m b o is n 't really "easy to fin d ” if
you know w h at I mean. Jum bos by nature are a pain in the ass to
collect, and th is list is all relative to som ething. I'm ju st not sure
w hat.
• Finally, should you decide to ju m p into to this crack addition like
hobby, it's im p o rta n t to m e n tio n th a t these th in g s get
e xp on en tially harder and harder to find. Think of this like a Richter
scale, the higher up you get, the d iffic u lty (and price!) is m ultiplied
by everything below.
• One m ore thin g, if there are any glaring mistakes, I'm pretty sure
they are Matt's fault.
So there you have it. Just to beat a dead horse, th is is not law and
it m ig h t not even be accurate but it's w h at I feel is correct at the
m om ent. M y answ er m ig h t be diffe re nt next week but fo r now that
should do the trick. T hrough a lo t o f collectors m ig h t disagree on
the exact placem ent o f som e of these on the lists, one thing that
m ost o f us agree on is th a t you can't really set up a blue prin t for
collecting jum bos. You can't make a list and decide to buy those
ju m b o s in th a t order. It ju s t d o esn 't w ork. You have to grab w hat
com es along as it does, because in m any cases, you m ig h t not get
the chance to get it again later.
10
THE 10 HARDESTTO FIND JUMBOS
1. Garada K7
2. Green Ghost C-3
3. Ultram an Leo
4. Rokuron Q9
5. Spacer
6. Lensari
7. Dabulas M2
8. Getta III
9. Robocon
10. Sun Vulcan
There's a lo t to con sid er here. S om e tim es th in g s th a t were
produced in great num bers, like Robocon, can still rank very high
because the dem and fo r them is also high. W hile a character like
Green Ghost C-3 was produced in sm all num bers but is n 't very
popular. If som ething is on th is list you can be fa irly certain that
you could NOT ju s t go out and buy it at the drop o f a hat. They
turn up very in fre qu ently (if ever) and w hen the y do they are
snatched up in a second, or they have a price tag, w hich makes
them alm ost im possible to touch.
THE 10 EASIESTTO FIND JUMBOS
1. Getta Robo Go
2. Fiverobo
3. Giant Gorg
4. Capsule Robo G
5.Tekkaman
6. Pegas
7. Big Dai X (aka X Bomber)
8. Mazinger Z
9. Raideen
10. Getta Dragon
NEXT 10 EASIESTTO FIND JUMBOS
11. Getta Poseidon
12. Great M azinger
13. Jeeg
14. Kamen Rider V3
15. Battle Fever J
16. Godsigm a
17. Tetsujin 28
18. Getta Liger
19. Gaiking
20. Gardian
Price
This is based on w h at tu rn s up the m ost and w e've all seen
offered very frequently. The Getta Robo Go was released in 1991,
which probably plays in to this. It's everyw here. These characters
were either produced in such huge num bers o r ju s t are n't very
sought after which makes them tu rn up so often.
If we narrowed this listing dow n to ju m b o s produced by Popy
only, a lo t o f these w o u ld be in the top 10. Depending on w hom
you talk to they m ig h t still be considered com m on. Regardless o f
ranking, if you wanted one o f these ju m b o s and had the cash
ready to spend, you w o u ld n 't have to w a it too long to fin d one.
Take Getta Poseidon fo r exam ple. Getta Robo G was a popular
show so they made tons of these ju m bo s, but fo r som e reason
that I w ill never understand, Poseidon was the ru n t o f the 3 three
characters. Those tw o th in g s com bined make 'o l tank legs a very
easy acquisition. Personally th is is one o f my favo rite characters.
11
n r K I K A I D A
Xes, man,
it's true, we are
being SOLP OUT!
r—
Trading Cards-Series 1
NO way, maa
it's crazy.
w w w .katacom .net/kikaidacards.htm
" V email: info(S)katacom.net H
L— 1 - 1 1 1J I [
ph 808-566-0170 I l~
_ toll-free 1-800-385-5936 J
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II lllll III ! A S T R O -M U ||
HI ||[|| I I
BY W ARREN SCH W AR TZ
In 1997 high on a shelf above the entrance to M ike Z's legendary
Day-Old Antiques stood the firs t and on ly Capsule Robo G I had
ever seen. I gazed at his Aztec-like face un til M ike's voice drifted
into my ears. "It's not fo r sale. Som ebody already b o ug ht it." "F or
how much?," I asked. "N in e hundred d o lla rs " he replied. He told
me he'd fin d another one, but it m ig h t take aw hile. A year passed,
as I continued to locate and collect Popy diecasts. One afternoon
at w ork I got a call fro m Mike. "I got a lead on a Capsule Robo
m int-in-box." "The guy's brin g in g it in tom orro w ." I had alm ost
forgo tte n w h at it looked like, but M ike's voice trigg ere d every
detail.
I hurried over to Day-Old the next day, forked over nine hundred
bucks, and walked out w ith m y new Japanese version o f the
Treasure o f Sierra Madre. It was perfect. The packaging, tw o vinyl
figures w ith big heads, a stash o f m issiles MIBag, and the catalog,
all intact. I was knocked over by the catalog! A ltho ug h I co u ld n 't
read a w o rd, the graphics to ld the story, sort of.
Apparently, Robo G had 5 cohorts which looked nothing like him ,
but had a fa m ily resem blance to each other, view ed th ro u g h a
purple haze. They travelled around on fo o t tanks fig h tin g an evil
black-winged bionic-brained creature. And as I later discovered
they could fit into the capsule-like head o f the big robot. This was
cool, no? It began to add up. But how to fin d o u t any m ore about
this obscure series. Was it in fact a series anyway?
A m onth later a frien d at the office to ld me to check out a new
auction site called eBay. They m ig h t even have som e o f the
Japanese antique toys I was looking for. I trie d various searches,
and one day hit on a vin yl fig u re w hich was being auctioned o ff by
Roy Ng - Grace O riental - Hong Kong. It was the same fig u re as
one p ictu re d in the catalog o f psychedelic robots. I c o u ld n 't
believe it. Japan was com ing to the US via Hong Kong! Roy’s
website had everything. I printed his w h ole site and poured over
its contents. E verything fa m ilia r o r obscure, ab undant o r rare,
pricey or, w ell, pricey was there - and available. It made me a little
sick. But I eM ailed Roy, struck up a pen-pal type frien dsh ip, trusted
him enough to send him cash, and in return I had a m ail-order
bride fo r Capsule Robo G. Gold Vena.
14
A fe w m onths later, as prom ised, Roy also sent me the catalog,
translated fro m Japanese in to English. This was e xtrao rdinary
because neither was his native language, and yet he made it
perfectly clear w h a t had been up to now the m ystery o f Astro Mu.
Roy Ng's tra n sla tio n o f the "S to ry o f A stro M u " is printed below.
Translation:
In 20XX, Earth is Center of the Solar System. M any space ships
travel between Earth and the oth er planets. A space probe, O rient
Go, is launched to travel outside the Solar System. It's m ission is
to contact oth er life form s.
"H a! The Dark G alaxy is shaped like a horse head."
"O h! W hat is it?"
"O h! N o
."
"W hat's happened O rient Go?.........
"Please check. W hat has happened?"
A w arp speed spaceship, Patrol Go, has been launched to the Dark
Galaxy.
"O h! O rient Go has been d e stro ye d !"
"Look! An unknow n battle spaceship."
"In ve n tio n D epartm ent! M ay I attack? Please reply."
D..D..D..D..D..
Booooo. Ahh.
"H ahahahaha
I'm the Dark Galaxy Alien."
"Hahahahahaha....! com e fro m the Dark Galaxy.""The Dark Galaxy
was born m any tens o f thousands o f years ago. A Dark Galaxy
Alien's goal is to take over the Solar System. We m ay need to kill
all liv in g things. I am the the Dark Galaxy Shogun. This is my
m ission."
Sign: "S o la r System Defensive Force"
"Ladies and gentlem en." "Danger. Urgent. This is a case fo r the
Invention D epartm ent"
"Astro Mu 5 is n o w ready."
"You are the best w a rrio rs chosen from each planet."
#1 Earth's representative - Ultra Earth.
#2 Venus' representative - Gold Vena.
#3 M ars' representative - M ars Man.
#4 Jup iter's representative - Jupiros.
#5 Saturn's representative - Saturn Ace.
"Astro Mu 5" - "Let's G o!"
In 1973 "Nakajim a o f the Turtle M ark" decided to produce it's own
exhuberant psychedelic sentai series o f vin yl toys, rather than
purchase exp en sive e sta blished licensed characters.
T heir
extensive production included 6 sm all vin yl figu res w ith sparking
tanks, 6 larger nodder vin yl figures, 2 larger sparking tanks - 1
w ith an a rtille ry carrier, a mid-size m issile firin g vin yl Capsule
Robo G, and the ju m b o m ach in der ve rsio n o f th is character.
Various accessary item s and a play set were also produced.
A checklist is printed below:
......
.
^
?
'
Nodders:
□
n
□
10" Ultra Earth MIB w /rem ovable mask (yellow )
10" Ultra Earth m issile body MOC
10" Ultra Earth costum e MOC
□
□
u
10" Gold Vena MIB w /rem o vab le mask (pink)
10" Gold Vena m issile body MOC
10" Gold Vena costum e MOC
□
□
□
10" Mars Man MIB w /rem ovable mask (blue)
10" Mars Man m issile body MOC
10" Mars Man costum e MOC
□
□
10" Saturn Ace MIB w /rem ovable mask (orange)
10" Saturn Ace m issile body MOC
10" Saturn Ace costum e MOC
u
□
□
u
2 '
-s?„
-
*
&
»
g fr*
10" Jup iro s MIB w /rem ovable mask (green)
10" Jupiros m issile body MOC
10" Jupiros costum e MOC
>■
W :
□
: :
□
T
,
£
>1®%
S:Q-" '
1i
'■
10" Devil Bird MIB w /rem ovable mask (purple)
10" Devil Bird m issile body MOC
10" Devil Bird costum e MOC
Vinyls:
4i
1
'
□
□
u
□
□
u
□
u
u
u
u
□
u
3" Ultra Earth w/m ask w /sparking tank MIB
3" Gold Vena w / mask w /sparking tank MIB
3" M ars Man w/m ask w /sparking tank MIB
3" Saturn Ace w /m ask w /sparking tank MIB
3" Jupiros w/m ask w /sparking tank MIB
3" Devil Bird w /sparking tank MIB
3" Enemy Kaiju #1
3" Enemy Kaiju #2
3 ” Enemy Kaiju #3
3" Enemy Kaiju #4
3" Enemy Kaiju #5
3" Capsule Robo G
10" Capsule Robo G m id-size m issile firin g vinyl
I:
A
-
.
c
S
lM
.-•■••Mi
-f
'
Playsets/Vehicles:
□
u
□
u
Astro
Astro
Muta
Astro
Mu 5 SparkingTank MIB (green; blue variation)
Mu 5 A rtille ry Carrier (blue)
Z SparkingTank MIB (blue)
Mu 5 P la yse tw ith Space Playm at
Jumbo Machinder:
□
24" Capsule Robo G Jum bo M achinder
Top to bottom :
A ll fiv e 3" rem oveable mask astro-m u hero 3" vinyls.
Detail shots: Gold-Vena (orange w ith yellow ), Earth (all yellow ).
Saturn-Ace (orange and red) and Jupi-Ros (all green).
Ill 'II mill I I I I
a s tro -m u
II III llllll III
Top Row:
Capsule Robo G Jum bo Machinder. from le ft to right: box art,
packaged jumbo, chest and head detail with astro-mu earth figure
inside, additional head detail, 2 photos o f the jum bo w ith head
removed showing astro-mu figure "controlling" the robot, capsule
Robo G and missle-firing vinyl shown in size comparison, detail of
missle firing capsule Robo G.
16
Bottom Row:
Boxed Astro-Mu Devil Badou nodder (body and suit), packaging insert
for boxed Devil Badou nodder, assembled Devil Badou with comic
book, Devil Badou with m ini kaiju vinyl and mini Devil Badou vinyl,
back and front o f carded Devil Badou (suit only), front and back o f Devil
Badou body carded nodder (body only).
A D D IT IO N A L S T O R Y B Y M A T T A L T
Ah, the poetry o f m id-Seventies Japanese to y com panies on the
p ro w l. H u ng ry fo r revenue, th e y stalked the ra p id ly -e v o lv in g
character to y m arket like predators on the hunt. And every once in
a w hile, when the m arketplace seem ed as dry and fo reb od ing as
the African savanna in the dead o f sum m er, desperation set in, A
m ig h ty firm like Popy o r Bandai c o u ld hope to w e a th e r such
conditions, subsisting on internal reserves and bidin g th e ir tim e
like patient lions w a itin g fo r prey. But w h a t o f those not blessed
w ith the reserves o f the lion?
W hat of the turtle?
Yes, the tu rtle : the N akajim a M a n u fa ctu rin g C om pany, to be
precise. Or "N akajim a o f theTurtle-M ark," as m illio n s o f Japanese
children knew th e ir toy-m a n u fa ctu rin g operation in the 1970s.
The year is 1973. Nakajim a had already proven th e ir m ettle w ith a
spectacular run o f Gatcham an, R ainbow Man, and T iger Mask
figures, having produced w h a t w o u ld becom e som e o f the most
so u g h t-a fte r v in y l toys on the planet. But w here to go next?
Buying those pesky character licenses cut into the already meager
p ro fit m argins in the cut-thro at character to y m arketplace, but kids
were hungry fo r m ore. Sentai shows were in cred ibly popular, but
Popy had pre tty much sewn up the licensing on th a t little pot o'
gold. W hat to do, w h at to do...
17
II llll III II A S T R O -M U II llll mil!
(I cannot c o n firm if N akajim a m an ag em en t was a ctu a lly ON
mescaline at the tim e o f th e ir next step. They m ig h t have been
com ing off a three-day drunk. Or had a religious vision. I d o n 't
know. It's ju s t tha t as an aficionado o f all to ys Japanese, the pure
genius of w hat Nakajim a created boggles the puny confines o f my
toy-addled brain.)
They created th e ir OWN sentai series.
Their ow n INSANE sentai series. Hell, w ho needs a TV show? Not
Nakajima! In fact, w ith o u t the constraints o f a TV censor to hold
them back, Nakajima was able to produce som e seriously tw isted
designs. I'm ta lk in g ab ou t th e a ll-o rig in a l, N a kajim a-M a nufacturing-C om pany-spaw ned, to ta lly dem ented adventures o f the
one and only ASTRO-MU FIVE team ! From th e ir psychedelic clearsparkly bodies to the unsettling bio-m echanical them e running
th ro u g h o u t the entire line, the o n ly thin g U N -original about the
A stro-M u Five "a ctio n boys" was the fact th a t the y were based on
the trie d -a n d -tru e fiv e -m a n Sentai tea m concept. Vaguely.
W hoever designed these babies m ust have been com ing dow n off
a SERIOUSLY bad trip , as the designs are so nigh tm a rish tha t it's
really d ifficu lt to separate the "b a d " guys fro m the "good."
Having designed and named th e ir team , Nakajim a was m issing
only the fact th a t th e ir characters had no story. An easily rem edied
problem : the y s im p ly foo te d the b ill fo r a com ic serial to be
published in Boken-Oh, a popular boys' com ic magazine. They
even pu blishe d a reco rd-sin gle o f the "A stro-M u Five Theme,"
furthe ring the charade that this was anything m ore than a th in lyveiled, ingenious ploy to sell m ore toys. Once again proving the ir
ca p ita listic acum en, N akajim a also in clu d e d tin y p a m ph lets
containing selected com ic stories in the packaging o f each toy.The
black and w h ite com ics were hastily-draw n and had plots as th in
as a Z-grade porno film , but Nakajim a had h e lp fu lly stuffed half of
each booklet w ith glorio us, full-pa ge color ads fo r oth er toys in the
line-up. In fact, the ads were FAR MORE INTERESTING THAN THE
COMIC ITSELF! Sneaky.
The story: in the year 20XX, the A stro-M u Five team defends the
solar system from the invading Dark Badou Aliens. Using th e ir
"secret base located hundreds o f m eters be lo w the m oon's surface,"
they transfo rm in to Ultra-esque heroes and do battle w ith Devil
Badou and his evil m inions. A stro-M u Five consists o f (duh) five
characters w ith hokey names: Ultra Earth, G old Vena, Saturn Ace,
Mars Man, and Jupiros. Nakajim a produced a "s ta n d a rd " six-inch
vinyl fo r each team m em ber (and one o f Devil Badou as w ell).
The design o f the toys was as amazing as the concept itself. Each
ten-inch fig u re featured a pipe cleaner skeleton cle arly visib le
throu gh the fun ky clear-sparkly vin yl body — a h ig h ly underutilized
effect in the w o rld of vin yl figures. Coupled w ith the fact th a t each
fig u re had rem o vab le m asks and in c o rp o ra te d a p u lle y
m echanism to a llo w them to slide along a ta u t string , you're
looking at some seriou sly cool toys.
This page:
Top: A stro-M u Earth Nodder, 3" rem oveable mask vin yl, and 1999
reproduction vin yl. M iddle: Both versions o f the 1999 reproduction
A stro-M u earth vin yl. The arm attachm ent on the rig h t was a
Hyper-Hobby m ail-aw ay exclusive. Bottom : A stro-M u G old-vena
riding in the tra ile r o f the sparking tank.
18
N akajim a also produced a d is tu rb in g ly org an ic-lo okin g, springpow ered, spa rk-th row ing tank called M uta Z (a fire safety hazard
the likes o f which is pro ba bly illegal these days), a "b a ttle set' of
half-size v in yls paired up w ith bad guy figures, and a set o f five
tin y vin yl team m em bers w ith frictio n -p o w e re d sparking vehicles
(w hat IS it w ith these guys and fire, anyway?)
This is all fin e and dandy, but w h a t self-respecting sentai team
w o u ld dare venture forth in to the w o rld w ith o u t a super-robot?
Enter C apsule Robo G, the Ju m b o M achinder o f the series.
A lth o u g h so m e w h a t m in im a lis t, it's a strikin g piece: a rivetm ottled body w ith a head rem iniscent o f a Mexican w restler's
mask and b ristlin g w ith m issile launchers. N obody made 'em like
N akajim a, and Capsule Robo is an instant stand-out in any lineup
o f Jum b o toys. But that's not all. N ot on ly did it come w ith a pair
o f Jum b o-stom p able bad guy figures, but it doubled as a powered
su it fo r the team m em bers! A ny of the ten-inch Astro-M u Five
v in y l fig u re s can be inserted in to Capsule Robo by sim p ly
rem oving and replacing his head. (Hence the "capsule" in the
"robo.")T alk about visio n a ry! This was a firs t in the w o rld o f Jum bo
M achinder toys, and it hasn't been duplicated since.
In keeping w ith Jum b o tra d itio n , Nakajim a fa ith fu lly produced a
single arm attachm ent fo r Capsule Robo, the not-so-im aginatively
nam ed Gun Hand. Capsule Robo's arm s were also standardized so
as to accept Popy XX and ZZ-series Ju m b o M achinder arm
attachm ents as w e ll, d o u b lin g the ow ner's pleasure. And to round
out the satisfaction, N akajim a sold a m issile-firing vinyl Capsule
Robo Junior, too. Man, these guys were PROLIFIC!
Alas, it's a D arw inian struggle fo r survival in the w ild ju ng le that is
the Japanese to y m arketplace. O nly the largest and fitte st toyproducers continued to th riv e u n til m odern tim es, and despite
th e ir drive and vision, the to y d ivisio n o f Nakajim a w e nt the way
of the dinosaur. It's really a shame th a t a firm as visiona ry as
Nakajim a d id n 't make it, but w h at they left behind rank as some of
the m ost beautiful pieces in the to y histo ry o f ANY country.
The surp risin g th in g is that, w ith the exception o f Capsule Robo G,
these toys are about as obscure as they come. A ltho ug h they're
not p a rticularly rare, they're not easy to find , either: m entioning
"Astro-M u Five" to the average collecto r is likely to be greeted w ith
a h o llo w stare (actually, th a t's pro ba bly due to th e ir m ortgaging
th e ir pe rson ality to afford m ore toys.) W hatever the case, there's
no question th a t the nigh tm a rish w o rld of A stro-M u Five made
quite an im pression on Japanese kids -- and there's no denying
the fact th a t som e o f the m ost o rigin al to y pieces were made by
tiny, desperate firm s like "N akajim a o f the Turtle-mark." The toys
are out there — fin d 'em if you can!
■
This page:
Very Top: Two vie w s o f the 3" Devil-Badou vin yl and m ini-tank.
M id d le to p : G roup sho t o f both la rge r tanks and a fe w foes.
M id dle bottom : M uta-Z box art. Bottom : 3" Kaiju and Muta-Z tank.
I III lllll III I
22
k ik a id a
II illl 'III! Ill
16.5" MasudayaTalking Vinyl
12" Unlicensed rem oveable mask vinyl
11.25"Takatoku Standard Vinyl - Red Eyes
12.5" Bandai Mechanical Boy Light-Up
12.5"Takemi Light-U p Vinyl
12" Henshin Cyborg Costume
11.25"Takatoku Standard Vinyl - Black Eyes
8"Takatoku M edium Size Vinyl
8"Takatoku M edium Size Cyborg Vinyl
5.5"Takatoku sm all vinyl
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Large Side-Machine
11.
Ill I llll Illl 111k i k a i d a - 0 1 I 11 mil
II
KIKAIDA - JINZO NINGEN MAN/MACHINE
Kikaida was created by the legendary manga artist, Shotaro
Ishinom ori (he also created Kamen R ider!).The series ran fo r 43
episodes, starting in 1972 and ending in 1973. The fo llo w up
show was called Kikaida 01, and had 46 episodes that ran from
1973 to 1974. Kikaida (or Kikaider as he is som etim es called) was
a popular show in Japan durin g it's o rigin al airing, but, Kikaida's
p o p u la rity inside o f Japan pales to w h at has happened outside
o f Japan. In the m any years since it's debut on hawaiian TV,
Kikaida's p o p u la rity has risen to cu lt status in the Islands.
Kikaida is so popular in Hawaii, th a t a localTV station has begun
re-running the o rig in a l series w ith sub-titles to a w h ole new
generation o f hawaiian fans.
Both Kikaida series had a fa ir am o un t of m erchandising, from
pencils and m arkers, to chop sticks and toys. In this issue we are
focusing o n ly on vin ta ge toys m ade fo r both shows.
The m ost com m on to y to surface is the 11.25" standard sized
vin yl doll m ade by Takatoku/Bandai. O ther sizes jo ine d the cast
subsequently, and som e o f the dolls sported black painted eyes
(this was pro ba bly due to the early versions o f the live action
hero th a t show ed black eyes but was eventually film e d w ith
tra n sp a ra n t/lig h t-u p y e llo w orbs), later "re d eye" versions have
black ou tlin ed eyes (around the edges o f the ovals) and a clean,
masked off, red center. Red eyes do com m and a higher price
point. But, beware of "fa k e d " red eye versions...the red paint
usually looks messy or hand painted in the fakes, and the real
version have very crisp edges.
The rarest o f the Kikaida item s is n 't even a to y o f Kikaida - it's an
accessory! It is the red plastic guitar, w hich was packaged w ith
the Hawaii version o f the large Masudaya side machine. You can
count on one hand the num ber o f these guitars to have survived
the typica l childhood thrashing. Not to m ention how m any m ust
have been lost in the sand or w ater!
Both Kikaida and Kikaida-01 had plenty o f wacky and to ta lly cool
m onsters to fig h t, but in the end, on ly 6 villa in s were produced.
Five w e re m ade by Takatoku: The Blue B uffalo, O range Ant,
Green M antis, Grey Rhino and A n d ro id man. Popy then made
Hakaider as a part o f it's Kikaida-01 line. A ll o f these vinyls were
made in a the sm aller 5" and 4" scale. No standard size (9 inch
tall) o r larger m onsters w ere ever made.
Kikaida-01 was also produced in a sim ila r variety o f toys, but to
a much lesser degree. As a result, Kikaida-01 toys are, generally,
m ore scarce and com m and a higher price point. The Kikaida-01
vin yl double machine is as im possible to find as the red guitar
and ranks as one o f the m ost expensive Kikaida or Kikaida-01
toys around.
Rounding o u t th is a rticle are several exam ples o f bootleg
Kikaida vinyls. Bootlegs are cool, but u ltim a te ly one o f the most
fru stra tin g types o f toys to collect. Since the y were not licensed
and made very quickly in sm all num bers, it is near im possible to
fin d any sort o f record or do cum entation to determ ine w ho or
w here m any o f the bootlegs com e from .
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
12"Takara Henshin Cyborg Suit
10.75" Bandai Standard Size Vinyl
8" Popy M edium Size Vinyl
5.5" Popy Small Size Vinyl
4" Popy Flying Vinyl
23
I
I! I I II K IK A ID A ||| HI IIIK HI
X i/ m : /
11.25" Standard-Size Takatoku Kikaida figure.
Later Bandai release o f the same Tokataku
figure with their packaging. The figure was
also available with red eyes and black outline
in earlier releases.
5.75" Takatoku Grey Rhino
5.25" Popy Hikaider
5.75“ Takatoku Android-Man
24
6" bagged Kikaida unlicensed vinyl
11.5" loose unlicensed Kikaida vinyl
with removeable mask.
12" bagged unlicensed Kikaida vinyl
with clear dome.
Bandai mechanical boy with box,
Takemi/Modern Toys light-up Kikaida
with box.
4 " Takatoku Orange Ant
4" Takatoku Blue Buffalo
4" Takatoku Green Mantis
Bandai mechanical boy, Takemi light-up Kikaida, Takara Henshin Cyborg.
Bagged 4"Takatoku Orange A nt
Bagged 4 " Takatoku Blue Buffalo
Bagged 4" Takatoku Green Mantis
12" Henshin Cyborg Kikaida
and Kikader-01 by Takara.
Bagged 5.5" Popy Cyborg Kikaida
Loose 7.5"Takatoku Cyborg Kikaida
Bagged 5.75" Takatoku Cyborg Kikaida
25
I ill lllll
III II K IK A ID A
II III I III III
Takatoku 7.5" middle-size Kikaida vinyls.
On the left is a loose vinyl with black-eyes.
On the right is an earlier version with
red-eyes and black outlines in a bag.
3 “ Kikaida-01 pendant figure.
26
12" Round-Headed bootleg.
Although very similiar to the standard Takatoku vinyl, this vinyl
is slightly taller, the chest lines form an "X " in the center o f the
chest, and the mechanical arm (red) has a yellow band at the
elbow, which the Takatoku does not.
Top: Box for figural erasers,
Bottom: Large bagged pencil sharpener vinyl
next to eraser rubber figure. Note same mold.
6.5" bootleg vinyl with black belt, 5.75" Bootleg vinyl,
6.5" Bootleg vinyl with yellow belt.
KIKAIDA CHECKLIST
KIKAIDA-01 CHECKLIST
□
□
□
□
16.5" MasudayaTalking vinyl
16.5" Masudaya Hawaii Non-Talking vinyl
12.5" Bandai Mechanical Boy
12.5"Takemi Light-Up Vinyl
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
12" Henshin Cyborg (1972)
12" Unlicensed Vinyl - Removeable mask
12" Unlicensed Vinyl - Clear Dome
12" Unlicensed Vinyl - Round Head
11.25"Takatoku Vinyl - Red Eyes
11.25"Takatoku Vinyl - Black Eyes
11.25" Bandai cop yrig ht o fT T V in y l*
□
□
□
□
□
□
12" Henshin Cyborg (1973)
10.75" Bandai Standard Size Vinyl
8" Popy M edium Size Vinyl
5.5" Popy Small Size Vinyl
4" Popy Flying vinyl
3.5" Popy Pendant vinyl
*ru m ored to exist, but not proven
□ 8"Takatoku Vinyl - Red Eyes
□ 8"Takatoku Vinyl - Black Eyes
□ 8"Takatoku Cyborg Vinyl
□ 6.5" Unlicensed Vinyl - Black Belt
□ 6.5" Unlicensed Vinyl -Yellow Belt
□ 5.75" Unlicensed Vinyl
□ 5.75"Takatoku Cyborg Vinyl
□ 5.5"Takatoku RegularVinyl
□ 5.5" Popy Cyborg Vinyl
□ 5.75"Takatoku Grey Rhino Kaiju
□ 5.75"Takatoku A ndroidm an Kaiju
□ 5.25" Popy Hakaider Kaiju
□ 4"Takatoku Orange Ant Kaiju
□ 4"Takatoku Blue Buffalo Kaiju
□ 4"Takatoku Green M antis Kaiju
□ pencil sharpener vinyl figure
The Hawaii KikaidaTalking Vinyl
In the o rig in a l Japanese release and the reissue by Masudaya o f the talking
Kikaida, the talk-box is contained inside the vin yl, activated by a push-button
at the top o f the back panel. This panel also has vent holes th a t allow the
sound to be heard clearly. In the exp ort version sent to Hawaii, the talk-box
was rem oved and packed separately in it's ow n printed bag. (top left)The back
panel o f the fig u re was also rem olded to be to ta lly sm ooth. A com parison of
the tw o back panels are show n at to p right. On the bottom rig h t are tw o
photos o f a rare packaging variatio n o f the Masudaya talker w ith a TV screen
box insert and manga style illustratio ns.
27
KIKAIDA SIDE-MACHINES
NEWER KIKAIDA RELEASES:
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
Large Scale by Masudaya - Japanese
Large Scale Hawaii (top left and right)
M edium Scale by Masudaya
Small Scale
Small plastic cycle (blue or yellow )
(m iddle left)
□ Small Popy Die-Cast (1972) (boxed)
□ Small Popy Die-Cast (blister carded)
□ 15" Die-Cast Side-Machine
(Hong Kong Exclusive)
□ 4" Popy Die-Cast Side-Machine
Regular-Size by Nostalgic Heroes
□ 4" Popy Die-Cast Side-Machine
Large-Size by Nostalgic Heroes
KIKAIDA-01 DOUBLE-MACHINES
□ Large Scale (bottom left)
□ M edium Scale
□ Small Popy Die-Cast (1973)
16.5" Masudaya ReproductionTalker
15.5" M edicom Kikaida Non-Poseable
12" M edicom Kikaida
12" M edicom Kikaida-01
12" M edicom Hakaider
12" M edicom Android-M an
9.25" M edicom Kikaida
9.25" Medicom Hakaider
9" BillikenTin W ind-U p Kikaida
9" B illikenT in W ind-U p Hakaider
7.5" Ohtsuka Kikaku Kikaida
7.5" Ohtsuka Kikaku Hakaider
7.5" Ohtsuka Kikaku Kikaida-01
1" Banpresto Kikaida
7" Banpresto Hakaider
6" Die-Cast Kikaida Nostalgic Heroes
6" Die-Cast Hakaider Nostalgic Heroes
5" Banpresto Kikaida
5" Banpresto Kikaida-01
3.75" Banpresto Kikaida Figure
3.75" Banpresto Kikaida-01 Figure
2.75" Gashapon Set
The Hawaii Kikaida Side-M achine |
There are tw o versions o f the large size Kikaida Side-Machine. There is the standard
Japanese version, as w e ll as an export Hawaii version. The tw o version are fairly
sim ilar, but have a few key differences.T he easiest w ay to tell the Side-Machines apart,
is th a t the Hawaiian versions have the w o rd "K ika id e r" spelled in English on a sticker
on the gas tank, (look under the forearm in the top rig ht picture.) A dd itio nally, if you
are really lucky, the Hawaii version came w ith a red plastic guitar. This guitar has
becom e one of the "H o ly G ra il" item s fo r Kikaida collectors. These guitars were quickly
lost by children, and can double the price fo r a com plete loose version w ith the guitar.
U L T R A M A N F IG U R E S B Y
M ARUSAN AN D BULLM AR K
BY; M A R K N A G A T A
29
| ULTRAM AN
The year was 1966. A new show debut on Japanese TV, called
Ultram an. It was an instant hit, spaw ning a deluge of toys and
related item s fo r years to come.
1966 Ultraman Gun set box art
A ll this excitm ent and half a w o rld away.
I d id n 't actually see an U ltram an episode until 1975, som e 9 years
later. I had no clue that m any toys existed o f U ltram an, since in
Am erica they never m arketed one. I w o u ld later learn of the UPC
model kit of U ltram an and the fact th a t the series was firs t run in
the US in the late sixties. But w here I was in California, I never
found anything related to the show.
Never the less the im pact this series had on me w o u ld foreve r
change my to y collecting life. Bandai toys w o u ld start releasing new
toys based on U ltram an in the m id to late eighties, and that was
when I started buying.
left to right:
Marusan 1st head mold - front view
Marusan 1st head mold - side view
Marusan 2nd head mold - front view
Marusan 2nd head mold - side view
left to right:
Marusan 1st version
Marusan 2nd version
Bullmark 3rd version
left to right:
Bullmark 3rd head mold - front view
Bullmark 3rd head mold - side view
Marusan rear copyright
Bullmark rear copyright
A fte r fin d in g a few reference books on old japanese toys, I was
shocked to see all these cool looking figu res o f Ultram an but not
new ones.These were p rim itiv e looking, and from a tim e period I
had not collected from .
1966 saw the firs t vin yl fig u re release fo r U ltram an by a com pany
called M arusan. S tan din g 9 inches ta li, th is to y was a rather
sim p le in te rpre ta tion o f w h at the actual U ltram an on television
looked like. U nlike the type A mask in the series, th is firs t version,
had a sm ooth face and strang ely sculpted ears.The figu re sported
a circle "s a n " logo, the w o rd japan, and theT suburaya copyright
on the backside. A second version o f th is fig u re features a newly
sculpted head, w ith m ore accurate ears, and eyes that are more
slanted. Perhaps an attem pt at m aking the fig u re a bit m ore tough
looking.
J
ULTRAM AN
An 11-1/2 inch size was also sold, which looks identical to the 2nd
Marusan version and has a circle san on the foot. Also, a 12 inch
tall unpainted fig u re made o f po ly-vin yl (a lighte r w e igh t, and
cheaper m aterial) was sold, w ith paints. A sort o f do it you rself
project fo r the kids.
For Christmas of 1966, a special departm ent store only fig u re was
the 19 inches tall Marsuan Super G iant size U ltram an. It was sold
unpainted, and sported bent arm s w ith jo in ts at the elbow s, so a
child could pose it in the specium (beam) shot pose. Made o f
poly-vinyl and not vin yl like the sm aller toys, it is a fragile fig u re
w hich can be dented ve ry easily. Today fin d in g one in good
condition and unpainted (as m any children painted the figu re) is a
tough task. This one fig u re rem ains my all tim e favorite, fo r pose
and sculpt.To me it captures th a t era, and the character perfectly.
An elusive fig u re by Marusan is the very large, 20 inch plus tall
figu re made of plastic w ith m ovable jo in ts and sporting a cloth
"u ltra " costume. This fig u re also had a talk box inside it. I have
never seen one fo r sale, and the picture here was taken fro m a old
ad in the back o f Figure King magazine. I do know a near m int
boxed exam ple sold fo r $10,000. If th is is true than it w o u ld be the
m ost expensive vintage U ltram an figure.
As M arusan started to go out o f the vin yl toy business, a new
com pany called Bullm ark stepped in to keep releasing toys based
on Ultram an.
32
B ullm ark re-released the o rigin al 9 inch version, but this tim e the
fam ous Bullm ark logo w o u ld be stam ped on the backside. There
also exists w h a t are called tra n s itio n figu res, w hich have the
Marusan logo m issing, and no Bullm ark logo.T hese figures were
eith er released by Bullm ark o r Marusan, w h ile the m olds were
being retooled fro m the Marusan to the Bullm ark logo. The 11.5
inch Ultram an vin yls are good exam ples o f this variation.
Figures fro m 15 inches ta ll to 3-3/4 inches tall were made by
Bullm ark.T he various sm all sizes or "m in is'1were sold in m any set
com binations. Some came on colorful cardboard cards o r were in
plastic carrying boxes. A ll featured various U ltram an and fa m ily
mem bers.
I feel the early toys, seem to capture a q u ality that has yet to be
re-captured in newer toys.The early Marusan and Bullm ark figures
have a very Buddha-like q u ality th a t lies at the esscence o f what
Ultram an was all about. In fact, an early influence to the Ultraman
designers was in fact, Buddha.
The actual series only ran 39 episodes and ended w ith Ultraman
fly in g hom e. A m azingly, U ltra m an w o u ld never have another
series again. But, th is w o u ld not stop the onslaught of toys based
on the o rigin al ultram an w hich continue to this day.
opposite page (left to right):
20" Marusan cloth costume doll with box, 19" Marusan Super Giant
Size Ultraman, 12" poly vinyl paintable Ultraman by Marusan.
this page top: (left to right):
Giant Size Ultraman front and back, Medium size Ultraman figures
by Bullmark.
below:
top left: Marusan 12" paintable Ultraman foot copyrights,
bottom left: Giant Size Ultraman foot copyrights, (san?)
center: comparison o f bulmark and transition foot copyrights,
top right: back side o f the mini-size ultraman with crossed
arms by Bullmark
bottom right: back side o f the mini-size Ultraman with beam
pose by Bullmark.
33
1 U L T R A M A N || ||| ||||
This page:
top: A ll Bullmark mini-size Ultraman figures 4.5"-75“ tall,
middle: A ll Bullmark posed mini-size vinyls.
bottom: Ultraman Cork Gun set (large size) by ToyMark from 1966. This
rare set includes a m etal rifle which shoots corks at cardboard targets.
There are tw o versions o f this set with either large or small guns.
Opposite page:
bottom left: Odd Bullmark with double foot manufacturer marks,
center: Rare 1966 Ultraman Soaky bottle made o f fragile poly-vinyl.
Left: Bullmark 3.75" pendant figure with chain.
!
<
»
A ll prices are based on cu rre n t source books, auction prices,
dealer sales, and my ow n and other collectors observations. Prices
can and w ill flu c tu a te , up and do w n , depending on supply,
dem and and con dito n o f items. This is by no means a definative
price gu id e, but ra th e r a sta rtin g p o in t fo r the co lle cto r to
reference only.These prices are not offers o f sale or purchase.
Prices based on a near m in t to y (C-9) w ith o u t packaging. O riginal
packaging fo r early vin yls is som etim es m ore rare than the toy.
So, o rigin al packing can add sub stantia lly to the over all value of
the toy.
This list includes vintage licensed figu res throu gh the 1970's, and
not bootlegs o r unauthorized versions. Any re-issues are included,
w ith in the o rigin al list. Later toys by Popy, Bandai and others w ill
be included in fu tu re articles.
Company/Year
Size
Description/N otes/E stim ated Value
Marusan 1966
20"
Posable do ll w ith cloth Ultram an
costum e w ith talk box. Super rare.
$3000+ loose, com plete
$10,000+ w ith box (one known)
Marusan 1966
9"
Standard size, 1st version w ith
diffe re nt ear sculpts. Circle san
logo on backside. $1000+
M arusan 1966
9"
Standard size, 2nd version
N orm al ear sculpts. $700 +
Marusan 1966
19"
Super G iant size. Also called a self
paint doll / Christmas departm ent
store special. Sold w ith brush and
paints to decorate the toy. Circle
san logo on fo o t bottom . $2000+
Marusan 1966
12"
G iant size, Self paint d o ll, circle
san logo on foot. $500+
M arusan 1966
11.5"
M edium size. Larger version of
standard size. Circle san on foot.
$400+
(Q
34
c
u lt r a jr .a n < fK lle c t i.
www.ultramantoys.com
Company/Year
Size
D escription/N otes/E stim ated Value
Company/Year
Size
D escription/N otes/E stim ated Value
Bullm ark 1966
9"
Standard size. Identical to 2nd
Marusan version. B ullm ark logo on
backside. $700+
B ullm ark 1970
4.5”
Bullm ark 1966
9''
Standard size. M olded in all red vinyl
$1000 + (very rare)
Bullm ark 1966
11"
M edium size. Identical to be lo w 11.5"
inch figu re, but m issing B ullm ark
logo. Has c o p yrig h t and 1966. From
M arusan m olds.T ra nsitiona l fig u re
w ith o u t B ullm ark stam p. $450
A rm s in “x ” pose , le ft arm over rig ht
arm . Comes in these colors:
Unpainted grey vin yl w ith
y e llo w eyes
$60
Unpainted all red vin yl w ith
ye llo w eyes
$60
Blue grey vin yl painted red
and ye llo w eyes
$55
U npainted Sparkle vin yl re-issue
byT suburaya Com m ., 1999 $20
B ullm ark 1972
3.75“
Pendent fig u re w ith chain - $70
Bullm ark 1974
7-1/2"
Sm all standard size. Legs are slightly
bent at knees.Part o f a series o f 8
fig u re s - $150
Bandai re-issue/B-Club. 2000 $60
B ullm ark 1970
6.5”
Skinny face and body. $90
B ullm ark 1970
5.5“
Deep red paint, w ide body sculpt.$90
Bullm ark 1970
4.75"
Jointed at arm s, neck and waist. $65
Bullm ark 1970
4.5”
Jointed at arm s and w a ist only. $65
Bullm ark 1966
11,5“
M ed iu m size. Larger version o f
standard size. B ullm ark logo and
1966 on foot. $300+
Bullm ark 1970
15"
G iant size do ll, helm et cannot be
rem oved. $350
Bullm ark 1970
4,5"
A rm s in beam pose , rig h t arm over
le ft arm . Comes in these colors:
U npainted grey v in y l w ith
y e llo w eyes
$60
U npainted all red v in y l w ith
y e llo w eyes
$70
Blue gre y v in yl painted red
and y e llo w eyes
$55
35
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| T H E F IR S T G O D Z IL L A |
BY : B R I A N F L Y N N & M I K E J O H N S O N
PANTONE
PANTONE
PANTONE
PANTONE
PANTONE
PANTONE
PANTONE
PANTONE
PANTONE
PANTONE
330
330
316
3165
5467
316
330
330
3302
5467
M aru san (1 9 6 6 -1 9 6 9 )
Darker Blue-Green vinyl, Steep tail -Tail A (not pictured)
Darker Blue-Green vinyl, one copyrighted foot, red eyes, tail C
Green vinyl, tw o copyrighted feet, orange eyes, tail C
Bright blue unpainted vinyl, tail ?
Tsubaraya copyright on foot (not pictured), tail ?
B u llm ark (1 9 7 0 - 1 9 7 5 )
Green vinyl, orange eyes, tail B
Green vinyl, orange eyes, tail C
Darker Blue-Green vinyl, red eyes, tail B
Lighter Blue-Green vinyl, red eyes, transition foot, tail B
Dark green vinyl, red eyes, tail B
Hawaii version, flesh vinyl w ith blue spray, tail D
Hawaii version with green metallic spray, tail D
R e p ro d u c tio n s
Unpainted flesh vinyl, bootleg from original molds, tail A, 1983.
Bandai re-issue with paper tag, modified tail B, 1991
Marusan real version (came with a minya figure) tail A, 2000
Marusan grey version (black and white), tail A, 500 made, 1999.
Marusan bright green version, tail A, 400 made, 1999.
M-1 glow in the dark version. Came with a marusan history
book, tail A, 500 made, 2002.
Marusan 7" scale version, dark green version, modified tail B, 1998.
Marusan 7" scale version, green version, 250 made, tail D,2002.
II lllll III
1:1
t h e F IR S T G O D Z IL L A || ||| ||||
This article w ill be dealing with all the known variations to the original
Marusan/Bullmark Godzilla vinyl and the various reproductions of it
over the years. The article w ill go through the variations in terms of
their importance to price and rarity, starting with the most important
to the least important. First and foremost is....
M anufacturer:
The very first Godzilla vinyls were manufactured by Marusan, and
later by Bullmark, The Marusan vinyls were produced in less numbers
and are older than their Bullmark counterparts, and roughly worth 50%
more than a bullmark in the same condition.
Tail versions:
There are fou r tail versions on the godzilla. The very firs t tail is
com monly called the "steep" tail (tail A), and was only on the very first
marusan figures to be released.This tail version is extremely rare, and
is worth thousands of dollars for any godzilla that turns up with one.
The tail can be differentiated from later tails as it makes and almost
180° turn from the base of the figure, and has 7 complete section lines
along the tail.This tail version was later used on all three Marusan fullsize reissues, as well as the glow M1 reissue.
Marusan then modified the "steep" tail, by softening the arc of the tail
to roughly 45° at the end of the tail. During their remake of the tail, the
rejoined sections do not match up smoothly, and it creates a "bum p"
in the tail between the 5th and 6th sections. This tail is commonly
referred to as the "6 ta il" (tail B) because it has 6 countable section
lines along the tail instead of the 7 section lines on the "steep" tail.
It is unclear if Marusan or Bullmark modified the tail for the third time,
but, at some point the end of the tail was resculpted yet again, so that
the "bum p" in the previous tail was removed. In this resculpt, the tail
was restored to having 7 section lines, the last section being small and
crooked. This is often called the "7 ta il" (tail C).There is no discernible
price difference for a "6 " or "7 " tail, as they seem equally common.
Lastly, Bullmark resculpted the tail end yet a fourth time. So far this
version of the tail is only found on the two Hawaii versions of the
Godzilla. The end of the tail is com pletely resculpted and looks
seamless to the original body of the tail. This version has seven
section lines as well, as is called the "Hawaii" tail (tail D). Refer to the
chart on the next page for a diagram of all four tail variations.
Spray Variations:
As a whole the Marusan vinyls have significantly more silver spray
than the Bullmark vinyls. For Marusan vinyls, the more silver spray the
figure has has on it, the higher the price w ill be. Some Marusan and
early bullmark figures, especially the blue-green vinyls it seems, are
almost completely covered in silver, while later figures, usually the
green vinyls, have dramatically less silver paint applied. Also, Marusan
figures have a very dark blue spray that runs from the top of the back
of the head and down the spines of the Godzilla, while later Bullmark
versions have a much lighter, alm ost tonal metallic blue lightly
sprayed on the spines.
The paint variations that make for a significant value increase are the
two different Hawaii versions of Godzilla. The first version is a flesh
colored vinyl, that is completely oversprayed in blue paint (K). This is
easily the rarest of the Godzilla paint variations, and actually owes
more to the vinyl color change than the paint, but it is different enough
in it's own right. The second Hawaii paint version is a green vinyl with
a metallic green overspray, gold spines and silver eyes (L). Many times
this figure is referred to as the "white-eye Godzilla" by American
collectors. Technically, the eyes are silver, but, we w ill go over eye
colors later. Both figures are extremely difficult to track down, but the
green is considered to be easier to find than the flesh/blue version.
40
V in y l co lo rs:
W ith the exception o f the flesh colored Hawaii vin yl m entioned
above, vintage Godzilla figu res com e in fo u r general colors: light
Blue-green, darker blue-green, lig h t green and dark green. W hile
many collectors refer to both blue-green hues as blue, there was
actually a unpainted fig u re in an blue vin yl, so, it is im p o rta n t to
distiguish the blue-green fro m the blue, w hich is m ore accurate to
the ir true color. Also, if you look at the m ain photo, it is easy to
see that there are tw o d istin ctly d iffe re n t hues in the blue-green
fam ily, (figures H and I) To th a t point, th ro u g h years o f m anu­
facturing and vin yl com p osition flu xu a tio n , the colors tend to shift
slig h tly w ith in any o f the fo u r color fam ilies. For exam ple, m ost
light-green vin yls are very close in color, but do not always match
perfectly, but look com p le te ly d iffe re n t w hen com pared to the
darker green vin yls. G enerally speaking, v in y l c o lo r does not
make a difference in price (other than the flesh version) and is ju s t
in d ica tive o f the tim e o r fa c to ry it w as produced. Blue-green
vin yls tend to be older than either o f the green vinyls, but some
were made concurrently, so there is no rule to to a llo w accurate
dating o f Godzilla vin yls by color.
In 1983, a group o f fans located the o rigin al m olds to o rigin al
Marusan and B ullm ark vin yls, and cranked o u t a nu m b e r o f
Godzilla figu res in an unpainted flesh color. These figu res are
different from the Hawaii flesh colored Bullm arks, as the y have
the origin al "ste e p " ta ils (tail A) and not the "H a w a ii" ta ils (tail D).
Any potential flesh-colored Hawaii vin yl should be checked to
make sure it is origin al and not a fake version o f the 1983 bootleg.
Feet c o p y rig h ts :
There are tw o marusan feet co p yrig h ts variatio ns; one w ith a
cop yrig ht on both feet, and one w ith a co p yrig h t on the left fo o t
and a blank rig ht fo o t (see photo at to p left).The version w ith tw o
copyrights is a bit to u g h e r to find , and com m ands about 25%
m ore than a one fo o t co y rig h t version in the same con dition.
There is also a version w ith a Tsubaraya co p yrig h t instead o f a
Toho copyright. I have heard o f tw o reports o f this toy, but no
pictures have surfaced yet. Lastly there are the "tra n s itio n " foo t
versions, w hich are blank on th e b o tto m o f both feet. These
figu res w ere m ade as M arusan w e n t o u t o f business, and
Bullm ark began to take over, and are ge ne rally lum ped in w ith the
Bullm ark figures. A ll the rest bu llm a rk releases have the bullm ark
stam p on the left fo o t and have a blank rig h t foot. W hen Bandai
made the 1991 reissue, the y m oved the bu llm a rk stam p to the
rig h t foot, and added an ad ditiona l c o p yrig h t to the left foo t, so
that you cannot switch either legs onto an o rigin al fig u re (see
photo on the m iddle left). Bandai also had a sm all sticker on the
bottom o f every 1991 reissue, but these are easily rem oved. The
three Marusan re-releases all have sm ooth, unstam ped feet w ith
the cop yrig ht in fo rm a tio n transferred in w h ite ink to the bottom o f
the feet. The M1 has the o rigin al bu llm a rk stam p on the left foot,
and an additional co p yrig h t stam ped in to the rig ht foot.
Eye c o lo rs :
Probably the m ost debated, yet w orth le ss variatio ns around, the
original Godzilla figu res have (as far as have been noted so far)
only three seperate colors. Luckily the colors correspond to vinyl
colors, so there is no fear o f an unending am ount o f possible
colors and vin yl com b in ation s.T h e firs t eye co lo r is red. Red eyes
are fou nd on the blue-green vin yls and dark green vinyls. The
second eye color is orange, and is fou nd on the light-green vinyls.
This color is often tim es referred to as pink, and som etim es w hite.
The problem is th a t the orange paint used to paint the eyes was a
vo la tile m ix (chem ically speaking), and seperated rathe r quickly
41
| T H E F IR S T G O D Z IL L A |
into it's tw o co lo r com ponents - an orange m ixed w ith a w hite
base. So, the figu res then have a variety o f colors in the eye,
som e w ith m ore orange, som e w ith less, some w ith the w hite
fu lly seperating fro m the orange, som e w ith o u t, and some even
h intin g o f a bit yellow . W hat th a t leaves is a huge quandry over
co lo r variatio n, w hen in actuality, it is all the same base paint, and
not diffe re nt at all.T h e last eye color is silver, and is only found on
the tw o Hawaii figures. Rumors abound o f w h ite and gold eyes on
vin ta g e fig u re s, but none have surfaced th a t a ctu ally are a
genuine w h ite or gold paint, but rather ju st a deteriorated orange.
R e p ro d u c tio n s a nd O th e r B o o tle g s :
As talked about before, the firs t remake o f the Godzilla figu re was
the 1983 flesh colore d bo otle g. There were several standard
Godzilla and U ltram an kaiju made, as w ell as at least one giant
size vin yl. The G odzilla vin yl was made from the Marusan m old,
w h ile m any o f the other kaiju were made from Bullm ark molds.
In 1991 bandai made the firs t official re-release of the vinyl which
came tagged w ith a folded paper tag around the arm or neck held
on by a gold elastic string. This vinyl is considerably darker than
any o f the o rigin al figures, but looks very sim ilia r to an original.
Because o f the s im ila rity to the original figures, the 1991 reissue
line was m et w ith a very lukewarm response, and they are still
qu ite easy to find.
K no w ing th a t co lle cto rs w a nted v in y ls th a t varied fro m the
origin als, M arusan firs t released th e ir new re-issue in a 7" scale
w ith the o rigin al colors in 1998.The idea was that the fig u re w ould
be in scale w ith the newer Godzilla sm aller scale figures, but once
again, th is fig u re was m et w ith a lukewarm response. In 1999
Marusan released full-size versions Godzilla in black and w hite
(like the m ovie) and b rig h t green colorw ays. Both were lim ited
event exclusive figu res and lim ite d to 500 and 400 pieces each. In
2000, the G odzilla was released w ith a reproduction blue Minya as
a 2-pack event exclusive and lim ited to 250 sets, in 2002 Yuji
N ishim ura opened his to y m useum on the outskirts ofT okyo, and
Marusan made an exclusive version o f th e ir 7" Godzilla in green
vin yl fo r the opening. The back side o f the backing cards o f these
figu res have stickers tha t are num bered 1-250.
In 2002 Yuji N ishim ura also released a painted g lo w in the dark
ve rsio n o f the G odzilla fig u re th ro u g h his com pany, M1. This
fig u re came w ith a sm all, digest sized Marusan history book, and
is usually autographed either on the book or header card by the
ex-president o f Marusan. O ddly enough, M1 changed the fo o t
cop yrig hts to Bullm ark, but kept the Marusan "ste e p " tail. If M1
fo llo w s past trends, we can expect unpainted g lo w versions, as
w ell as som e o th e r co lo r variants o f th is fig u re in the near future.
Finally, there are the red and blue plastic vintage bootlegs. These
are made o f a th in blow -m o ld ed plastic and then sprayed w ith
h ig h lig h ts in a sin gle color. W h ile looking alm ost identical in
source to the M arusan/Bullm ark Godzilla, upon closer inspection,
the y are d e fin ite ly a diffe re nt m old. W hile the form is d e finite ly the
same, the skin detail along the body is raised from the surface, as
opposed to recessed on the original vinyl. M ost likely, these are
actually bootlegged fro m the Bullm ark plam odel instead o f the
vin yl, but w hen placed next to the o rigin al vin yl, they look nearly
identical, the red version predating the "B u rn in g " Godzilla look by
tw o decades.
Uh, oh. w e th o u g h t we were done, but another tail variation crept
up on us! W ith lite ra lly 18 hours until press tim e, we d o n 't have
tim e to revise the entire magazine and article to include tail E, but
w e d id n 't w a n t to leave it out eith er!
Continued on page 54.
42
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|| III
III HI M A S U D A Y A L IG H T -U P S A N D S P A R K E R S || |
B Y : B R IA N F L Y N N
There is nothing like seeing an en tirely new genre o f toys fo r the
firs t tim e to really get the blood flo w in g again.
Such is the case w ith the Masudaya light-u p and sparking figures.
W hile m ost hardcore collectors know about these figures, very
few ow n any o f them . W hy? Because m ost collectors, even the
die-hards have never actually held one o f these figures. Yeah,
there are a few pictures here and there of single figures, but
always ve ry sm all, and never to scale, (at ro u g h ly 6.5-7" tall
apiece, the y m easure up w e ll to the standard bandai "h e ro "
vinyls.) It seems th a t m ost every collecto r th a t has actually seen
these figures in person has proceeded to begin th e ir ow n search
fo r these unique vinyls.
The light-up figures were o rig in a lly intended to be a substitute
n ig h tlig h t fo r Japanese children. Rather than a w all plug-in, you
had a figu re o f you r favo rite hero, w hose head, when the battery
com partm ent in between the legs was pushed in, could light-u p to
ward o f shadows and evil at any tim e o f the night. A lo ng w ith
that, the figu res had fu ll articulation on both arm s and legs, so
that the fig u re had fu ll play value as w ell. W hat could be better?
Sold as in dividu al carded figures, the bubbles holding the figu res
are lig h tly sealed, and then stapled fo r good measure. A ll three
carded exam ples I have seen have the seal deteriorated, but the
staples are intact. Each card graphic is custom to the particular
hero it contains, and there is no m ention o f any additional figures
on the card backs, although there is an ad ditiona l tag stapled on
the Keiji-K fig u re th a t show s the three robots: Mazinger-Z, Keiji-K
and Red Baron. As each fig u re had an in te rn a l ba tte ry
44
com partm ent, the m a jo rity o f loose figu res no longer have the
sm all plug in the bottom to hold the battery, and many tim es are
m issing the entire internal com partm ent itself. These figures were
played w ith , and later stored, and as w ith m ost battery-op toys,
the battery com partm ents corroded and decayed rather quickly,
then were later rem oved. As you can see from the photo above,
fin d in g loose figu res w ith m in t com partm ents can be a little tricky.
The next question seems to be, how rare are they? That is a little
tou gh to answer. As these figu res seem to fa irly obscure, even for
the japanese collector, the demand fo r them is fa irly low, yet, they
tu rn up v e ry rarely, m aking them a pain to track dow n, and
indica ting a possible lo w pro du ction run. The last few examples
th a t have turne d up on yahoo Japan have ranged from 7500¥25,000¥ fo r loose exam ples, ye t I have recently purchased a
carded Kamen Rider V3 (not pictured yet) from a japanese dealer,
w ith m ark-up fo r 20,000¥. W ith th a t in m ind, it is d iffic u lt to
attribu te prices to any of them . The Mazinger-Z and Keiji-K seem
to be the m ost expensive based p rim a rily on the relative expense
of th e ir characters in general, w h ile Tiger-7 seems to be the m ost
affordable and com m on, having been im ported into Hawaii and
actually show ing up in collections stateside.
To th a t same point, the Masudaya sparking Kamen Rider-X was
also im p orted in to Hawaii and turns up stateside on occasion.
O ther sparkers include Great Mazinger, Getta Robo-1, and Ultra
Leo. W hile the sparkers are sim ila rly sculpted to the light-ups,
they are not quite as finessed in th e ir overall presentation. Let's
face it, the vin yls have a gian t plunger in between th e ir legs.
M ost collectors have had a chance to run in to the Kamen Rider-X
sparking figu re, and th is is easily the weakest o f the fo u r figures.
The character itself has very little detail in the costum e (by nature
of the hero him self), and the silver used to paint it is very fragile,
wearing away quite easily. So, when fin d in g a used version o f this
toy, it is easy to be less than enthusiastic about the q u a lity o f the
figures in the sparker series, but d o n 't let that stop you - the Great
Mazinger is done very w e ll, and the Getta Robo-1 may be one of
the best ite ra tio n s o f th a t character ever produced. Nice and
stocky, I get m ore offers o f purchase fo r Getta-1 than ju s t about
any other to y in m y collection. The sculpt o f the Ultra-Leo is a bit
more com ical, as the fig u re has no visib le neck, and m aintains the
stocky body pro po rtions like the oth er figu res fro m the series.
Once again, pricing these toys is very d iffic u lt, and there is no
definite rate to gauge against. A ll three o f the boxed exam ples
you pictured here were bo ught fo r rou gh ly 12,500¥ apiece, but
that was several years ago, and the price has no do ub t risen since
then. I know o f one collecto r tha t has been searching fo r these
figures now fo r w ell over a year, and has yet to tu rn any o f them
up other than the Kamen Rider-X, and th a t fig u re was fro m Hawaii,
not Japan.
W hat does this all mean? W ell, I am w illin g to bet there are m ore
light-ups out there tha t haven't turne d up yet (my guess is tw o
more fo r three separate groups o f three), and maybe a sparker or
tw o as w ell. W ith the dem and of collectors tracking these figures
increasing, you can be assured th a t dealers and buyers w ill be
paying m ore attention to these obscure toys in the years to c o m e ..
M asudaya
C hecklist j
L ig h t-u p s : (ro u g h ly 6.75")
□
Tiger-7
□
Inazum an
□
K am en R ider V3
□
U ltra Taro
□
K eiji-K
□
M azinger-Z
□
Red B aron
S parkers: (ro u g h ly 7")
□
K am en R ider X
□
G reat M a zin g er
□
Getta Robo-1
□
U ltra Leo
45
|| III IHII |'|
| J U M B O R G || HI || |!| HI |
|
BY: TR E E
Som ething is diffe re nt here. Diffuse lig h t emanates from a low
point in a blue-gray sky. The air is a choking m ix o f fog and ochrecolored dust. You stand above a m o u n ta in o u s landscape. The
terrain appears plausible but, like a high school reunion, not quite
right. You seem to see fo re st and m o u ntains fro m above and
below at the same tim e. You are a giant and a hero. S om ehow you
missed the tra n sitio n , but th is is no tim e fo r hesitation...
You hit the ground w ith a great trem oro us wave o f concussion
and com pressed air. B uild ing s, trees, even the h ills gyrate in
deference to yo u r m ig ht. Your quarry is a hideous, screeching
m onster, w re akin g s tu m b lin g but calculated de vastatio n on a
distant chemical plant. His p re histo ric fo rm surges and sways
am idst v io le n t flashes o f lig h t and smoke. You have to adm ire, if
only fo r an instant, the ye llo w -w h ite beam he transm its fro m his
golden headplate draw ing an explosive line o f destruction across
tow ers and treetops. So cool! He is an awesom e, o m ino us sight!
S till, he m ust be s to p p e d -c h ild re n alm ost certainly are playing
nearby!
You sweep across vast te rrito rie s w ith a single stride. Your anim al
agile m ovem ents are sw ift and darting. Despite yo u r enorm ity,
you bring no harm to the land and its hidden residents, stepping
only on barrens o f gravel and dust th a t som e ho w greet each
foo tfall. A s tiff w ind sw irls in yo u r wake.
In an instant, you to w e r above a p o llu te d in d u s tria l com plex
starin g d ire c tly in to the m o n ste r's sta rtle d , b u t aggressive
approach. You dig fo r w h ateve r leverage can be had fo r a giant
standing on a gravel plain. This is w h at you've been w a itin g for..
Let’s fig h t! 11
46
You see the m onster, then yourself, a giant robot w ith am ber-light
eyes in a dull silver, alm ost dirty, red striped costume. Next, you
see the m onster h u rlin g you in to a bu ild in g alm ost com pletely
d estroying it. Then a young man appears. He is surrounded by
blinking electronics w ith w ires hooked to his head and arms. He is
grim acing w ith pain...
Your m artia l arts are fo rm id a b le ; the m onster fla ils helplessly
against yo u r piston fists and flyin g kicks. Nonetheless, you w ill
soon be bro u g h t to the brink o f h u m ilia tin g defeat. O nly by some
m iracle o f de term in ation w ill you be sa ve d -a lo n g w ith the tim ely
aid of an extra pow erful weapon tha t fo r some reason you have
not used yet.
Inevitably, you send the m onster to a piecemeal ob livion . You are
the giant robot, the young man p ilo tin g the giant robot, a little boy
being saved by the gian t robot, and a vie w e r o f the w h ole giant
rob ot fantasy on a Tsuburaya tele visio n production o f Jum borg
Ace. If you are lucky enough to be eight years old, you w ill soon
be face dow n in a sandbox reenacting the entire scene in a m icro­
w o rld o f toys. Your big-headed, tw o-eyed, tilt-an gled vie w p o in t
w ill show you everything you saw on the screen, in every coolposed, physically anom alous detail. W hen you're a bit older, the
tin ie s t in clin atio n to illic it mayhem m ay even lead you to com plete
the re e n a ctm e n t by b lo w in g a cheap plastic m on ste r to
sm ithereens w ith an M-80. (You'd never do that to a good toy!)
You'll stand in reverent awe, the m om ent of the blast forever
etched in y o u r m em ory, fo re v e r sym bo lizing the greatness of
Jum b org and the triu m p h o f childlike heroism over a tow ering
evil, fo re ve r com m e m oratin g the hypnotic, dream like play that
gripped you tha t day.
Opposite page:
left to right:
n.5"Takemi Jumborg vinyl, Jumborg Tricycle vinyl by Popy,
10" Unlicensed Jumborg vinyl, 6" Unlicensed Jumborg vinyl.
This page:
A Group shot o f Jumborg-Ace and Jumborg- Nine old and new
Tsuburaya s o m e h o w read
Jum borg Ace...As an adult,
distant and irrelevant, y o u 'll
given you. Y ou 'll con du ct
prepared should a m om ent
you...
y o u r soul and dressed it up like
when a young man's dream s seem
realize the m ig h ty g iftT su b u ra ya has
y o u rs e lf w ith q u ie t h u m ility , fu lly
fo r greatness ever again call out to
You'll...
Ju m b o rg was a cheap copy fo r the masses; in trig u in g , yet
accessible, even a bit funny...Jum borg's design seemed to adapt
som e o f the Japanese passion fo r uniform ed super beings to the
hu m ble man on the street. T hat sense o f co n tra d ictio n was
irre sistible to me...
Now, d o n 't get me w ro ng . Ju m b o rg is not ju st a headtrip; there
are plen ty o f heart-pum ping cool in the toys fo r anyone interested
in Japanese vinyls.
W hat?!! O h !...Sorry...lost m yself fo r a m om ent there...
I was tryin g to describe w hat I saw in m y firs t Jum b org Ace vin yl. I
really did not see any o f w h at I have described; in tru th , I was not
prepared to understand w h at I was seeing. Japanese to y art tends
to be dense w ith allusion and subtle com m u nica tion . S till, if you
look at an object long enough, even w e gaijin (foreigners) can
begin to understand it. You ju s t have to get some con tro l over the
em otional im pact o f a firs t sighting...
I am not sure w h at grabbed me the firs t tim e I saw a Jum b org Ace
vin yl, eith e r in Yuji N ishim u ra's vin yl book or on the web. It
decidedly was love at firs t sight, but not the kind o f passionate
love you feel fo r a to y o f gre at beauty or m yste ry—like say,
U ltram an Jack (take my w o rd fo r it, U ltram an Jack is o th e rw o rld ly).
No, it was m ore like the w arm attraction you feel fo r a hom ely pet,
like a bulldog or a fat cat. Jum borg in so m any way says he's
secondary and derivative. This is clear in the to y s -a t least in the
older ones—and it is one big reason they are so cool. Jum b org is
like a half-hearted attem pt to abstract and re-im plem ent ideas that
were w orking w e ll in the U ltram an se rie s -o n e o f several such
attem pts during the early seventies. Early on it seemed to me that
But w h at is so great about a guy in a fun ny-lo okin g suit wearing
goggles? C e rta in ly d o e sn 't have th a t bug-eyed m ystiqu e o f
U ltram an or Kamen Rider, or even som e o f the other secondary
characters like Fireman o r Redman. Yes, we can say he's a robot,
but w ith a face? But, that aside, th is looks like a real guy; a real
Japanese guy in a not-so-super, super-hero o u tfit.
Of course, these were the very th in g s I liked about the figures.
And, actually, I had it all w ro n g about the real guy, because I was
looking at a to y rather than the show on which it was based.
W here I had im agined a costum ed super hero o f the com ic-book,
Spiderm an variety, popping out of his car to take on the bad guys,
Ju m b o rg was really a gian t super robot. In on ly attending to
funky-coolness o f the toy, I had missed the m ain p o in t o f the
figure. Yet, even m y u n in fo rm ed, em o tion al response was onto
so m e th in g ; at a glance, the old to ys w ere co m m u n ica tin g
im p o rta n t hum an subtleties o f the robot and his story.
Anyw ays, th is is ju s t a prim er, a pre-cursor to that story. In the
next issue, expect a gian t article th a t goes over the history of
Jum b org in great detail, old to new, from Takemi to Tsubaraya
C om m unictions, fro m Japan toT ha ila nd. See you there!
47
iPt (iBT are a good band to listen to if you need energy or
want to get tired. Figure out which you need and apply. You can't help the crunch­
ing desire to pogo when you hear them. What the honk does this have to do with
toys? Musicians like toys too. Let's see what these four punks think about them.
1. What do you think of when you hear the word Godzilla?
Steve E. Nix: 3 things: 1) The impending doom which willsurely befall
our current
megalomaniacal civilization. 2) P.C.P. and 3) I've got two Godzillas. One on a but­
ton on my jacket and another larger one on top of the refrigerator like guarding
the fruit.
Fzckin' fruit.
DANIEL J. TRAVANTI: Would it be wrong if I said, Godzilla? Isthis
atrick
quest­
ion? This interview so far is awfully hard.
Lance: The weird sex
tales of Raymond
Burr.
W F
2 . Favorite Godzilla
movie?
DJT: I'm a huge Ray­
mond Burr fan so I'd
have to say the
first one. Oh wait,
that's Raymond Burr
that's huge. I'll
say Godzilla Vs.
Monster Zero!
Steve E.:Am I lame
if I say Godzilla Vs
Bambi? Well, Bambi's
lame. Lame lame lame.
Lance: Yes, that
Bambi one is nice.
3. What the fzXk do
you think Mathew
Broderick was think­
ing when he agreed
to do the Godzilla
Movie?
DJT: Teen Wolf.
CHRIS: The same
thing he was think­
ing when he agreed
to do project X.
Steve E . : He was
thinking, "I wish to God that I had met Donovan when I had a chance to. Talk about
totally fziking screwing up an opportunity of a lifetime. I'm glad that I don't
think I'm b i ."
4. Micronaut experiences?
DJT: I bought every one I could from the local Woolworths and the ones I couldn't
afford, I'd take from my friends. Jim Quandell, if you're out there, I want my
Hornetroid back.
Lance: I used to cut them up into little pieces.
~
Oh, m y a c h i n g
5 . Favorite Micronauts?
_
H o rn e tro id !
Lance: The ones that didn't mind being cut up.
DJT: anything with a glow in the dark brain.
6. If Darth Vader and Baron Karza were drinkin' buddies, who'd be last standing?
48
DJT: my Baron Karza always fell over, so I guess I'd saythat Darth guy.
CHRIS:
Don't under estimate the Dark side of the force.
Steve E.: Darth Vader because he is an alcoholic. He'd be the last one standing,
he'd eat those pickled eggs, Slim Jims(tm)and other shht they have on the bar.
He'd forget all about the force and talk gibberish.
Lance: One time I tried to drink 30 beers while wearing the Darth Vader mask.
I woke up in a puddle of urine under the bridge.
■""’r
7. If Johnny Soko and Harry Potter were
to rumble, who'd win?
I
DJT: "Harry Potter", isn't that a porno? Go Johnny Go!
K I R 9 K 1
CHRIS: I hope Johnny Soko kicks Harry Potter's ass.
I hate that
Steve E.: I would like to think Johnny Soko, but I haven't seen
BMP
Potter's movie yet, so I can't really give an informed answer.
I've read in the papers that he's into black magic and that can
H
ke some pretty powerful stuff.
Lance: Harry is a big wimp, Johnny
"Giant Robo, smash hands down
8 . Superman or Ultraman?
Potter's glasses!"
Daniel: Hands down it's Ultraman.
CHRIS: Superman.
Lance R: Ultraman.
Steve E.: Superman or Ultraman what?
What? I feel kind of in the dark here.
It's dark and goddamn cold!
Mmm.. . T r i x i e
A rare Ultraman with
9. Spridal and Chim Chim were my first imaginary friends
Charles
Nelson Reilly
and Trixie was probably my first woody. How about you?
grimace doll.
CHRIS: Mr.Rogers, Super Grover, Punky Brewster. You figure
out which is which.
Lance: I remember my first woody, didn't know what to do with it, so I beat it up.
10. Anybody ever into the Shogun Warriors toys? Shooting fists are pretty sweet.
DJT: I Still have 4 of them. I'm caressing my Great Mazinga right now.
CHRIS: I couldn't afford them. I could only view them from across the counter or
behind glass. The closest I got were Go-Bots.
Steve E . : Yeah, I liked those.
I didn't have one but I had a friend who had all
of the killer toys.
We'd mix 'em up and put the Shogun Warriors in the Star Trek
transporter and have them appear on planets where they would take on the Space 1999
crew. Commander Konig would get taken as a slave.
Lance: I shot my fist all over the place.
1 1 . Are toy collectors nerdier than D+D Dungeon masters? Who gets more play?
DJT: The D+D guys in hindsight kinda' scare me, like allot. I'd say the toy coll­
ectors get more action, 'specially the sex toy collectors.
Steve E . : At least toy collectors seem to be able to lead a sort of double life.
The D+D guys you can spot in a second. They always walk around in trenchcoats and
those wide-brim leather hats and ponytails and boots.
I say toy collectors get
allot more play.
12. What the Newcastle were you thinking when you wrote the lyrics to Raccoon?
Steve E . : I'm glad you like it. The truth is I was thinking about being a raccoon.
It was a quickie.
It fell together real fast.
13. I like beer.
DJT: Yes, me too.
CHRIS: I like kool aid.
Steve E . : That's very sweet. I like deer too!
Lance: Well, that's nice.
So now that y o u 've learned a bit about these creeps, you
can go see and hear them at www.thebriefs.com. Go otaku go!
49
| D E N J IN -Z A B O G A GO! |
mil
i
BY: C H A D H E N S L E Y
M any co n sid e r the 1970s to be the golden age o f Japanese
Science Fiction film , te le v is io n , and com ics. During th is tim e
period, Tokusatsu (Japanese fo r "special ph otog rap hy") movies
and TV shows, anim a, and manga thrive d, producing some o f the
m ost m e m o rab le live-actio n and cartoon heroes in Japanese
histo ry. One hero fro m the hey-day o f th is decade is Denjin
Zaboga, a live-action tele visio n series tha t firs t aired in Japan on
A pril 6, 1974.
Denjin Zaboga was produced by the same team tha t created The
Space G iants (aka M agm a Taishi) and S pectrem an. Roughly
translated, "d e n jin " m eans electric-m an; Zaboga being a hum an­
sized rob ot.T h e tele visio n series centered on Interpol agentYutaka
Daim on w ho returns to Japan o n ly to discover that his father has
been m urdered by the Sigm a Gang crim e organization because of
the fo rm u la fo r "D a im o n iu m "- a substance created by Professor
D aim on. In the fir s t episode, Yutaka is b ru ta lly killed as he
con fro nts the evil Doctor Akunom iya, a half-m an, half-cyborg mad
scientist, and his d iab olical ro b o t cohorts. However, Professor
Daim on has im planted a fail-safe m echanism inside the heart of
his son and m ira culo usly revives Yutaka. Yutaka soon discovers an
"electro-spark sw itch " in the shape of a pronged key that plugs into
the back o f his electronic brother, the robot Denjin Zaboga, and
activates his m echanical h e a rt- a device very sim ila r to the one
im p lan ted in Yutuka! Yutaka can com m and the actions o f Zaboga,
includ in g the tra n sfo rm a tio n o f the rob ot into a m otorcycle that he
can ride.
Denjin Zaboga lasted fo r fifty -tw o episodes. The firs t thirty-nine
are fille d w ith plenty o f kung-fu action and bizarre battle scenes as
Yutaka and his rob ot b ro th er seek revenge fo r th e ir father's death.
W hile Dr. Akunom iya uses his ab ilities to create an arm y o f cyborg
beasts and m onstrous robots in his efforts to destroy them . The
last thirtee n episodes of the series shift plot dra m atica lly and
appear to be un po pu lar w ith fans as a result o f the unbelievable
story line and dow n-scaled costumes. In these episodes, Yutaka
and his ro b o t b ro th e r fin d them selves in a battle against the
D inosaur A r m y - an em pire o f croco dile-like men ruled by an
enorm ous, three-headed, cyborg dinosaur. In the final show, the
three-headed d in o sa u r and Zaboga de stro y each o th e r in a
spectacular battle to the death.
Soon after D enjin Zaboga aired on Japanese te le visio n , to y
com p an ies unleashed a slew of character to ys fro m the TV
program I Takara made a carded Denjin Zaboga costum e fo r their
Henshin Cyborg o u tfit series. Popy die-cast collectors are sure to
appreciate a five-inch die-cast Zaboga created fo r Grip's Jum bo
series line. The fig u re is very shogun warrior-like, especially the
design o f the rob ot's lo w e r body. The toy's rig h t hand is
detachable (called the "C hain Punch" in the te le visio n show),
connected to the arm by a length o f chain.The die-cast can also be
converted in to a clu nky version o f Zaboga's m otorcycle form and
a co m p a rtm e n t on the rob ot's back houses a ho m in g plane
(though in the tele visio n series the hom ing device is a m iniature
he lico pter and is housed inside Zaboga's head!). However, the diecast fig u re does not shoot anything which may have effected the
toy's overall appeal at tha t tim e.
The to y com pany Bullm ark produced some tw o dozen or so threeinch to five-inch vin yl figu res from Denjin Zaboga, including at
least tw elve enemies. The five-inch figu res came bagged w ith a
header card. However, Bullm ark also released tw o bubble-carded
sets each con tain ing fo u r four-inch vin yl figu res (Zaboga and three
v illa in s ) and a set o f fo u r three-inch vin yls th a t came w ith a
m in iatu re vin yl o f theTokyoT ow er in a clear vinyl bag.
50
.
One o f the five-inch vin yls made by B ullm ark is o f Dr. Akunom iya's Golden
R obot c re a tio n - a yo u n g w o m a n w ith M a rtia n -like antennae w h o can
transfo rm in to a fierce gold plated robot. A n o th e r vin yl bad guy is a strange
bluish green, insect-looking rob ot called Arizaira. As fo r five inch good guys,
B u llm a rk made a Zaboga in m o to rcycle fo rm , Yutaka rid in g Zaboga in
m o to rcycle fo rm (called "M a ch in e Z a b o g a "), Yutaka rid in g special attack
m otorcycle, one ofYutaka's allies on a m otorcycle, and at least tw o versions o f
Zaboga him self.
B ullm ark also released several ta lle r vin yls includ in g a standard sized Zaboga
and a bulky, but sm aller, m issile -firin g Zaboga th a t came in a w in d o w box.
Perhaps, Bullm ark's m ost in ge nio us Zaboga is a tw elve inch vinyl and plastic
version w ith alm ost all o f the same ab ilities as his tele visio n counterpart! The
top o f the robot's head rotates back to expose a helicopter. The chest opens to
tra n sfo rm Zaboga in to m otorcycle m ode. S im ila r to the G rip Jum bo, the
robot's left hand is attached to a chain, w h ile his rig h t hand is rem ovable. Each
knee o f the rob ot shoots a m issile and a door on the top o f each fo o t opens to
reveal one half o f a m in iatu re car. In the last fe w years, m odern Japanese toy
com panies p a rticip ating in a nostalgic retro-style to y boom have released
several Zaboga toys.Takara made a new Denjin Zaboga o u tfit fo r th e ir Henshin
Cyborg 99 series. Yujin has released tw o Zaboga gashapon sets. Last year, UniFive produced a die-cast "M a chin e Z aboga" w ith Yutaka rid in g him . This
sum m er, B-Club fin a lly got in to the act w ith a re-release o f the standard-sized
B ullm ark Zaboga vinyl. Yet, despite the renewed interest in the transfo rm ing
robot, Denjin Zaboga rem ains on ly m a rg in a lly popular outside o f Japan. •
S p s iS
This page: top left: 5" Zaboga and kaiju. top right: 5" and 4.5" kaiju. middle: Henshin
Cyborg 99 figure with Denjin Zaboga suit, bottom left: Two different 3" kaiju and
Tokyo tower from bagged set. bottom right: Four different motorcycle figures.
Opposite page: top: 12" Denjin Zaboga vinyl by Bullmark. bottom (left to right): Grip
Jumbo die-cast figure, unif-five die-cast Machine Zaboga, and a Yujin Gashapon set.
51
| N IT T O A N D G A M E R A |
BY: M A R K S U G G S
T he A r t o f Id e a: T h e H is to r y o f G a m e ra a n d N itt o K a g a k u K yo za i
T he B e g in n in g o f an Era
In 1964, the Japanese m ovie in d u stry was in troub le . M ore and
m ore Japanese were staying hom e w ith th e ir TV sets, in lieu o f
going to the m ovies. The "G olden A ge " o f the Toho series was
about at the end. M arusan made its firs t Godzilla vinyl. These
events w o uld , a b rief tim e later converge in to the greatest epoch
o f sofubi history, the firs t kaiju boom . It was th is year th a t plastics
m anufacturer N itto Kagaku Kyozai (N itto ScienceTeaching M aterial
Co. Ltd.) w o u ld com e in to being. N itto m ade e ve ryth in g from
telescopes to m otorized fans to m odel kits, in an era w here
d ive rsity m eant staying in business.
Nitto's beginnings w ere in the h ig h ly com p etitvie plastic m odel kit
industry in Japan. During th is era, the m ost po pu lar m odel kits
were W WII them e kits, such as troops, tanks, aircraft and ships. In
fact, N itto's firs t m odel kit line was called "C o m b a t 7 " w hich
featured seven diffe re nt soldiers, along w ith guns and equipm ent
that w o u ld need assem bly and paint. These kits were not very
realistic, in fact the y seemed to be m ore to y like w hich you w ill
see as a reoccuring them e in the N itto product lines. N itto w o uld
begin m aking everything th a t everyone else at the tim e was doing
such as cars, speed boats, pistols. A nyth ing th a t could be a model
was a model.
In 1965 Daiei M otio n Picture Company, Ltd. released "D ai Kaiju
G am era" G hidrah revitalized Toho's stale Godzilla franchise. The
postw ar econom y of Japan was about to reach its zenith and TBS
began to broadcast "U ltra Q" which w ould change everything, forever.
52
Marusan, w h o started the vinyl kaiju toy, w o u ld rise to the top of
the rest, w ith its alm ost exclusive "U ltra Q " license. Pi Productions
produced Space Giants in color.The firs t kaiju boom was ready to
e xp lo d e ! But the real cata lyst w o u ld com e fro m Tsubaraya
productions, w hen it decided to change the form ula of "U ltra Q"
to "U ltra m a n "!
T he G re a t C h ris tm a s S h o p p in g W a r o f 1966
By 1966, everybody was ju m p in g on the kaiju bandwagon. There
was no end to the toys, both cheap and expensive th a t were being
produced. Ultra Q, U ltram an and Godzilla toys were flyin g o ff the
shelves by m id year. N itto had been fa irly qu ie t th ro u g h this
period, perhaps not having the m oney or facilities fo r a lucrative
Toho orT sub ara ya license. But N itto had been in com m unication
w ith Daiei ab ou t its new franchise, Gamera. "G am era vs. B arugon"
was released in Novem ber 1966, ju st in tim e fo r the Christmas
shopping season. N itto released its firs t three Gamera kits this
year, the Rem ocon G am era, a large battery pow ered rem ote
con tro l m odel toy, and w in d -u p Gamera and Barugon model kits.
N itto wanted its peice o f the vin yl m arket, and w o uld release its
ow n Gamera and Barugon vin yls in tim e fo r Christm as. Nitto
m olde d Barugon in an u p rig h t p o sitio n , like its m odel kit
c o u n te rp a rt. Daiei's o p in io n o f the Gam era and Barugon
prototypes (which w o u ld later becom e G amaron and W anigon),
was th a t the m onsters should be able to face each other. They felt
kids w o u ld m ore rea dily accept them th a t way. So the vinyls
fo llo w e d suit.
Dai K a iju S to ry
1967 w ill be rem em bered fo r being the apex o f the firs t Kaiju
boom. It was really the only tim e "e ve ryb o d y" trie d to get in on
the action. S pecifically Nikkatsu (Dai Kyouju Gappa, w hich N itto
w ould add to its series o f sofubi and m odel kits) and Shochiku
(Uchu Dai Kaiju Girara), w ho to th is tim e had not made any giant
m onster film s. The Godzilla series really too k a series o f w ro ng
tu rn s after "M o n s te r Z ero" w ith "Sea M o n s te r" and "S o n o f
G od zilla " but it d id n 't m atter because kaijus w ere the hot
com m o dity. Daiei released w h a t w o u ld be its m ost po p u la r
Gamera film , "G am era vs G yaos" but was also was firs t in a new
interesting sub-genre that was getting a lo t o f attention, ghost
stories. The m anga tu rn e d cartoon "G e Ge Ge K ita ro " was
p ro ba bly the on ly real resistance to kaiju pro du ct. N itto was
already produ cing m odel to ys fro m "G e G e.." so Daiei again
turned to N itto to create its "100 M on ste rs" series o f toys and
models, based on the Daiei film series. The 100 M onsters sofubi's
were Nitto's fine st w o rk in the m edium . I m aintain th a t they were
the firs t true "re a lis tic " sofubi, acknow ledging th a t kids wanted
som ething that closely or very closely resem bled the character.
1968 throu gh 1970 were a dark period fo r N itto in concern to
Gamera. Marusan, w h o had conquered every other kaiju licence it
seemed, had taken over Gamera too, and produced three sm aller
sized vinyl toys of Gamera, Gyaos and Viras. N itto did keep its
rights to make a Gyaos m odel kit though. The last Gamera film o f
the 1960's, "G am era vs. G uiro n" w o u ld not have any sofubi or
model m erchandising at all. At the close o f the sixties, there had
been three Ultra series, nine Godzilla m ovies, fiv e Gamera m ovies.
and num erous oth er superhero series.The second kaiju boom was
about to begin. Its catalyst w o u ld once again be Ultram an w ith
help from Kamen Rider.
T he N itto D ecade
Marusan fo r the m ost part w e n t out o f business in 1969, leaving
its licenses to Bullm ark. During this tra n sitio n , tw o thin gs occured.
N itto was able to get its Gamera license back and Tsubaraya
decided not to give all of its licenses to Bullm ark. Changes were
happening at N itto as w ell. It shed its "e du cation al" com ponent,
changed its logo and focused d ire c tly on its to y and m odel
divisio ns. Between January and Ju ly o f 1970, Nitto launched its
single greatest to y assult on to y shelves w ith its "U ltra Kaiju
S eries" vin yls. I am guessing it was close to when Daiei released
"G am era vs. Ja ig e r'' There were fo u r types in three sizes Standard,
M edium , M ini and Pendant. The standard size w o u ld eventually
include Gamera and every adversary, plus a new Gappa.
—^
Opposite page: Shigeru Komatsuzaki artwork for the Gappa M odel Kit.
This page: top row, left to right:
Standard and m ini Jaiger, Standard Gamera vinyl, Standard Jaiger vinyl.
This page: bottom row, le t to right:
M edium Barugon vinyl, Standard Gappa vinyl, Jaiger battles Gamera,
Standard Barugon vinyl.
53
| N IT T O A N D G A M E R A |
The M edium size skipped Barugon, Viras and Jaiger, but included
Gappa. The m ini size skipped Viras, but it was made as a Pendant
toy. The Pendant toys w ere the same as m inis, except they were
m olded w ith an eyelet where a chain could be threaded through.
The pendant toys are alm ost always butchered, w here the eyelet
was cut off. So fin d in g one w ith the eyelet is difficu lt. N itto did
brand new m olds fo r Gamera, Barugon and Gappa, to make them
m ore in scale w ith the new series, w h ich was im p e rc e p tib ly
sm aller than the firs t run.
In 1971, Nitto added the last Gamera sofubi adversary, Zigra, from
"G am era vs. Zigra'.' Zigra was made as a Standard, M edium and
M ini figure. S hortly after, Daiei was forced to declare bankruptcy.
By this tim e however, N itto had over 100 diffe re nt Gamera and
Gappa toys and m odel kits. The m odel kit side o f business was
very busy, m aking a w h o le new series o f Gamera kits. N itto also
added "R eturn o f U ltra m a n '; "M irro rm a n " and "S ilv e r M ask"
m odel kits to its line up. The vin yls w o u ld be sold fo r a fe w more
years until they were all sold.
1975 saw the last Godzilla m ovie "Terror o f Mecha G odzilla" and a
m ajor wain in kaiju popularity. A nim ated Robot show s were the
big th in g , as w e ll as Kamen Rider. U ltram an Leo was the low est
rated Ultra show ever, and marked the end o f Ultra's ten year
dom inance o f Japan's young male population. A new com pany
was born out o f the Japanese conglom erate firm Bandai, called
Popy, which specialized in character toys fro m both live action and
anim ated shows. B u llm a rk's passing was tie d d ire c tly to live
action kaiju shows, as they disappeared, so did Bullm ark, closing
its doors in 1976.
1975 was diffe re nt fo r Nitto. It w a sn't doing sofubi, but was still a
big player in the model kit business. It did see its m arket share
dim inished however, by Bandai w ho m ade m ore realistic looking
models, and had the valuableTsubaraya and Kamen Rider licenses.
So N itto decided to rem old its Gamera, Gappa and Gyaos w in d -u p
walking m odel kits and freshen the w h ole series up. They bro ug ht
in Shigeru Komatsuzaki, one o f the m ost fam ous post w ar pop
artists in Japan to do the box illu stra tio n s fo r the W alking and
Running series Gam era m odel kits. It should be noted th a t
Komatsuzaki-san had done other illu stra tio n s fo r N itto p rio r to
1975, such as the M irro rm an series and ju s t about every m ilita ry
model kit N itto produced. Barugon was m issing fro m th is rerelease, instead being replaced by its p ro to ty p e , W anigo n!
G o d z illa c o n tin u e d ...
So far, we have seen tw o instances o f tail E, and they have both
been on Bullm ark figu res th a t are covered in lots o f silver spray.
Tail E is alm ost identical to tail D, but is noticeably diffe re nt when
com pared to tail D.Tail E, has seven segm ents, and alm ost exactly
the same patterning, but the gap around the seventh segm ent line
is much thinner, and there are few e r detail lines, w ith a diffe re nt
pattern on the last segm ent.T his is m ost obvious if you look at the
long lines running the length o f the final segm ent on tail D, w h ile
there are shorter, broken up lines on tail E. O verall, the linew ork is
different on the entire back po rtion o f tail, but is based on the
same earlier tail version, so both tails are still sim ilar.
Is this really a big enough difference to matter? Well, a diffe re nt
tail, means there has to be a diffe re nt m old, so som eone made an
intentional change to the tail. You be the judge from there.
■
54
I
I suspect N itto did this fo r a couple o f reasons, nam ely W anigon
looked like Barugon and N itto did not have to pay royalties fo r it.
By 1977, Japan begun to show th a t it missed its kaiju. This was
reflected in Popy's creation o f the King Saurus series o f sofubi.
They w e re sm a lle r than standard vin yls o f past, but sold fo r
around the same price (380 yen) and were m ore detailed and
rea listic. Once again the co rn e rsto n e was Tsubaraya's Ultra
franchise and to a lesser degreeToho's Godzilla. So in 1978, Nitto
gave us its last Gamera series sofubi, the Nitto Kawada series. So
called since N itto o n ly m an ufacture d the toys and Kawada
d istribu te d them . N itto had probably long lost its own d istribu tion
netw ork fo r toys. These days, Kawada is known fo r its Daiablocks,
which are sim ila r to Legos.The N itto Kawadas were by far the best
designed vin yl Gamera toys, and were about the same size as the
Popy Kingsaurus series. They included Gamera, Barugon, Gyaos,
Gappa, T-Rex and a B rontosaurus. I d o n 't th in k these were
produced in any great num bers. I have read that they were lim ited
to one particular chain o f departm ent stores, but cannot deny or
con firm that. N itto re-issued its m odel kit line again to support this
vin yl series, along w ith its dinosaur m odel kits.
I believe th a t the N itto Kawada series had a lo t to do w ith Daiei
producing "Space M onster G am era" in 1980. Gamera's popularity
had com e fu ll circle, and th is m ovie, as bad as it was, certainly
helped. It also gave N itto another excuse to re-issue its Gamera
m odel kit series one m ore tim e. It was w h a t I call, the last
unsponsored release o f these model kits.
S a yo n a ra N itto K a gaku Kyozai
A ll good th in g s com e to an end it seems, and N itto w o uld be no
exception. The mid-1980's saw the last N itto issue o f its Gamera
model kits, in conjunction w ith Uchusen Quarterly. Nitto did not
go out o f business, it ju st left the model kit business, that is until a
fe w years ago to re-issue its M achinen Krieger model kit line.
S ofu bi p ro d u ce r A m a p ro m ade m y fa v o rite hom age to Nitto,
sofu bi figu res o f W anigon and Gamaron. They even produced a
five m inute m ovie called W anigon vs. Gamaraon. It was a draw.
So th a t is a b rie f history o f Nitto. It could be said that Gamera and
N itto helped each other stand the test o f tim e. It still rem ains one
o f the greatest synergies between character franchise and m anu­
facturin g com pany to date.
Ill
A R T BY; C O O P |
Coop is a d e vil-g irl draw ing, lead-sled d rivin g ,
fez wearing, kaiju collecting, goateed spawn o f
all th in g s w ro n g . His illu s tra tio n s have
appeared in just about every conceivable nook
and cranny o f Am erican pop-culture, especially
the ones th a t have not been cleaned lately. His
w ork was ju st collected into the book "The Art
o f Coop: Devil's A dvocate" by A pe rie nt Press,
and can be bought at both better and lesser
bookstores nationw ide.
w w w .coopstuff.com
G oro, G reenm ons G aram on and Ragon are ©2001 Tsubaraya Productions, Co. Ltd.
55
| A R T BY: M A R T IN O N T IV E R O S
|
m artin *
M artin O ntiveros lives in Portland, Oregon, and grow ing up, had
little interest in anything but com ics, cartoons, m ovies, toys, and
dra w in g. S om ehow he has managed to channel these interests into
a som ew hat successful career in painting and illustratio n, including
the Ricky Ricotta's M ig h ty Robot children's book series. Martin's
w o rk w ill appear both in Portland's G allery Bink and the Sci-Fi
W estern group show at San Francisco's 111 M inna in January 2003.
56
A R T BY: T IM B IS K U P
Tim Biskup is a painter and an im a to r livin g in the sunny hills of
Los Angeles. His love fo r Japanese toys threatens to upset the
m in im a list balance in his pristine m id -centu ry hom e on a daily
basis, but he som ehow manages to keep it all in check. Tim ju st
recently returned from Japan w here he participated in a three
man gro u p sho w fe a tu rin g he avyw eig hts G ary Baseman and
M ark Ryden. Check him o u t at: w w w .tim b is k u p .c o m or
w w w .gam a-go.com
A ll art is © 20 0 2 T im Biskup. Radon/Rodan is © 2002Toho Int'l.
J ip p o is © 200 2Tsubaraya Prod., Co. Ltd. Helper is © 20 0 2 T im Biskup.
57
| A R T BY: B W A N A S P O O N S
Bwana Spoons is a fine artist and freelance illu stra to r from
P ortland, Or. Bwana is also the b ra in ch ild behind ANLFM
M oonshine, MFTM, Soft Sm ooth Brain, and a host o f other
crazy ideas. His new art magazine Pencil Fight should be out by
the tim e you read this. He also has m ore m icronauts than
anyone you have ever m et in yo u r life.
Ever.
Check it all out at: w w w .grasshutcorp.com
A ll art is © 2002 Bwana S poons. G odzilla and Gamera are © 2002Toho
In t'l. G aram on, Bernier, Booska and U ltram an are © 2002 Tsubaraya
Prod., Co. Ltd. Kuro is ©2002. Q uintapus is ©2002 Bwana Spoons.
58
A R T BY: N A R K N A G A TA & A L E X W A LD |
M ark Nagata is an illu s tra to r livin g in San francisco. He paints all
day, and then watches his son Max tear the lim bs o ff o f his
vin ta g e U ltra m an toys. M ore o f Mark's w o rk can be seen at
w w w .m arknagata.com
Alex W ald is an International Man o f M ystery and Toy-nut. Not
much else is known o f his secret w hereabouts. See if you can find
him at w w w .ultram o nster.com
M etron-S e ijin, Kem erjin and Booska are ©2001 Tsubaraya P roductions, Co. Ltd.
59
Rising fro m the depths o f the h u m id ity o f Houston, Tx.
Tim Brisko can photograph anything. Tim is an avid
die-cast rob ot collector, as w ell as a regular con tribu to r
toT oyb oxD X .com . How he does all th is from Houston
is a m ystery to us all.
See his w ork at: w w w .briskodesign.com
A ll ph o to s are © 20 0 2 T im Brisko.
60
A L L IE S O F T H E
R E V O L U T IO N
7 1 THE KIDS WILL HAVE THEIR SAY
' 1
DITCH WORK, GO SKATING
WWW.ALLIESOFTHEREVOLUTION.COM
R
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©2002
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