Toys I Have Known

This is me with a friend from my 2nd grade class at ASIJ (American School In Japan), at my family's apartment in Tokyo, in March 1975. On the floor you can see a bunch of my old Japanese toys, some of which I still have. The red robot in front of my friend is Robocon, a Popy die-cast figure from 1974. He was able to switch his legs for wheels, and you can see those off to the left. I still have that part, as well as the legs, but not the rest of him. Bandai did make an exact reissue of him, though, in 1999, and I've got that.

Check out the intro to his crazy TV show here:

Robocon Intro

Right next to Robocon is my Getta Robo base - I think the box for it is off to the right. I've still got that, as well, but I've only got one of the few small spaceships that you could shoot off the spring-loaded launch pad (and were stored in a secret compartment on the side) and maybe another piece or two. A few inches away is my Denzin Zaboga die-cast figure by Grip. I've still got him, but he's missing a few pieces, including his fist, at the end of a chain. I was able to find one in great shape, along with the box, on Ebay a number of years ago and you can see those pics below. Conspicuously absent is my Popy Kamen Rider Amazon figure, which you can see me holding, along with my Zaboga in the pics below. There's a few other items in this photo I haven't been able to identify, mainly the cars behind me and the boxes in the far background. I guess they could be for the stuff out in front of us. You'll also notice in this pic, my bangs cut rather short and unevenly. One day, my parents had left the apartment and I was left on my own. I guess my bangs were bugging me, and I picked up a small handheld mirror that came on a base, put it on the floor and found a pair of scissors and just started cutting away. I think this photo was taken after my father tried to even it out a bit more.

Here I am with my Kamen Rider Amazon and Denzin Zaboga figures, in March 1974. I think I had just had a chocolate bar before I took these pics.

The Kamen Rider suffered a broken leg, which at one point was Krazy Glued on, but I did wind up getting a nice condition one, with the original box on Ebay a number of years ago. Here we've got the box and figure for that one, along with my original one missing his leg, and a mini die-cast Gashapon version by Bandai from a few years ago. Here's the intro to his TV show:

Kamen Rider Amazon Intro

Here are the Ebay pickups along with my original Getta Robo base in the foreground.

These are pics of the Ebay Denzin Zaboga figure, made by Grip. It's a weighty die-cast figure. You can see in the pic above that you could add on wheels to the removable chest piece and make him into a motorcycle. His back compartment also opened up and you could store his handlebars in there. I've got a small die-cast version of Zaboga in motorcycle form as well. Check out the intro to an episode here:

Denzin Zaboga Intro

Micropainter and my Atari 800

Ahh, my good old Atari 800. How I loved it. Enough that I took a few pics to remember, probably sometime in 1981 or 1982. I loved the artwork and design of the video game boxes. Most of the packaging was totally unneccesary, as the cartridge the game came on, was a fraction of the size of the box. Other than that, just a booklet and the rest was empty space. But they looked great! The last I saw of my system was when it was given away to my Uncle Jack in Mississippi, dozens of games included. Not exactly sure what I was thinking then, but I surely wasn't expecting it to be a collectors item. Strange, even if it was sometime in the early 90's. I normally would have had a collectors mentality about it, and I'm sure I had a bit of feeling of sadness giving it up, but it was a gift for my cousins, who didn't have a video game system. I wonder if my Uncle still has it, considering he's a pack rack to an even greater extent than myself.

Micropainter was the first true computer graphics drawing program I ever used. Released in 1982, you could draw on the screen, in 21 colors, using the joystick. Over on my Drawing On My Youth blog, you can see a couple of the drawings I created with it. I still own the box and contents, aside from the actual game, though! I just took these pics of it for the blog.

The Amazing Spider-Man Issues 16-30

Continuing with scans of my Spider-Man comic collection, with all it's blemishes on full display. There are some nice copies in here and some pretty battered ones. That #17, for instance! I got that one from my friend Gary Rifkin, around 1977. It was a book that had just been lying around his house for years. I guess once I had it, I figured 'ok, I've got #17', and moved on to acquiring another issue I didn't have, never bothering to upgrade. Same with my #3, which is in pretty poor shape. Unfortunately, upgrading my copy of #3 now would be cost prohibitive, but a #17 upgrade I think will happen one day. My #19 is also kinda roughed up. I did have another copy at one time that I sold at a con in the early 90's, but I seem to remember it was in even worse shape!
Most of these were purchased at flea markets and comics shops in the late 70's and early 80's, but a few were Ebay purchases (#27 and #29), another bought from a guy I met on my bus, who was a former comic dealer (#25, which was actually an upgrade of a copy I subsequently sold on Ebay), and #28, which I traded for or bought, can't remember, at a con in the early 90's.

The Amazing Spider-Man-the first 15 issues

I would consider my Spider-Man comic collection one of the highlights of my overall collection; certainly in terms of monetary value, it trumps any other collections I have. Up to now, I've only posted the covers to my copies of issues #1 and #9, so, here, then are the other 13 issues within the first 15 issues of The Amazing Spider-Man. My full collection includes every issue up to around #315, with a good amount more of later issues as well.

All of these books - aside from #9, which was purchased on Ebay in the last few years - were all bought from dealers back in the late 70's and early 1980's. The #3, the copy in the worst condition (I could really use an upgrade!), I remember buying, for $15.00, at the end of the day at the Aqueduct Flea Market in Queens, where my parents had a spot, selling, literally, garbage. But it was good garbage! We'd drive around and collect people's trash, finding some amazing things that folks would throw away. You'd be surprised! I remember once we found about five large glad bags filled with toys. There was even the entire Mego Star Trek Enterprise, and once opened, a bunch of 8" action figures inside. Too bad I didn't keep that! But I digress. At the other end of the spectrum, condition wise, is the #14, the first appearence of the Green Goblin. I'd say my copy is around in 9.0, VF+ condition.

For completions sake for this post, I've reposted the covers to #1 and #9.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah and Holiday Wishes!

In time for the holidays, an update to this too neglected blog. Pulled from the archives, here are some pics of your humble writer, from Christmas, 1978 (making me eleven years, 3 months old and in the sixth grade when these pics were taken.)

Top to bottom:

1) Holding a Battlestar Galactica 12" Cylon Warrior (made by Mattel) and a copy of Amazing Spider-Man #5 (tough to tell with the glare, unfortunately). On the floor in front of me is the Micronauts Galactic Command Center and an orange Pharoid in his sarcophagus case.

2) Balancing Pharoid on top of the Galactic Command Center.

3) Holding a few other comics I received. They are: Fantastic Four 53 and 66, and Captain America 101 and 102.

Happy Holidays!

Toy Score of the Week

This past Friday, I took a lunch time walk with my friend, and fellow blogger, Rob, to the Toys R Us in Times Square. Within the last couple of months they've been having sales on the items they had in a series of glass display cases towards the back of the action figure area, up the ramp from the large mechanized T-Rex. These are mainly more high end items, the stuff you'd likely find at a comics specialty shop. They had the Corgi series of die-cast Marvel heroes, large scale Disney maquettes, Kotokubiya Star Wars kits and Master Replica Star Wars light sabers and such. A couple of months back I was there and was able to pick up the Corgi die-cast Colossus mini statue for just $29.99, which was a big discount from the original price of $89.99. Unfortunately, it was the last one, and they didn't have the box anymore, but that was just as well, as the box for that piece is huge, even if the figure is relatively small.

Anyway, this week, Rob and I had the good fortune to find that they were selling the Star Wars display cases that had been made for the Master Replica mini-lightsabers. These were originally selling for $29.99 (though you can find them online now for around $15.00 each) marked down to just $3.00! They had just three left, so Rob took one and I took the other two. They're perfect for displaying 3 3/4" Star Wars figures. I cleared away a shelf of books and replaced them with the two display cases and my Medicom 12" Stormtrooper. Pretty cool. I love a great deal!