Japanese Toys!

Some recent photos of a few of my Japanese toy collections.

Takara Henshin Cyborg and Denys Fisher (U.K.) Cyborg figures.

Henshin Cyborg costumes and figures.

More Henshin Cyborg, as well as Kaiyodo Assembleborg figures.

 Kamen Rider stuff, incld. Popy die-cast and vinyl as well as some cool Mego/Popy collaborations.

 Bandai die-cast Sentai figures.

Captain Action and Friends!

Here's my collection of the new Captain Action releases by Round 2/Forever Fun toys. These  are really well done figures and costumes. There were some issues with the Captain America shield, however (the small pegs used to hold the strap on easily break off), but overall, the level of craftmanship and attention to detail in the costume sets are fantastic.  Of course, as with the original Captain Action, you buy individual costume sets that you use to dress up your main Captain Action figure.

If you've only got one Captain Action figure, though, you can only have one hero (or villain) set up at a time. The solution? Buy more Captain Action figures!  There are some third party figures that people have been buying to use as the base figure, which are cheaper than buying a brand new Captain Action..that's something I'll have to look into as more costume sets are released.

So far, they've put out Captain America, Spider-Man, Thor and Loki. There's a regular Captain Action figure and an Arctic Adventurer version. There's also a Dr. Evil figure. All the figures (aside from the Arctic Adventurer Captain Action) and costumes come in regular and deluxe versions. The deluxe versions include extra accessories, and in the case of the figures, a retro style box, reproducing the artwork from the original Captain Action figures made my Ideal in the mid-late 1960's.  There's also a  variant edition of the Captain America outfit, with different cover art (a Joe Simon 1940's comic cover). Cap's shield in this one replicated the look from the early Timely comics, with an outer blue ring, as opposed to the more known red. His belt is also different (red as opposed to black). There are likely other variants that I'm not aware of. The deluxe versions of the costumes also come with parts to 'build-a-figure.' The first of these is a Hawkeye, and to complete him, you need to buy the first six deluxe sets. So far, as of January 2013, only four sets have been released.

The new figures are entirely new sculpts, yet are true in feel and look to the original versions- just updated with better poseability and more dynamic sculpting. The costumes as well, have a vintage feel to them, but are all brand new.

Next up in the line is Iron Man and Red Skull (pictured on the packages, but only as drawings). I've seen online a Batman and Superman set (still in pre-production) and there are likely more to come.

With having to buy the figure and the costume it does get to be expensive per fully clothed figure. The regular edition costume sets are generally available at most Toys R Us' or online at around $20-$22 each, while the figures retail for about $30. The deluxe versions are more expensive, usually in the $40 range for the outfits and $45-$50 for the figures. Some might be cheaper online, rather than at your local comic book shop. (although it's nice to shop and spend your money at your LCS!)

Overall, I'm very happy with these figures and look forward to the next set of releases.

Besides Captain Action, in this pic is also a standard 8" Mego Spider-Man, c. 1974, two of the 12" Mego Spider-Men from 1978 (one boxed and one loose), a vintage 14" Kenner Boba Fett and an Ideal Knight of Darkness (also boxed and a loose one). To the far right, peering over the shoulder of the new Dr. Evil is the Praying Mantis version, released in the mid 1990's. Those versions were repros of the original toys from the 1960's.

Hiding behind some of the figures, and pretty much out of view in this pic, is a boxed Sir Galahad from the Mego Knights line of the early 1970's. I also have a boxed King Arthur, not pictured here.

Too Much Horror Business

I highly recommend the great new book by Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett that showcases his incredible collection of horror movie posters, props, toys, and original art, including a bunch of Frazetta's and some super sweet model box art. There's info on all the entries, plus three very cool interviews with Kirk on the nature of his obsession with horror stuff, another on collecting and the last on his music. A hardback book, with over 200 pages of color glossy pages. A Must have!

Japanese Toy Shop Videos pt 1

During my last trip/toy excursion to Japan, in October, 2011, I filmed a number of the toy shops and stores that I went into. For the most part I used my Veho Muvi mini spy camera, a pretty neat little piece of equipment. I just snapped it onto the left hand arm strap off my backpack and hit record. No one knew any better.

A big shout out must go to the guys at Super 7 and their essential book 'Tokyo Underground (1 and 2)'...pretty much a must if you intend to find any of the more hard to find toy shops scattered around Tokyo.

Here are the first two videos, from Third Uncle/Characters in Koiwa and Toys Golden Age, in Akihabara.

I'll be adding more in the coming days and weeks. You can always check my YouTube channel (Kamenliter) for updates.

As the Super 7 book says, the prices at Third Uncle were pretty crazy, but to their defense, the toys they had were in great shape, in nice boxes..but still, many high prices. Since it was one of the last stops, money was dwindling, and the exorbitant prices didn't help matters, but I finally decided on a nice Kamen Rider Stronger Popy vinyl (w/ removable helmet) and a smaller Popy Red Baron vinyl. Even just those two items set me back 30,000 yen. That transaction is documented on the video.

I didn't record my purchases at Toys Golden Age, but for the record, I picked up a cool Henshin Cyborg style purple horned cyclops figure...don't know who he is, but it was only 2100 yen for the figure and costume.

All the photos below, btw,  are from Third Uncle/Characters.

Ray Harryhausen:Special Effects Exhibit at MOMA, NYC 1981

These photos were taken by my dad during the Summer of 1981, at an exhibit of Ray Harryhausen's stop motion figures and drawings (not pictured here, but which can be seen in his various books) at the Museum of Modern Art, in NYC. The show was entitled Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects and ran from May 28–September 1, 1981, coinciding with the Summer release of Clash of the Titans.

Dark Crystal Exhibit pics - c. 1982/83

I took these photos at an exhibit for The Dark Crystal, the great Jim Henson puppet film, at the Astoria Motion Picture Studios in 1982 or '83.

Robot 6 - Shelf Porn and Figure.Fm Toy Pics!

I've been featured this week on Comic Book Resources weekly ode to people's stuff. It's 'Shelf Porn' - a section of the Robot 6 site. You can read a little about me there and see a bunch of pics from my collection. Here's the link:

Robot 6 - Shelf Porn

I'm also on the very cool Otaku site Figure.Fm. You can see some of my stuff there as well:

My Studio Room Shelves

My Basement Toy Shelves