Excellent Hedorah Sofubi Exhibit

I recently saw an excellent exhibit of Hedorah sofubi figures. Here are pics:

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Super rare vintage Bullmark Takkong kaiju spotted!

Takkong

One of the facts of life in Japan is most homes are small. There aren't cavernous attics or basements where boxes of childhood belongings can be kept after their play value is spent. So by and large, unless you're planning on auditioning for Extreme Hoarders, things like old toys get tossed. In fact, it actually costs money to dispose of large items like furniture and refrigerators. I'll go so far as to say that often before buying something, you think twice about how tough it will be to keep, store, and/or toss it!

Anyway, combine this fact of life with the size of the giant Takkong sofubi figure made by Bullmark in the early 1970s, and you have a recipe for a future rare toy. And rare it is. This Ultraman villain emerges so infrequently that the uber-veteran kaiju aficionado who has it says he has only seen TWO in recent decades.

Takkong appeared in the first two episodes of Return of Ultraman in April, 1971. That was the fourth series in the venerable franchise. Takkong battled another sea monster, Zazahn, who ultimately triumphed. On an interesting side note, a casualty of the Takkong vs. Zazahn battle was Hideki Go. The poor fellow met an untimely end, but he merged with Ultraman Jack (then called New Ultraman) to become the series' hero.

On the far side of side notes, isn't it interesting how macabre these shows were? Consider how many (Ultraman. Kamen Rider, etc.) involved bringing people back from the dead (often in rites laced with deeply religious overtones) to then become the reincarnated hero. I wonder what Joseph Campbell would have to say.

Another note about Takkong - the kaiju (like many others) was designed by Tsubaraya Pro maestro Iketani Senkatsu.

You might be waiting for the punchline - the price. The seller was asking 1,500,000 yen. Quite an ask, but if you just like the look of the figure and don't pine for the original, Bullmark issued a repro (in another color way) in the early 2000s.

And that's a look at Takkong, a rare beast indeed. A big thanks to JP for assisting with the info!

More rare Marusan kaiju

Beautiful shop display of vintage Marusan kaiju.

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Rare Marusan Kaiju

Rare figures in beautiful condition. On display in Nakano.

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Vintage Pachi (Bootleg) Kaiju Toys

Bootleg sofubi toys go back decades. It wasn't long after the release of blockbuster toys from Ultraman, Godzilla, and other properties that low cost. unlicensed figures appeared on the scene. These days, there are quite a few collectors who are after knockoff toys of yesteryear. There's a certain personality to bootleg toys that can be hard to put your finger on - you just know it when you see it!

Mandarake currently has a very nice display of some very early pachi kaiju toys. Some of them look like straight up dinosaurs. Others bear a pretty close resemblance to well known Japanese monsters. And one thing's for sure - they go for quite a bit more than they did back in the day!

Japanese Monster Movie Poster Trading Cards

I recently came across these cool trading cards featuring scaled-down versions of movie posters from some of Japan's most famous kaiju-themed films, like Godzilla vs. Hedorah and Godzilla vs. Mecha Godzilla. The cards, which are on good, heavy paper stock, were made in 1995 in Japan by Amada, a company that's been making paper-based items for quite a long time.

Here are pics of the cards I got:

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