Japanese Ephemera from the 1950s-60s

In post-war Japan, along with the rebuilding of the country's economy and infrastructure, there was a steady growth in domestic consumption (which now makes up nearly 60% of GDP). Kids' culture rode this wave, with toys, magazines, and all sorts of other things being produced.

During the beginning of this growth phase, in the 1950-60s, discretionary spending was still modest in most households. Staples of kids' culture were weekly magazines (and their marvelous furoku), cheap toys from candy shops, menkos (small round or rectangular cards), and so on. This was before the boom in vinyl toys, and one of the main materials used for kids' goods was good old-fashioned paper.

These days, one sometimes comes across beautiful old ephemera with striking colors and subject matter. Some of it has survived half a century in marvelous condition. Here are some pieces I've come across.

Baseball Autograph Books/Scoring Cards

These little books have ballplayers on the cover. On the top, the Japanese says "sign books," so I guess they're for collecting autographs. On the inside, there are some blank pages (maybe for players' signatures), pages with baseball action images, and charts for keeping score. I like them for the cool illustrations and colors.

The backs have score cards and a place where you can write your name.

 More after the jump:

Vintage Discoveries #3: Henshin Ninja Arashi Mini Notebook Sets

I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, I loved little game books, activity sets with stickers and illustrations and all that fun stuff. Likewise in the 70s in Japan, there was all kinds of cool stationery, from pencil boxes to notebooks of every size to tape rolls, erasers, etc.

Today I came across two really cool Henshin Ninja Arashi mini notebook sets. They're a few inches by a few inches across, and they pack in all kinds of stuff.

Here's the first one:

These sets were made by Banso, an excellent company that made books, stationery, and toys.

Opens as a tri-fold with lots of nice illustrations

 More after the jump:

Vintage Discoveries #2: Condorman book + flexi disc

Condorman book + flexi disc set

In the late 1960s-early 1970s, records for children's movies, TV shows, and anime started to become popular in Japan. The good thing about vinyl records (like the one in my first Vintage Discoveries article) was they were well made. The bad news is they were expensive.

Enter flexi discs, the thin, clear plastic records that might be green, blue, or red. These were so cheap that you could pair them with a mini book and still sell them for less than the cost of a vinyl EP. In the late 60s, flexi discs were really thin and floppy, and they were easily damaged. These were known as "sonosheets." Asahi was one of the main companies in the field, and their Asahi Sonorama (朝日 ソノラマ) series included book + sonosheet sets for titles like Ultraman, Mighty Atom (Astro Boy), etc.

Asahi Sonorama Mighty Atom mini book + sonosheet set

sonosheet

Advances in music printing technology came quickly, and in the 1970s, a new series of Asahi book + recording sets was launched: the Sonorama Ace series. The full title is Sonorama Ace Puppy Series (ソノラマエースパピイシリーズ). Note the puppy in the top right corner of the very top pic.

In this series, the paper was thicker for the mini books, though the internal binding wasn't the best, leading to pages easily becoming separated.

Mini books were typically around 6-8 pages long. In this Condorman book, the lyrics to one of the flexi disc's songs are on the right-hand page, and a mini story (not recorded on the disc) starts on the left.

The new flexi discs in the Sonorama Ace series were thicker and sturdier than the discs from the 60s. Called "punch sheets," they were made from a clear red material.

Condorman "punch sheet" containing one song on each side.

It's worth noting that few people will know what a "punch sheet" is, so in Japan the general term used is "sonosheet" for all types of flexis.

More after the jump:

Vintage Discoveries #1: Thundermask Book + Record Set

Kidoverses are like lattices, with TV shows and cartoons leading to toys, clothes, books, and so on. The companies that make these goods often have multiple licenses, producing items within and across content types.  So you'll see a company like Popy making Barom 1 toys, Great Mazinger figures, and so on. They'll sometimes do crossovers, with multiple companies working together to put out a mixed media set. Then there are store exclusives, limited releases, boxed sets, and on and on. Find enough dots, and you see that everything's connected somehow.

With modern toys, it isn't too difficult to put the pieces together and see what came from where, when, and even how. Vintage toys present a much larger set of challenges, with less documentation and clear information. So when collecting 40-50 year-old items, you often become a detective trying to figure out how many figures are in a series, when they were released, etc.

One of the fun things about the 1970s Japanese kidoverse is the massive variety of things made for the children of the burgeoning middle class. You had some of that in the West as well. Then of course in the late 70s, Star Wars turned everything on its head, making soap and toothbrushes viable crossover candidates.

When toy shopping in Japan, you never know what you'll come across. So here's the first installment in what I'm calling Vintage Discoveries.

This is a Thundermask book + record set with some really cool features. It was put out by a company called San Kikaku.

Here's a look at the back of the set:

More after the jump:

Paper Board Dice Games

In my previous post, I talked about the possible origin of Chicken Fever. One of the sources I referred to was a paper board game played with a pair of dice. Here are a few more of these colorful, portable games which seem to have enjoyed some popularity in the 1970s. I'm not sure of the rules, but they're still fun to look at.

The above pic is of an Ultra Seven game. It's got a lot of action sequences and kaiju illustrations. Here are some closeups:

I guess you got points as you moved across the board. (?)

Maybe landing on 105 got you fried and you had to go back some spaces? I dunno. My guess is kids made up the rules, which is a lot more fun anyway!

 More after the jump:

The origin of Sin + Wombat's Chicken Fever?

 

Chicken Fever, a figure by Sin + Wombat, debuted in the early waves of indie sofubi toys, back in the mid-2000s. Not too many versions of the toy were released, but there were some nice ones, including collaborations with other toy makers like Cronic and Super7. One of the releases is shown above. (It isn't my pic, since I haven't got any of the figures on hand.)

Many indie toys can be traced to earlier characters, concepts, or designs from the 1960s-1970s. I believe I may have uncovered the origin of Chicken Fever, or at least the inspiration for the figure.

A short while ago, I came across this postcard-sized item, which I believe is from the 1970s. It's called a "Kaiju Siri E" which means "kaiju scratch illustration." The image is slightly raised, with a felt-like texture. Basically you put your blank sheet of paper over it, rub it with a pencil, and produce the image.

More after the jump:

New York Comic Con 2013: The Outer Space Men

One of the most interesting and unexpected booths at NYCC was for The Outer Space Men. The booth was part history, part sales, and all enthusiasm. It was staffed by Gary Schaeffer (a superfan who affectionately calls himself "The Money") and none other than Mel Birnkrant, the creator of the original toy line.

The sale case

The first series of the line was released by Colorforms in 1968. Featuring seven bendable intergalactic characters, they were meant to complement (and compete against) Mattel's popular bendable astronaut figure Major Matt Mason.

The Colorforms line was popular, selling hundreds of thousands of units. Immediately, a second series was designed and prepared for launch. However, it wasn't produced, due to a confluence of factors including shipping delays and, ultimately, widespread disappointment at the fact that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin found nothing but dust and rocks when landing on the moon in July, 1969.

The early 70s was not a good time for space toys in the USA, but I find it very interesting that on the other side of the world. the boom was far from over. The legendary Japanese toy company Takara went on to produce smash hits like Henshin Cyborg and the Microman line, both extremely creative series of toys. A number of Microman toys were later licensed to Mego in 1976, becoming the Micronauts. Then of course Star Wars came out in 1977 and space became hot again!

 More after the jump:

Vintage Tales: Barbie and Licca-chan: The Queens of Sofubi

As the story goes, sofubi manufacturing came to Japan after World War II, as one of the industries set up to help the country on the path of economic recovery. In addition to making toys for home grown properties like Godzilla, Japanese factories also provided the labor for international companies. That  included manufacturing what was to become the world's most famous doll: Barbie.

In the mid-20th century, American toy maker Mattel was a relatively new company, having been founded in 1945 - the same year WWII ended. At the end of the following decade, in 1959, Mattel released Barbie. Interestingly, the idea for the doll was conceived by Ruth Handler, the wife of Mattel's cofounder Elliot Handler. I'm not sure if she received a big check for her contribution, but she did later lead the company as its president. And she named the doll after her daughter Barbara.

So, Barbie was manufactured in Japan from 1959-1972 as a multi-part sofubi toy. The quality was exceptional. Here are pics of a couple of the early Barbie and Ken dolls:

 More after the jump: