Super Festival 66 - スーパーフェスティバル 66

 

Today's Super Festival saw quite a nice range of toys, including lots of familiar faces, new toy makers, and figures making their debut. Here's a rundown of the indie toy booths:

Billiken

Blobpus

 Around 130 pics after the jump:

Extremely rare vintage 12" Takara figures

Here's some real vintage lore. I wanted to put these up for general reference, as I've never even seen one of these boxed, and here is a large group. These are 12" tokusatsu figures by Takara, made in the early 70s.

Most of them are priced at $3,000-$4,000 each but are all unsold, so who knows if that's a realistic price. I guess when there are so few of them out there, whoever has them can make up the price.

With apologies in advance for the image quality. It was dark and raining.

Ultraman Ace. This is priced at a cool 1 million yen ($10,000).

 More after the jump:

More rare Marusan kaiju

Beautiful shop display of vintage Marusan kaiju.

 More after the jump:

Kamen Rider Big Picture Book 仮面ライダー大図鑑 (+ Ultraman + Super Sentai)

 

Sometimes the coolest things are the ones you spot by chance. Like the line from The Wire goes, you have to have "soft eyes" so you can spot what's out there. Well, technically, in the show a vet teacher was schooling the new cop turned teach about running a classroom....anyway I like the phrase.

On a random shelf scan, I spotted this excellent Kamen Rider book published by ポプラ社 -> Poplar. It's called the 仮面ライダー大図鑑 -> Kamen Rider Big Picture Book  The cover advertises it as an all-in-one guide to Kamen Rider, and from the pictures and content, it's hard to argue.

The book introduces the Kamen Riders + their villains, starting from 1-go.

Gorgeous photos of the heroes, villains, and bikes.

Stronger + baddies in Disco/Rocky/WWE/Come-hither poses.

 More after the jump:

Vintage Star Wars Morinaga Candy Premiums

After the first Star Wars film was released in Japan, Morinaga released a wide assortment of "candy premium" toys. You'd get one inside each Star Wars branded box of caramels.

Here are some of the cool goods that were released:

Medicom Store Pics

Be@rbrick Transformers!

Pics I recently shot at the Medicom Project 1/6 shop in Shibuya.

 More after the jump:

Epic vintage Godzilla movie poster and movie program display

Yesterday at Nakano Broadway I spotted one of the best assortments of vintage Godzilla posters, programs, and other movie materials I've ever seen for sale.

It looks like Mandarake was saving a bunch up to sell all together in honor of the big guy's 60th birthday. It's also probably no coincidence that we're in the middle of the Obon holiday season, during which stores are packed with shoppers.

Posters:

Some really rare posters for sale.

King Kong vs. Godzilla

 More after the jump:

Digital toy sculpting - the future is now

One of the pluses about SDCC is it lasts 4.5 days (including preview night), allowing attendees to take in quite a lot of the show. After checking out the big booths, attending panels, buying toys, and lining up for all of the above, you can still build in slack time for wandering the aisles. And this is where some of the best SDCC experiences can be had, especially if you take off your toy or art or comic or whatever "focus blinders" and take a chance to soak in something new.

One of my unexpected pleasures of SDCC 2014 was the Varner Studios booth, where I learned a lot about new trends in action figure sculpting. I even had a chance to try my hand at cutting edge toy design software.

The booth was populated by a knowledgeable and friendly crew who brought along an excellent assortment of their design work.

Most of the figures in the two cases were crafted the old-fashioned way - by hand. Varner clearly has a great relationship with Playmates, as the shelves were chock full of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles prototypes from yesteryear and today.

Also on hand were figures based on other properties including Disney characters, Star Trek, Austin Powers, The Simpsons, and so on. We'll continue after the jump with a gallery scroll through a number of these figures:

SDCC 2014: Bwana Spoons talks about the Suns of Brodarr toy line

My interview with Bwana at SDCC. He introduces the Suns of Brodarr line, shows a prototype of an upcoming figure, talks about contributing artists, and more. Good times.

SDCC 2014: Cosplay

Cosplay at this year's event. Click on each image to see its full size.

Famous cosplayer Yaya Han. There was a long line of people waiting to meet her. One guy was literally shaking after his visit. I guess cosplay is getting to be serious business!

 More after the jump:

SDCC 2014: Brian Flynn talks Aliens, ReAction, & Sofubi

My interview with Super7's Brian Flynn at SDCC.

SDCC 2014: Indie Toys

Welcome to Kaiju Korner's coverage of SDCC 2014. We start with the main event - a look at the indie toys released at the show.  As always, booths and organized alphabetically.

3D Retro

 175 pics after the jump:

Paul Kaiju: A Fistful of Dominoes Show

Figures released today at Guunzo in San Diego.

 More after the jump:

New from Secret Base

Pics I recently snapped at the shop.

 More after the jump:

Time Tunnel - Store Visit (Old location)

NOTE: THE SHOP HAS A NEW LOCATION.
ADDRESS: 1583 MERIDIAN AVE.San Jose, CA 95125 USA.
(The below post is being preserved for posterity.)

It’s nice to bounce back with some good news on the toy store front. Today I visited a venerable old shop (23 years old and counting) that is not only defiant and standing, but thriving. 

The shop is called Time Tunnel. This San Jose, California fixture has faced the tide of the Internet onslaught – which has helped lay waste to the Northern California vintage toy scene – and come out standing tall. Time Tunnel is proof positive that people like to look at things in person. During my brief visit, there was a constant stream of shoppers.

First, the store details:

Address: 532 South Bascom Ave. San Jose, CA 95128

Phone: 408-298-1709

Hours: Tues-Sat 12:00-6:00 PM (Closed Sundays and Mondays)

Website: www.timetunneltoys.com

Note: On the store's page, it says to call them before heading over to make sure they're open, since they do travel for events, inventory management, etc. 

Time Tunnel has the look and feel of a Japanese “showcase shop,” but what’s different is that unlike showcase shops, where people rent cases to sell their things, the stock in Time Tunnel is all Joe’s. The super friendly owner will happily chat about toys, records, magazines, or other pop culture goods.

The stock is vintage, mostly from the 70s-90s. It ranges from toys based on old American TV shows and movies to Japanese tokusatsu toys. Along with the Star Wars, Transformers, GI Joe, Power Rangers, and other goodies, there’s also a good selection of posters, paperwork, magazines, and records.

I had a great time checking out the shop, chatting with Joe, and picking up some cool tokusatsu paperwork. 

More store photos and info after the jump: