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:

On the inside, you've got slots to store your 10 yen coins. Back in 1972, you could get some nice candy and other goodies for 60 yen!

Here's the cover of the mini notebook that's tucked inside.

Each page has a light blue illustration on the bottom.

Right-hand side illustration

The back inside flap has a two-month calendar. May and June 1972 were actually two of the months Arashi was on TV, so you could schedule your Friday-night viewing (and not watch Ultraman Ace, which aired at the exact same time!)

Awesome sticker sheet.

Front and back of the set. There's Arashi's nemesis, Majin Sai, on the left.

Here's the second set:

This set also has Majin Sai and other villains on one side and Arashi on the other. Here, Majin Sai is doing his best Don Quijote pose.

This set is a bit larger than the first one and has a clasp to keep it shut.

This is really neat. The cover of the mini notebook is on the right. The notebook is bound to a full color illustration, which makes up the second half of the image (on the left). Great execution of an excellent idea.

Illustration on the bottom of each page on the left-hand side

Right-hand side illustration.

The back of the notebook is on the left. And again the image is completed on the right.

Awesome surprise I discovered when I got home. There was a fairly large pennant-shaped fold out sticker tucked into one of the pockets. :)

So that's a look at a couple of stationery goods from the early 70s. The ephemera from the period is vast and varied, and it's a lot of fun. Speaking of which, if you want to carry on further down this tokusatsu rabbit hole, here's an article I did in 2014 about an Arashi furoku.