Ultraman Goods Exhibit at Super Festival 69

Exhibit of various Ultraman goods at Super Festival 69, including toys, books, drawings, helmets, and more!

Banso pop up book

Plastic models

I wonder what the story behind these helmets is.

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Super Festival 69 スーパーフェスティバル 69

Welcome to Kaiju Korner's Super Festival 69 report. There were a large number of toy makers on hand with their latest sofubi, keshi gomu, and resin figures. Here are the images I shot, in alphabetical order.

Acro

 200+ images after the jump:

Kamen Rider Arcade Video Game Cards

In recent years, one of the hottest trends in arcade gaming has been card-based games. They've got machines for historic battle strategy games, anime/idol fashion games, and all sorts of other things. The other day at a bookshop I came across some beautiful Kamen Rider cards. At first I thought they were just trading cards, but today I stumbled on the game they go with.

Here's the Bandai arcade game I spotted in Kawasaki. There are three slots in the center where you place your cards.

Sample cards

It's a large set. Here are some of the heroes. I love the way KR and other Japanese series continue to include characters from previous series even decades after their shows end. It creates a cool sense of continuity, and you can see how the designs have changed over the years.

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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.

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