Mirrorman Exhibition at Super Festival 70

Super Festival 70's tokusatsu focus was Mirrorman, one of the early TV shows that inspired a massive variety of shows in the 1970s.

Yamanaya Mirrorman

The Mirrorman theme was apparent throughout the show, and there were a number of licensed exclusives from companies like Yamanaya.

Mr. Nobuyuki Ishida

There was also a talk show and signing session featuring the hero himself, Mr. Nobuyuki Ishida, who portrayed Kyotaro Kagami (the journalist who transformed into Mirrorman) in the 1971-1972 TV show.

On display, there was also a two-showcase extravaganza of vintage Mirrorman goods. Here's a look:

 More after the jump:

Nice variety of daily life items including a chopsticks case and box of pencils. In the 1970s. companies like Tsuburaya developed powerful licensing and marketing techniques, creating extensive ranges of branded lifestyle goods for their properties. Given how short the lifespan was for most tokusatsu shows (many ran for 6-9 months or less), it's impressive how many toys and other goods were put out for both major and minor shows.

Some nice Kitty Fire and other kaiju  toys

Plastic models

Beautiful tin toys

Mirrorman was one of the most bootlegged figures of its time. Here are a couple.

Show scripts

Pop up book

Lots of cool newspaper clippings in this collection

Along the back, those are book + sonosheet record sets made by Elm.

Some nice annotated paperwork showing some basic story boarding and show notes.

Space is so limited in most Japanese homes, you have to wonder if this is the first time these goods have been displayed together. I really appreciate Art Storm's effort to arrange exhibitions like this for Super Festival, as well as the collection owners' willingness to have their collections displayed, if only for a few hours on a cold winter's day.

Thanks for reading, and remember the magic words - Mirror Spark!