Nanairo Mask, Billiken Japan, 1990's(?)
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Feel The Magic, Hear The Roar...
About four months ago the North American toy collecting community awaited the first images of the BanDai Thundercats 'Classics' line with nervous trepidation. Bandai? Really?
After the enormous and unprecedented success of the Masters of the Universe Classics line over at Mattel, easily the best toy line currently in production hands down, collectors alike were salivating, imagining what Mattel and more specifically The Four Horsemen could do with everything from Blackstar to Sectaurs if they could get their hands on these licenses.
Thundercats holds a special place in the hearts of most who grew up in the Golden Age of toy collecting, the 1980's where toy aisles were stuffed with more product based cartoon and movie tie ins than any other decade previous or since. The Thundercats cartoon, was one of the longest running of this generation where it as not uncommon to many a show disappear within a few months, if it aired in your market at all and their battered unsold carded toy counterparts warm pegs for years. While the show, especially the infectious theme, action packed opening and iconic logo are revered, the toys were a different story. They were pretty disappointing to myself who was a tad older than their demo of 9-12 year olds, but even the kids that were targeted were left cold by their simplicity, lack of articulation and general pre schoolishness, it was as if they were made by Fisher Price. LJN did make improvements in subsequent waves, but it was too little too late and the line petered out and became a distant memory.Most collectors I know don't think too much of Bandai, in America at least. Sure they manufacture some of the most thorough, high quality, and complex line of Super Robot toys on the planet sold under the Soul of Chogokin moniker, they hold the master license and produce endless toys for the popular Ultraman and Kamen Rider properties not to mention a little something called Gundam, which is like the World of Warcraft of the hobby world. Known mostly for the omnipresent Power Rangers toys on this side of the world and the perplexing longevity and success of the Ben 10 family of toys, the collective toy buying populace let out a resounding 'Hunh?' when it was announced that Bandai acquired the license and would be producing toys based not only on a new, re-imagined cartoon but a 'classics' aimed squarely at older collectors.
Needless to say, we were all a little worried. Power Ranger toys while well designed and functional are extremely primitive even by today's standards. Bandai found a formula in the 80's that worked in Japan, imported it over here and with the exception of the Jungle Fury line and the Super Classics chase figures made very few tweaks over the years to innovate their base buck. The Super Classics for me were the first indication that they could do something right if they wanted to. Gone were the gigantic over sized feet, head and hands we were accustomed to, creating something they had never done before, a realistically proportioned action figure with nicely integrated joints and unprecedented costume details they were great collector pieces any discerning action figure fan could proudly display while still managing to be kid friendly toys, maybe, just maybe they could pull this off...And then just days before the New York Toy Fair, official images appeared online that answered collectors and fans prayers and it looks like we'll finally be getting the toys we've always wanted. A completely new buck, highly detailed, great accessories and most importantly in scale with MOTUC. The only small complaint I could make is that when compared to the Masters, they are a bit shiny, a Bandai NA constant, but hopefully that will be toned down a touch for release. But these look absolutely fantastic and I cannot wait to wander into a TRU and find these on the shelves. Bandai have not set an official release date other than 'late 2011'and have been rather hush hush concerning other figures in this line, but I'm sure fan enthusiasm and anticipation will translate into sales brisk enough to ensure a full Classics line for collectors.
Toy Fair Bandai Lion-O and Official Bandai Stock image, via Elkkthunder's Toy Room
Power Rangers image via LoganToys
LJN Lion-O via Figure Realm
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Real Action Hero 450 Red Go Ranger - Medicom 2000(?)
Name: Gorenger -1
Scale: ?
Manufacturer: Medicom/Time House
Year: 2000(?)
Materials: Plastic, Vinyl
Country of Origin: Japan
Price: $25 - $100 each
Acquired Via: Yahoo Japan
In the last post we highlighted the Red and Blue 1/6 Go Rangers from Medicom, to compliment that piece, I thought a quick review of the RAH 450 Red Ranger might be of interest. I actually purchased this piece thinking that it was merely a loose regular Medicom 1/6 figure, sold without a box. Anyone who has ever perused Rinkya and used their Translate feature knows what I mean, it's almost as difficult to understand the English the site spits out as it is to someone who cannot read Japanese. Anyway, I win it for next to nothing, a Buy It Now as I recall and when it arrived I was shocked to pull out an almost 20" figure from this unassuming brown box. I assumed it may have been a promo item, as it has almost not articulation save the head and some rotation of the gloves and boots, the gloves can be removed but the boots are stuck firmly in place. It does however have a cloth suit and cape along with a holster and removable pistol. If you are familiar with the early 1/6th RAH figures, picture a giant version of that crappy black body the uniform is on.
The costume features some really nice touches, like natural looking creases and weathering on the boots and gloves that looks just fantastic, as if the actor walked right off the set of the TV show. The cape can be removed via snaps, and unlike the 1/6 version is all cloth so no sticking or cracking. The holster is a nice faux leather and the chest features a vinyl 'V' that is well applied and pops nicely. The belt is also nicely detailed.
From attempting to decipher the broken English on Rinkya, it seems that they were mail order for Club Toei members which would explain that the only other ones I've ever seen commonly are all Kamen Riders, in fact JohnnyBoy has the Kamen V3 which we may cover in a future post. Among the others in this series, a few random Kamen Riders including the obscure but loved Amazon(!) and even as recent as the garish Kuuga. Other rare pieces include Kikaider, Hakaider and Space Sherrif Gavan(!), don't see these ones much and when you do they generally go for quite a bit more.
So great piece, not an action figure at all, but for those of you Jumbo lovers, these would look fine peppered among your Machinders and other larger pieces on your toy shelves. A cool affordable piece with alot of visual pop.
Scale: ?
Manufacturer: Medicom/Time House
Year: 2000(?)
Materials: Plastic, Vinyl
Country of Origin: Japan
Price: $25 - $100 each
Acquired Via: Yahoo Japan
In the last post we highlighted the Red and Blue 1/6 Go Rangers from Medicom, to compliment that piece, I thought a quick review of the RAH 450 Red Ranger might be of interest. I actually purchased this piece thinking that it was merely a loose regular Medicom 1/6 figure, sold without a box. Anyone who has ever perused Rinkya and used their Translate feature knows what I mean, it's almost as difficult to understand the English the site spits out as it is to someone who cannot read Japanese. Anyway, I win it for next to nothing, a Buy It Now as I recall and when it arrived I was shocked to pull out an almost 20" figure from this unassuming brown box. I assumed it may have been a promo item, as it has almost not articulation save the head and some rotation of the gloves and boots, the gloves can be removed but the boots are stuck firmly in place. It does however have a cloth suit and cape along with a holster and removable pistol. If you are familiar with the early 1/6th RAH figures, picture a giant version of that crappy black body the uniform is on.
The costume features some really nice touches, like natural looking creases and weathering on the boots and gloves that looks just fantastic, as if the actor walked right off the set of the TV show. The cape can be removed via snaps, and unlike the 1/6 version is all cloth so no sticking or cracking. The holster is a nice faux leather and the chest features a vinyl 'V' that is well applied and pops nicely. The belt is also nicely detailed.From attempting to decipher the broken English on Rinkya, it seems that they were mail order for Club Toei members which would explain that the only other ones I've ever seen commonly are all Kamen Riders, in fact JohnnyBoy has the Kamen V3 which we may cover in a future post. Among the others in this series, a few random Kamen Riders including the obscure but loved Amazon(!) and even as recent as the garish Kuuga. Other rare pieces include Kikaider, Hakaider and Space Sherrif Gavan(!), don't see these ones much and when you do they generally go for quite a bit more.
So great piece, not an action figure at all, but for those of you Jumbo lovers, these would look fine peppered among your Machinders and other larger pieces on your toy shelves. A cool affordable piece with alot of visual pop.
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