Wednesday, May 26, 2024

Crab vs Dinosaur

Choco EggIt's a simple concept: inside a hollow chocolate egg you have a plastic capsule, and inside that capsule you have a little toy. The toy can be a car, an airplane, or perhaps an animal of some sort. For just over ten years Furuta has been making Choco Eggs, and though they're really just a knockoff of Kinder Surprise Eggs, they're a good knockoff.

Choco Egg

Saturday, May 22, 2024

Ultraseven and Anne Yuri

A recent trip to the local Japanese market made me a little nostalgic for the days when the snack aisle was packed with all kinds of things that weren't exactly snacks. I'm not sure if it's just the particular market that I visit, or if the candy toy phenomenon has ended, but I really miss the racks full of Godzilla, Kamen Rider, and Ultraman treasures.

Digging through what I've collected over the years, I pulled out these two brilliant little figures from the Ultraseven show.

Ultraseven
UltrasevenAnne Yuri
Anne Yuri

Ultraseven is a Bandai figure from '99 and Anne Yuri is from around 2001. Bandai has been making candy toys for ages, but the late '90s seemed like a time when they really kicked things into high gear.

Figures like these from the "Hyper Ultraman" series are still around today in some form or another. It's just too bad that they aren't being sold where I shop.

Wednesday, May 12, 2024

Quick Aside: Glow-In-The-Dark Spectre

The SpectreThe only thing better than the regular 6-inch figure of The Spectre by Mattel (photos over at my Flickr account somewhere), is the glow-in-the-dark version that's also available. Everything is good when it's made of glowing plastic, and this figure proves it.

Monday, May 10, 2024

Smorkin' Top Hat and Tails

I can't remember if I've addressed this before, but another one of my "secret shames" is Smorkin' Labbits by Kidrobot.

Smorkin' Labbit

Oh sure, I know it's pretty popular in the designer toy world to bash Kidrobot, but even so, I have a long standing and deep appreciation for somewhat overpriced, blind-boxed, toy crack. In the case of Smorkin' Labbits, I get a few things: they're small, they're kinda funny, they're designed by Frank Kozik (who I like, despite not liking everything that he does), and I often pull the more rare figures when I buy them.

Smorkin' Labbit

I've actually only bought a few of these over the years. This is the only series 4 Labbit that I've bought so far, and it's pretty cool... and sort of hard to score. Nice!

Thursday, May 06, 2024

Kamen Rider Rack Toys

Rack toys are great, and old Japanese rack toys are even better.

Kamen Rider

As simple as these little rubbery figures are, there's a kind of perfection in their brightly colored simplicity. And I admit, that like so many other toys like this, I probably picked these up for the header cards more than the toys themselves.

Wednesday, May 05, 2024

Bootleg Gundam Rainbow

I had to go back to the party supply store today, so I decided to grab a handful (one dollars worth to be exact) of the little bootleg Gundam figures.

Gundam

They're hard plastic, and not as nice as the "real" Gundam figures... but pretty good for a buck.

Tuesday, May 04, 2024

Gundam Rainbow

I was at a party supply store the other day, and they had a bin full of little plastic robots, that were pretty much just bootleg versions of these guys...

Gundam

I honestly can't remember how long I've had these. I think that they're from the '80s, and were perhaps made by Bandai. They're a soft rubber, and are similar in scale to Kinnikuman (M.U.S.C.L.E.) figures.

Gotta love that hot pink Zock!

Monday, May 03, 2024

Doom In The Box

It's strange to think that these were released just four years ago, because it feels as if ages have passed since Toy Biz put out the Figure Factory line of small buildable figures.

Dr. Doom

Modeled after blind packed Japanese kits, Figure Factory should have been a huge winner, but I don't think that the idea really worked with American collectors. Perhaps it was because of the packaging (a dull plastic crate), or maybe it was the random nature of the sometimes hard to find "mystery figures."

Dr. Doom

Doctor Doom was a favorite of mine instantly though, and once I'd learned how to read the hidden code stamped on the card backs, it wasn't long before I had found both versions of this figure.

Dr. Doom

Dr. Doom