Ronin round the Boards

 Backpacking isn't conducive to toy collecting unless it's tiny stuff.

I did manage to shove a gorgeous 1960's Pippi Longstocking jigsaw in my rucksack, a bargain at 3 Euro.

I wanted to get an old board game called Shogun but the Japanese Emperor was way too big.

The Missus recognized it immediately and played it a lot on the floor as a teenager.

I actually had it mixed up with another board game I used to find at car boots in Blighty called Samurai.

I remember it because it contained really neat plastic mini Samurai Warriors as the playing pieces. Better than those boring magnetic squares in Shogun 😂

Did you have either of these or any other Samurai collectables?

8 Wheel Mystery

I saw this on auction, an odd looking winged vehicle like a Thunderbirds transporter car welded to a formula 1 racer! 

Made in Japan. I can't read the Japanese script.

What do you think?!

Wonder Art Takani Style

Hello Moonbasers! 

I often read your comments and I'm tempted to answer off the top of my head without checking Mr Google for verification.

In a recent post I commented how the box art for Bandai's Robot Arm toy was by Yoshiyuki Takani while Mr Anonymous said it was Shoji Kawamori. Mr Google was no help at all so I went into my library and pulled out one of my favourite books. I noticed the price tag still on the back, but it was still one of the best A$106 purchases I've made!

Takani's style was loose and scratchy, but he was able to imbue even outlandish anime based scenes with a total reality.

Check out just a few of his greatest hits, I'm sure like me, you'll see images from your childhood!

Looey 

Oz Base

More Japanese Toy Catalogues

A trio of Japanese toy catalogues I found on the net.

Daishin.

Yonezawa.

Horikawa.

 See anything you like?

Monster X Projector

 I thought this was so darn cool.

A vintage Japanese projector set.

Looks neat and tidy. 

And the film appears to be Ghidorah! 

What a set! 

Japan Toy Association Safety Toy Logo

Hi,

This is something you often see on the side of Japanese toy and kit boxes – the ST J.T.A. marking. But what does it mean ?

Well, I finally decided it was time to find out. It turns out ST J.T.A. is the Safety Toy mark of the Japan Toy Association.

The Association was established in 1967 as a trade group, to promote the Japanese toy industry at home and overseas, encourage exports, and ensure toy safety. The Safety Mark was adopted in 1971, and assured consumers that the toys to which it was applied had been tested, and were considered safe.

Its presence can help when trying to date old toys and kits, as it only came in to use in 1971. In addition to toys, you see this mark a lot on Japanese kits.

The J.T.A. has a website, with a very useful guide to the Association and its history – in English. This is well worth a look.

https://www.toys.or.jp/pdf/jta_business_info_english.pdf

This is my Fujimi Chi-Ha Shinhoto medium tank kit in 1/76th scale. It has the ST J.T.A. Safety Toy logo on one side of the box.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Epoch waits for no Man!

After a recent natter with Woodsy, I realised I hadn't looked into the history of the Japanese toymaker, Epoch.

https://epoch.jp/global/en/company/toy-history.php

I knew they were mostly into games, and went heavily into electronic games in the 9

80's, but this timeline is a nice overview.

I had this Pokapon game, but mine might have been a bootleg!

This spaceship game is a corker!

https://vintagespacetoys.com/products/epoch-space-ship

A DragonBall Z sofubi figure...

and nowadays they seem most famous for Sylvanian Familes and Super Mario!

...and I suspect there's a lot more out there!

You got any Epoch? 

Looey

Oz Base

Teenage Karimata

 As a young teenager I was obsessed with Samurai weapons.

One of my faves were the Karimata or braid cutting arrows. 

Recent I saw this set of hangers in a DIY shop and it all came flooding back, how I used the Y shaped ones to make my own Karimata, shoving the screw end into a bamboo stick and inserting card fletches at the other end. 

With my massively long bow they flew perfectly. 

Here's a sketch gallery of arrows including Karimata.

And here are the real thing with their tangs, minus the arrow bodies.

It's hard to put into words just how passionately obsessed I was with samurai and all things Martial Arts back when I was around 12 or 13 in the early 1970's. They were such gloriously happy days.

Here's a very grainy pic I took back then on an instamatic of my Kung Fu cellar in our house. You can just about make out a couple of bows far left on the back wall and at least one whistling arrow, but sadly no Karimata.

We're you into samurai or martial arts?

Is Dizzy Bug a Koyo Turtle?

 In the late Sixties I was given a game at Christmas called Dizzy Bug by Joyment.. 

I recall it clearly, a sort of frantic tin bug arena in a large box. It was great fun.

Remember it?

The tin bugs were blue and pink domes with a small head a lot like a ladybird.

Underneath were two powerful pull-back windable wheels, which gave the bugs the juice to whizz round the arena and into a coloured slot. White slots didn't count I don't think.

Those bugs really did whizz and I've often wondered if Joyment came up with the whizzing tin bug design.

I now think they were originally Japanese by a company called Koyo, a logo with a capital K inside a kite as seen below.

These Koyo bugs had the same wheels.

The most common design was a turtle in various patterns. These turtles may well be the brand's signature design. 

Koyo also released a ladybird too.

I have seen other designs such as this bunny.

The same wheels are featured.

There may well be many more styles.

So, Is it possible that Joyment got hold of some Koyo turtles and  as a result thought up Dizzy Bug?

What do you think readers?

Clear Cut: A Transparent Space Car From Japan

This is unusual but then again it is Japanese, a transparent space car or motorbike.

I like the bit of the card art I can see.

What do you think readers?

There's a vintage transparent Ghost Rider bike that it recalls.

Now, Voyager!

When I was a little kid, I was fascinated by model displays in Museums... I always thought it would be the best job in the world. Sadly every time I've had the opportunity to produce something for a Museum display, I've always cone up hard against the fact I'm not as good a modelmaker as I fancy I am.

During my recent trip to Japan, I was in touch with my lifelong pal, Kerrie Dougherty. As BIG Gerry Anderson fans, we managed to leverage that interest into paid employment. I became a film miniature modelmaker and she was head of the Powerhouse Museum Space section. She has since gone on to the Australian Space Agency in Adelaide, but is still keen on displays for public education. A few years ago I made some large models of Australian Space hardware for her Adelaide displays.

Always keen for representations of Australian Space hardware, she asked me to look out for any kits in Japan. I managed to score two Japanese built satellites, an Explorer 1 rocket and a 1/48 scale kit of Voyager. Having enjoyed it's guest appearance in Star Trek The Motion Picture, I was looking forward to putting this kit together...

I have to say it is the fiddliest kit I have EVER made in my life and an expected romp turned into five excruciating hours of wresting with tiny girders and widgets. Amazingly, I didn't drop a single piece on the floor! ( the plasma detector array breaking off doesn't really count!) My hands didn't shake or lose grip, but I did wonder if my eyes were finally failing me!

Painting the long Magnatometer boom was extremely difficult with copper rungs and yellow edges. This wasn't helped by the fact the entire length also twists!

Anyway here are some piccies for your enjoyment. The pics really don't do the fiddly intricate nature of this model justice!

Now I know why, when the Klingons destroyed one in Star Trek 5, the SFX crew just blew up a photograph rather than an actual model!

The finished kit (minus copper paint on the whisker antennas) with Earth display stand Alien Grey figure for scale (no, seriously. Those Japanese have a sense of humour when it comes to whether anyone will play Voyagers Golden record) Hasegawa also included a nice embroidered mission patch as a bonus.

The all important gold disc in all its vacuum metallised glory.

"Hey Moonbasers! It's a Golden Astronaut alien!"

"Triang Space-X missed their chance there..."

Well, back to the kitchen table, I have two more kits to put together before I can deliver the lot!

Have you made a Voyager?

Looey

Oz