A Tale of Two Mandarakes Part 1

One of my favourite stores that I have returned to each time I'm in Japan, is Manderake.

The store in Shibuya has remained unchanged over the years, apart from the stock!

Tobor the 8 Man, was a bit before my time, but I love this soft vinyl forced perspective figure with a Zero type Shinkansen!

Lots of 70's/ 80's period toys!

Some charming tin vehicles...

A large Astroboy hanging store display.

A 90's reissue of Tracy Island, £31 can you believe it?

Original Aurora POTA Cornelius £20!

A 1990's GI Joe for £7.50 and a 1/6 scale Dirty Harry for £35.

Joe is coming home with me as a background extra in my puppet film!

Next up is Manderake Coo Coo, the Collector's soft vinyl figure store in Akihabra! ........

Looey

Japan

Nostalgia in Japan!

Hello Moonbasers!

One of the things I was looking for on my trip to Japan was "dead stock" or discontinued toys.

The only places you will reliably find stuff like this is at Collector shops, so be prepared to pay the Premium. Which is not to say bargains can't be found...

One of my delights was finding a Collector shop called Toys Golden Age which specialises in 60's 70's and 80's Japanese toys -my favourite!

Vintage Gerry Anderson kits from reasonable to unreasonable.

A very 60's styled Jumbo sized robot, for a cool £500! Hmmm, I think not!

Some vac-form robot masks (which seem to be a thing of the past, now) for a reasonable £7.50 -I may go back for them at trip's end!

And one of my trip's Holy Grails, a Hot Wheels SPV! I found two, one MIB and one loose at reasonable prices!

...and the Holy Grails keep coming! 

Stay Tuned!

Happy Looey

Japan

Apollo X: Square Box

 I saw this online a while back.

It's the Apollo X rocket we've seen a lot on MC. It's the one that can stand up on its own. 

This particular box is unusual.

It's square. 

Every other one I've seen has been wedged-shaped.

Have you got an Apollo X?

Chitty Chitty Bang Up

 A Spring visit with the Missus to the always-great Huddersfield Second Hand Market garnered three little nifty trinkets this morning.

For the grand total of £2.50, I picked up a fab Peggy Nesbit Mountie, a neat 007 badge (a particular film?) and a banged-up Corgi Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which was one whole pound!

There were many beat-up but neat die-casts from our childhoods on offer: SHADO3, SPC, Lunar Battle Chariot, Lunar Bug and Astro 1 to name a few, but with a price tag of a tenner each I gave them short schrift.

At £1, Truly Scrumptious made my day as I was desperate for a new and cheap DIY project.

Old Chitty's condition was pretty sh*tty tho, but it still had its fold-our plastic wings, snake horn and lever. The steering wheel too!

Ian Fleming's 'other' famous car may just work out yet!

(Where did the original movie car end up?)

So, Saturday afternoon was spent in die-cast heaven, jazzing up a toy I adored as a kid. 

I couldn't recall the plastic front and back wing attachments from my childhood, so I've not bothered making any.

Here's what I did come up with. Not perfect but hope you approve.

For fun here it is with the plastic Marx version I found at Doncaster car boot a few years back ( incomplete but I did get the inflatable wing rug!) and blogged at the time.

They're more or less the same size. Which do you prefer? Corgi or Marx?

BLACK BEAUTY KNOCK OFFS

 Even though they're knock offs, they'd be a nice addition to my Green Hornet collection.

Star Wars World at Shibuyu

While I watch my shirts go round and round at the local Laundromat, I'll sort some holiday snaps for you Moonbasers!

Star Wars World in Shibuya is basically an exhibition on the Ground floor of one of the big Department stores.

The full size costumes were very popular and in the Basement, was the pop-up Merchandise store!

Sadly most of the slick goods were as astronomical as their inspiration! The groovy T shirt was about £25 and the small backpacks £135!

But i did get some SW themed mini Japanese lanterns for prezzies!

May the Forsu be with you! 

 Looey

Japan

Lone Star Super TEC-8

 Who is that character on the card meant to be?

Van Der Valk?

There's a bit of Secret Sam typeface there too in the word Super.

GREEN HORNET DISPLAY FIGURES BY FACTORY ENT.

 

Some photos I’ve taken of my 2011 Factory Entertainment Green Hornet and Kato collector figures, based on the 1966 TV series characters.

As they are designed for static displaying purposes, and not as action figures they naturally have very limited articulation; the heads and the arms move slightly and that’s about it.

Both figures come with display stands, and a set of interchangeable hands.

The Green Hornet can either be displayed holding his Hornet gas gun, or his Hornet Sting.

Kato brandishes a set of nunchaku, or prepares to throw a Kato Dart.

The figures come in fairly eye catching packaging, with a handy cardboard display box inside.

“And now, to protect the rights and lives of decent citizens, rides the Green Hornet and Kato!”