That Kameba is a super fun figure. Love the goofy expression and sculpt - he's a toothless terror! ^_^
Yeah... I managed to miss out on Yog when I was kid - my first introduction to the toys and the film was thanks to the Soul of Bullmark line. Been fantasizing about bringing home the original trio ever since. Fantastic score, Charlie!
Both very excellent figures you picked up there Charlie! Gudon was always such a crazy and menacing guy to me, must be something about those hands/arms of his. And the spikes sure don't help. Thankfully he has got those delightful eyes and hungry baby mouth that makes it all okay. Kameba is really nice too. I have always been attracted to these classic grey toys, like him, Gezora, Ganime, etc. I really love the fun and funky colours and takes on the Bullmark/Marusan stuff, particularly for the goofier Ultraseries kaiju, but I always found this colour palette was an excellent alternative to use as well, for the more serious Toho guys. He is definitely a fun one, lots of great roughness in the sculpt, and I love the combination of almost a rock-like beast and lizard/dino. Monster from Space? You got it.
I love the Bullmark Yog monsters as well! Also I agree with you ultrakaiju, the grey vinyl for the trio is a unique contrast from the rest of the Toho Bullmark vinyls. I have the three on my shelf here. Maybe I'll take pics of them up close later, but this is what I could find in my photo collection. Spending time with my family today, so maybe tomorrow.
That is a really great shelf, nice selection of figures, both vintage and modern. I really love that purple/stripe Gorosaurus, a very excellent version - but then I see you have a family there too! Very nice, indeed.
Thank you! I do have a shelf of pure vintage, but I've run out of room in there and now the vintage stuff is leaking into other shelves, not that that is a bad problem to have
Do the kids still say 'schwing'? Impoverished bastard that I am, I still pray weekly for repros of Gamime and Kamoeba to hit the world.
I think they say 'sploosh' now, but whatever it is, it just happened. Those are some incredibly impressive shelves you have there. Jam-packed with just gorgeous toy goodness and Toho history. I see a number of duplicates/variants in there as well - I am looking at you, Marusan Goji! - so I would love to hear how your collection is aimed/what your inspirations are. It is really tough to highlight any one toy in that delicious bounty for the worry of having to offend some others with unintentional neglect, but if I can generally say I adore the Popy ones especially, and your 'giant' versions are just lovely. I also already eschewed my love for the missile firing MG in the other thread, but just seeing another one, wow. That is a Godzilla collector's AND a vintage toy collector's paradise, I love every inch of it. Thanks for sharing these pics; now if only I could come over and check these all out in person (but I might never leave! ).
@AWMGodzilla62 - Your vintage shelf is jam-packed with incredible pieces. How long did it take you to collect all of those figures? As @ultrakaiju mentioned, I would also like to hear about your goals and the current focus of your collection. I believe I have seen your photos on Flickr, and you have a very large Godzilla collection. I find it to be very inspiring. If you are up for it, I would love to see some close-up photos of your standard size Marusan/Bullmark gojis.
That is kind of what I was hinting too (great minds and all). One thing I really love is seeing the variations on the same figure in several images side-by-side. You wouldn't believe how many hours I have spend poring over photos in a dozen browser windows, blowing up tiny thumbnails, squinting at horrible or out of focus YJA pics, old store listings, snagged pics, etc. I am not a 'multiples' collector, but do really love seeing subtle changes in paint and whatnot on the same toy. And because these are hand-painted, each individual is sort of unique in its own way. Having something like CT is an amazing resource, but I always think it is nice to have some great, detailed shots here we can go back to, reference, appreciate. Anyway, ranting, but all this is just an excuse to see more lovely photos of excellent vintage toys.
Thank you guys for the comments! I've been collecting Godzilla toys since I was 5. I just collected Bandai for most part. I was all about "movie accuracy" back then and thought when Marmit started producing vinyls in 1997 they were ugly. Sean Lickenbach's book came out though and then my world was opened up to the world of vintage and I loved the history behind them for being the very first vinyls of so many of the Showa era Kaiju! It also made my appreciate the Marmit and M-1 figures because I finally understood why they were stylized the way they were. It was all inspired by these original vinyls. I got my first Bullmark when I was 11 (a silver eye Hawaiian spray Ghidorah) so I've been collecting Godzilla in general 24 years and vintage for 18 years. As far as goals go for my vintage collection, I would love to have one of each sculpt of the vinyl figures. I just need a Marusan Giant Gorilla (Kong) to have one of each Marusan and a standard size Bullmark Mecha Godzilla to have one of each Bullmark. Of course there's Hawaiian and other rare sprays out there that I would love to find, but I think I would feel quite satisfied even just having Kong and MG. Now, for some requested vintage Goji pics. I posted this pic on here awhile back when I picked up my Hawaiian Goji. On the bottom though, I have a line up of 3 of them, L-R Marusan, Bullmark, and Hawaiian. Last year though, I found a rather unusual Goji. It looks like your standard dark blue Bullmark, but interestingly has green metallic fins. Usually they're blue. I had never seen one before with green fins and ever since then I've kept an eye out for other green fin versions and haven't seen any since.
Nice ones! What a lovely trio. And very cool to see the variations, just like the green fins you mentioned. Thanks for posting the pics! This is a great hobby, isn't it? I admire that you have been collecting so long, and funny how so many of us came here by the Bandai 'gateway' toys. I love to hear people's perspectives and toy collecting history like that, so thanks for sharing. We all have our own of course, but it is interesting to see the common threads linking them, as well as the differences between them. Anyone that gets hooked on vintage Showa monsters I can really appreciate. Anyways, nice to hear some of your background, and we can consider it added to the 'compendium' of experience that makes up SB. (Someday someone will have to put together a dedicated SB book for the collectors where we can all have a page or single toy featured. In fact, a little write-up about one favourite, a story behind it, etc., contributed by all the 'brainers willing, would make a lovely read).
Wow. Impressive collection. I still need to add a vintage giant-sized Baragon! And the large Popy Godzillas are growing on me. Good to see the scale with other figures I am more familiar with.
This is one of my favorite threads. Gojira herd for @Mr. Humphreys : From right-left: Marusan double-stamp, transition foot no stamp, Marusan right-stamp, Marusan left-stamp, Bullmark standard, Bullmark green Hawaiian, Bullmark blue Hawaiian
@deafmetal That is one very impressive vintage collection of Gojiras!!! Thanks for sharing those wonderful pics! I really appreciate seeing them in a line-up like that, all at once, the different angles, and the details (including the info on the stamps). Nice to see the variation in colors and all that silver too! Thank you thank you thank you! p.s. keep coming back to stare at that beautiful blue Hawaiian (from Mandarake), super spiffy!
@toothaction - Hope you called the doc and have your travel bag packed. @Mr. Humphreys - Thank you! I'm glad you like the photos. Haha, J-tail, two different light green Marusan, unpainted blue vinyl, and a flesh vinyl bootleg.... I had a chance to check out a few of those rare birds down in SF recently. The '66 Marusan is my favorite Godzilla sculpt and toy if it wasn't obvious already.
Gotta say, I echo Stevie's sentiments strongly. It's wonderful seeing multiples, both in a series or different versions of the same issue. It's fun to marvel over the slight variations and condition. We'll have to start a reference thread of "Vintage Follies" for multiples. ...now I must unpack those tigers!
@deafmetal It really is a delight to see all those beautiful Gojis together, thanks for sharing with us your Pantone of Gojis. I think the green Hawaiian version is looking at me
Damn, man! Very cool to see so many variants in a lineup. My solo figure never looked so lonely before.
Is Jean Carbajal of Vinyl Madness on this forum? He has posted some excellent Bullmark collection shots on the Japanese Vintage Vinyl FB group. I hope he doesn't mind me posting some of his photos here for reference, as they feature really nice lineups of variants. Just let me know if I need to take these down. Great collection, Jean!
