So no one has really brought this up besides it being mentioned during festivals. Also since there are no direct sales, and these characters are all based on old obscure shows I feel relatively safe bringing it up here without too much hype. I'm talking about Kaiju Ken and these amazing sculpts he's doing. KK did a great job years back with the Silver Mask series, kind of disappeared for a bit, and now is coming back with stuff that really has appeal (IMO). I'm sure this will get buried 8 pages back in a week or two but I felt I had to steal some pics of his work from his blog and post them here. I mean look at some of these: Kamen Rider: Barom One: Kikaider: Kikaider & Barom One: Tiger 7 female?: Tiger 7 Villain? I guess he is supposed to be this guy: Thundermask: Mach Baron: Mach & Red Baron: Red Baron galore: Various including Zaboga: last two pics from Andy's Kaiju Korner blog: I mean I cannot understand for the life of me WHY these are not available anywhere for sale?! Why are these only sold at events? Is it that licensing thing? Can no stores import them? Or is lack of interest? I mean from some of these pics, there appears to be decent quantity. Someone needs to get these here for sale. They have across the board appeal to dare I say it even vintage collectors. Discuss...
Terrific stuff. I love Kaiju Ken and have several of the Silver Mask villians by KK. They're of amazing quality. I love how KK seems to focus on more obscure heroes/villians. Nice to see this company is continuing to produce toys.
here you go: http://teleman.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/ What I like is his designs have a very vintage style to them. They almost look like vintage toys.
I have several of these like the Red Baron and the Zaboga. I thought the production values were very good. GT has had some of these for pre-order from time to time so maybe Chris can bring more info about the situation. Could it be that vintage collectors look down on them as they aren't decades old and just look at them as reproductions? Meanwhile, the majority of contemporary collectors couldn't even identify the characters? So they look right past them as they fight for a NNN or something? So these are falling between these two groups? Then again, the Rainbow Barom-1 figures were quite popular and the production quality on the KK seems higher than a number of the Rainbows.
I've been spending quite a bit of time on his blog lately. In the past I don't think he sculpted his own toys so I love to see this aspect of the business take off. Everything he is focusing on these days seems to be separate from the older releases. I have a feeling he is getting single day licences, but I don't know that for a fact. Anyone notice if he is selling at both WF and SF? If both then I guess he is just getting the licences normally but focusing on event sales. Anyway.. great stuff. Both the old and the new. Remember that crazy booska?
I've got a white vinyl Booska with pastel multi-colored spots on his head that I believe is a KaijuKen toy. It's fantastic! Great, chunky texture on him. I believe KK also made one of the most disturbing looking Garamon toys I've ever seen, too.
That's right. They did that one you mentioned and then the one with the big ears that yamomark sculpted. and yes.. creeepy garamon. Not sure if this pic will show properly: http://yamomark.blog19.fc2.com/blog-date-200808-4.html
Didn't Kaijuu Ken have a Kirugisu from Silver Kamen on display at one of the festivals last year? Their stuff seems to have flown under the radar for awhile.
Abe-san posted this yesturday and states he is going to try and finish 6 of the sculpts by the end of the month. Another work in progress....
I've never been a big fan of the 'heroes,' (villains for life) but these sculpts are really nice. Who are the two guys behind Barom One in that top photo?
Ah, thanks Chimply. That's Kirugisu behind the right shoulder of Barom-1. Hope to see that released soon...
Man those are wonderful. I remember the Red Barons but can't remember what they went for. If these are affordable, I'll be trying to get quite a few.
Wow, I can't wait to see the finished product for the Barome One. First sculpt of that character I've been deeply interested in..
I'm a big fan of these toys, too. I've been searching for that Zaborger for a while, but haven't had any luck. The Red Baron and Mach Baron figures are big wants, too. I hadn't seen that Mazinger before (don't think I've ever looked at his blog, actually!), but it looks like it's gonna be tight! Thanks for starting this thread, Chris. Class up the joint a little bit.
I am really excited for these figures. It is a very interesting take on some vintage classics, and I am much more happy to see stuff like this being issued these days, than most any other sofubi. Especially that they are new sculpts and not simple reissues of old molds. I am really digging the Kamen Rider, Barom-1, and Kikaider especially. And of course, seeing anything Tiger Seven related gets the blood pumping. I really hope that we can see these in decent production numbers soon, and being available to us folks outside of Japan would definitely be huge. Else, I will have to be pulling in some favours for muling services
Yeah welcome to the "no luck" club....I emailed Masato and he even knows the guy and could not find me a Thundermask. I figured it was time to deflect from all this nag/gorilla ju/ whatever else is hot at the moment for some old fashioned licensed character talk...
saw the kamen rider on madarake, pretty expensive but it looked great. hoping these will be easily available in the future. i really like the mazinger.
Love those clunky sculpts. I wish I hadn't cheaped out on the retail (8626 JPY) of the red Red Baron last year.
Great,great, thread, Chris. Love what KK's doing with these heroes sculpt. Its got the std 9" ;look but its slightly larger. Really excited to see that they've got more heroes in the works. Kicking myself for not getting Zaboga when there was like 4 or 5 of them on YJA at retail. Thundermask and Silver Kamen don't even appear anywhere! Production runs don't seem to be too low, tells you their popularity at home ground. I'm lucky to own the Red Baron and totally understand why.