First of all, I suppose I should introduce myself since this is my first time posting. My name is Josh (are you supposed to give your name on the internet? whatever.) I'm an American in Japan and I collect all kinds of toys. Recently I've been buying alot of Space Troopers and Nekurosu No Yousai dudes. Anyway, I was in the Shibuya Mandarake the other day, and I noticed an unusual (and expensive- around $1,800!) piece of vintage vinyl. It looked like a red/orange pineapple bird monster with a juicer blade coming out of its head and long, tubular, presumably juice-dispensing fingers. I read about some kind of pineapple monster that was going to be used in a Gamera movie (Gamera vs. Garasharp) that got 86ed- is that what this is from? And why hasn't anyone made a reproduction?
Is this it? http://mononofu.hp.infoseek.co.jp/museum/bullmark/ul/ul_st03_01.html It's Kendarosu from Ultraman Leo, made by Bullmark. I don't have enough of a background to go into detail, but the short story is that Leo was one of the last series produced by Bullmark. As a result, the pieces are fairly difficult to find. The last issue of the Super7 magazine has a good article on these.
Don't ask me about sports. That's all I can say. Now I see a pineapple every time I look at this guy. Supposedly they were exported to Hawaii back in the day. Imagine finding one of these at someone's garage sale. I wish.
I think S7 should have Saturday-morning Japanese language and Kanji classes for toy collectors (complete with a study in logo taxonomy too!)
There is actually a place a few blocks for S7 that is a Japanese language school. It would be great if they had a specialized class for toys
Since I grew up near the "artichoke capital of the world", it looks like an artichoke to me. Crazy cool figure.
Here you go. Ususally has some mistakes, but you can get the general idea. http://translate.google.com/translate?u ... n&ie=UTF-8
Also, I love that the design of these toys are based on the fact that costumes had to exist to fit a human body. There's nothing like the creative way that Tokusatsu shows got around the need to put a human head or arms on a monster suit. "We want the monster's head is on the bottom, near his legs" "No problem, just give him some kind of blade things so the actor's head will fit in the suit." HA!
Haha, that's awesome. Thanks, guys. Not sure how I neglected to mention that it is not birdlike at all and, in fact, has a dragon head for a penis. Sorry for the confusion. That website says he is a pineapple, but I'm totally seeing an artichoke now. So are there any versions of Kendorosu that aren't $1,800?
I've actually had that toy since I was a kid. I remember my parents and the import store owner chuckling at me for buying it. Who's chuckling now.
Not really, Kendoras is pretty much alone in this world. In more depressing news, there are two spray variants on him.
What's the second color? Wasn't there a Blue and silver in a catalogue shot. No real word on this actually being sold is there?
There is the flesh vinyl with allover red spray and the silver like you (and I) have, and there is a second version that was the same spray style, but about 50% of it is exposed flesh vinyl, with a very thin red spray. The latter is technically harder to find, but not to any great price difference as the allover red is better looking.
