The keshigomu appreciation, adoration, and worship thread.

I'll start:

 

Picked these up when Gargamel had their miscellaneous sales during SDCC 2012.


Dragon Ball Keshi

 

Neat. Is the armor on that one in the center metal?

 

Despiite my love for Japanese toys, I never got the understand the whole Keshi trend
But I'm curious about it!

 

A little Sunshine ...



Cube Man ...

 

Flesh colored keshi is my favorite keshi, for some reason that color really brings out the detail in the sculpts.

 

For kids at the time, it was about the opportunity to bring their favorite characters with them to school. Carrying a keshi around in my pocket or having it on my work desk provides a taste of that fun.

Kaminaga-san from Marusan explained to me that character keshi were a marketing coup for the toy makers. For a stationery store that carried school supplies, there was no reason to carry a sofubi or chogokin figure, but it made total sense to sell an eraser in the shape of a character. It drew more kids and their parents into the stores, and for the licensors it spread awareness of their characters.

A similar breakthrough happened with candy toys. Grocery and convenience stores were very strict about filling their limited shelf space with only items containing food. So what did the toy companies do? Put food in the boxes with the toys. Problem solved.

 

Fascinating Roger!
I can understand the attraction for a young kid, but it amazes me that grown up people still continue with the collection.

 

I believe it is which was unusual.

 

They did stuff like that in the 80s. There are a couple of the samurai-style SD Gundams that had metal swords and shields.

 

Also a bunch of cool Keshi integrated with plastic ..

 

Same here. I think it’s because of the MUSCLE figures we got here in the 80s. I loved those things but had no idea what keshi figures were.

 

Love the idea for this thread. I dont really have many but here are some large size Kitaro keshi

 

^^ Yokai are perfect for Keshi.

These are from Akuma-kun.

 

You took the words out of my mouth. I am really digging these yokai keshi.

 

I found this pic the other day and thought it was cool that the old baikin germ keshi had wooden sculpts for their figures apparently.

 

A couple random shots of my various Transformer keshi both vintage and newish; and a Wolverine keshi from the 90s that is still connected by its sprue. I wouldn’t mind finding one that’s been assembled and possibly Magneto to go with him.

 

Jeeeaaan!

 

@The Moog I was given these by my Mum, for Christmas, most likely in the late 70s / early 80s, but had not idea where they came from or the ‘universe’ they were from. Do you know if they were sold as part of a rebrand outside Japan (Muscle Men? Battle Beasts, etc)? I thought they were cool at the time but didn’t understand anything about them, other than they were non-posable small figures, which in the context of Star Wars figures, and GI Joe, etc, seemed a little pointless to me as a pre-teen.

It was a real trip down memory lane seeing them on here. Thanks!

 

Yeah, as far as i know they are Kinnikuman toys rebranded as M.U.S.C.L.E outside of Japan. Kinnikuman means 'Muscle Man' in Japanese. I've picked up plenty over the years but i'm no expert on them. They also do larger versions made out of the same plastic.

http://blog.uofmuscle.com/16517/muscle-figure-guide/