Aloha Any clues to this arcana? I have witness the colors and have heard that only one distributors was responsible for their import. Who is the keeper of the Hawaii kaiju knowledge? Will we see a revival of this Esoterica by a neo kaiju house? Mahalo
I think brian flynn is the master of hawaii info. I like paint jobs like the hawaii's becauase it is over done and way to many colors. But try and get an original and you might as well just go to hawaii on an all expense paid trip for the same price
I'm a bit new to this side of things, so could someone tell me about Hawaii Kaiju? Where they versions just released in Hawaii??
My understanding is that in the 70's Bullmark made versions of vinyl figures released in Japan to sell in Hawaii to the Japanese population there that was just as into Ultraman and the like as the kids back in Japan. The paint jobs are pretty wild, asymmetrical and clashing. Gargamel released a version of the Zargoran and a couple minis of the Hedorah and Zargoran in a Hawaii paint style; lots of orange, pink, and aqua.
A long time ago I posted a translation by Matt Alt of an interview Bullmark founder Saburo Ishizuki did for Hyper Hobby Dash 6. Here's the info about the Hawaii vinyls, straight from the horse's mouth: http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/Go ... sage/36347
There are 5 "common" hawaii paint variants, and about 30-40 harder to find paint variants. Not all figures imported into hawaii were painted differently, but many were. The common figures can gor for 75-150 each, but after that, you need a big wallet.
a close friend of mine is tight with a collector in Hawaii. according to my friend the (female ) collector in hawaii sold a rare kanegon for almost 8 grand this year. i wish i had details, but my friend couldn't even remember the name of the figure until i threw a few names out! haha
Ask her if it looked like this: That's the miniaturized version of the Hawaii Kanegon from Soul of Bullmark 3. (props to Tim Brisko for the photo)
Hawaii vinyls You want to look up Sanford Mock. Probably the largest collection of Hawaii Bullmarks in existence.
It was one of the Hawaii Bullmarks that got me infected with the Vinyl Kaiju Bug as a child! It was an alien Pegassa! I still have him and they are probably the most common to find.
JHOTTROD, yes, that guy in the right is the same toy as the one in the picture I posted. It's a scaled-down Hawaii Kanegon replica from Soul of Bullmark series 3.
Necroposting. I was looking for this Q&A translation forever, so I may as well copy and paste it here too. --- "Why did you pick vinyl?" (it could replicate that skin-like texture and detail better than metal or plastic.) "Why did you make them 23cm tall?" (Just generally wanted to follow the scale of the previously-sold plastic models and tins.) "Why did you make the quadripedal monsters into bipedal ones, like Angilas?" (Quadripeds were generally considered to be too low to easily "pop out" at customers on the shelf.) "Why did the first ones have treads on the soles of the feet?" (For non-slip purposes, but they eventually realized it wasn't necessary.) "Why were they deformed rather than 'real'?" (Bullmark felt that they shouldn't make the creatures too scary-looking.) "How tightly did you try to enforce the color schemes of the prototypes? There are many cases of color variations." (Sometimes the guys at the factory would screw up, and sometimes it was tough to get the exact same shade in different runs of paint.) "Why'd you use flesh-color for some?" (Because flesh-colored vinyl was the most common and cheap, so sometimes they went with that for small runs and painted the whole thing to get the color effect. It wasn't a common thing to do, though.) "Why were the export models for Hawaii made so gaudy-looking?" (Because the first time Ishizuki went there, he was struck by how bright and tropical the place was. So he decided to go with the same look for the toys.) "Was Hawaii the only place Bullmark exported to?" (No. Bullmark exported some to Los Angeles as well. But Hawaii was the only place they ever directly sold outside of Japan.)
lot of good stuff to justify a thread dig-up! i always had a lot of questions about hawaii vinyl. for instance, aside from the named pink with blue and red spray style, i've seen ebay and sorts list things as hawaii bullmark that didn't follow that stereotyped theme. i always just figured that the seller was stating that item was from hawaii, and didn't research it much further. so, outside of the crazy colored stuff made and sold in hawaii, is there any difference in paint styles with the (what flynn refers to as the 30-40 uncommon variants) other hawaii stuff and regular japan released bullmark, or has anyone internetally documented that stuff? i mean, that pink with pink spray kanegon has me completely blown away! love it.
Yes, "Hawaii" refers to a broad range of vinyl color and paint variations that were used when Bullmark sold their products in the American market. The most famous Hawaii version, however, is the Hedorah, the one that uses the pink vinyl. Nowadays, when modern kaiju makers do a "Hawaii version," they're usually referencing that. I think the first company to do it may have been M1GO with the first wave of Matangos they put out at the end of the 90s. Bear Model might have been close behind. The Kazunori Saito digest sized books are a good reference to the Hawaii Bullmarks, at least the Ultra ones. Those and the Toho ones are referenced in the Beautiful Book of Monsters. And of course, there are the Super7 character focus articles. I don't know if the Mirrorman or other vinyls had Hawaii versions. Someone else know?
Hawaii version Ikarus: _1310403.JPG by COOP666, on Flickr Hawaii version Giradorus _1310450.JPG by COOP666, on Flickr Hawaii version Gandar _1310433.JPG by COOP666, on Flickr Hawaii version Metron _1310431.JPG by COOP666, on Flickr Hawaii version Pegassa _1310369.JPG by COOP666, on Flickr And (I think) Hawaii version Miclas _1310662.JPG by COOP666, on Flickr
Coop, did I sell you that Micras? Also just found this thread, pretty cool: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=37263
