Here is another fun guy. Sadly my poor photography skills didn't manage to capture too well the beauty of this guy's paint, but I really like how it lends him quite a vibrant mushroom quality. I can definitely picture him stalking right out of the tropical woods.
Wow, first clear pics of seen of that version... nice! Funny how toys look so much better outside of their cloudy plastic shrouds. ooo Day off... Back to work! Don't mind the tourists. Toygraph M1Go M1-Go M1 "U.S. Toys" "US Toys" UStoys Gargamel Matango Thrashman "King Joe" KingJoe Goro Kanegon Kemur-Seijin Kemur Mongler Mongura Ultraseven UltraQ "Ultra Q" Tsuburaya Toho Tokyo Tower
I always thought that was an interesting choice for a figure. They have done some really amazing original sculpts, and I guess they just wanted to pay tribute to a original toy they were very fond of. I wonder if they sought out approval from Marusan for this guy? I like it, it's just a bit unusual to redo a toy but alter the head of it. He looks really great - a lovely toy with great colour, detail, and paint - and the execution works, I just think I end up being on the fence because I sort of expect the original head when I see that body, ya know?
Curious about the toy sculpt familiarity between various toy companies. Can anyone explain the relationships between Toygraph, Charactics, and US Toys. Some of the toy sculpts of various characters look similar.... i.e. did Charactics partner or buy out toy molds from Toygraph? P.S. David, your photos are excellent as always. I can just imagine your toys giggling with glee, having fun outdoors in that frigid snow!
Well I think with the standard Gamera and the actual middle sized Gamera sculpts, thats all Toygraph. Charactics painted one of each, but I am not sure how the diorama bases were conceived such that one says Charactics, it could just be an homage, though it says 2002 on the other side so maybe that is their way of stamping it since the dioramas don't actually have any stamps. Gameras are stamped Toygraph. The diorama's definitely look like they could be sculpted by different people, so maybe Charactics did completely realize the one they painted and released. They all come with Toygraph headers, no mention of Charactics really besides the writing on the building as far as I know. I don't believe U.S. Toys is related at all, I can't recall them doing any collabs off the top of my head. Rumble Monsters was releasing Charactics figures for awhile after Charactics ceased production, but I don't remember seeing anything new from that in some years.
Just as a refresher, this is the diorama with the Charactics name on the building being discussed. Could be, as Chase has suggested, this particular toy was one painted by them, or maybe they sculpted the lower part and Toygraph was responsible for the Gamera. Or maybe they just were friends with each other and the one wanted to give a shout out to the other (or maybe he wants to slice through his rival's office building and stomp around the premises! ).
Wait... the kana on the building's face says "Charactics"? I thought that you guys meant that there was a Charactics makers' mark on the back or something. Sounds like the Sofubi equivalent of a diss song to me! "Wow, that's perfect!"
I looked into the Gamera question a bit. Turtletooth can provide a better answer if he sees this, but our understanding has been that Toygraph sculpted many/most of the Charactics figures. The Gamera on the Charactics building base was a collaboration between the companies. Toygraph probably sculpted the whole thing, but that one may have been painted by Charactics. I would say that it may have been sold by Charactics, but looking at the respective release catalogs of the two companies, Toygraph had mostly Daiei licenses and Charactics had Toho licenses. So the Gamera was probably sold by Toygraph. This happened a couple other times as well. Charactics released a mini Hedorah on the same base as the Gamera. Toygraph also released a Meganuron with a Charactics tower (not sure whether that tower was reused by Charactics).
Oh wow, thanks for all the info Daniel (and Turtletooth)! I really like the idea of these companies cooperating like that, makes the small community of independent producers seem that much more amazing and mystical - like the Olympians to our little vinyl world. I also had not thought of the Daiei/Toho thing, but now that you mentioned it, it makes sense. Thanks! SB still rules, for all the other stuff folks might say about it.
Yeah, that is one really excellent looking toy Patrick. As much as I love the floppy-eared Barry, the colour scheme on that one is one of my all time favourite paints to grace a toy. It is right up there with the Tokyo figures in being both lovely looking and beautifully executed. The yellow vinyl is perfect. I need more yellow toys!
Nice photos David. I wonder what kind of yarn he is weaving there. That is some crispy snow too; it is just calling out to be crunched up underfoot.
I actually really like it. It's a bit of a mindfuck for me since you do expect to see the original head and you realize that something is not what it seems.