Just recieved this lil' Nitto Gappa in the mail today, but I don't know much about the company Nitto (日東).

I think that they started out producing vinyl dinosaurs, and had liscence to produce Gamera and Gappa toys but thats all I know.

Anyone know about the history of the company, or any good resources of info?

Well, I'm sure others know WAY more than I, but I'm pretty sure their licensing arrangement was with Daiei Studios, in general...not just with one or two of their properties.

For example, in addition to Gappa and Gamera, they put out those amazing yokai figures from the Spook Warfare movies.

Don't think they ever did a Daimajin, though...

From what I know, Nitto made mostly model kits, including kaiju models. They were around until at least the early 1980s when they were making kits for SF3D (now known as Maschinen Krieger).

Nitto had a couple of original kaiju designs of their own that were sort of mash-ups of Daiei monsters. I think a couple of people here can post pictures of them. Guys?

A little bit more on Nitto in English:

http://robotxmonster.blogspot.com/2010/ ... eat-o.html

And a Japanese Wikipedia entry:

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5% ... 9%E6%9D%90

Thanks for the info Roger, interesting to find out more about the company.

They produced some awesome vinyl sculpts, particularly like the Yokai figures (but not the asking price!!).

Well, to be fair, the original asking price for the Yokai was 200 yen!

¥200 a piece!
That's only a 40000%* increase over 40 years...


(D'oh, duly noted and corrected)*

"400%"??? Sir, I wish!

I think your maths are off.

I've seen Nitto figures pop up occasionally, and they're always very cool looking. The yokai they produced are top notch. Unless I am mistaken, I've seen a few tiny ones (over the years) on YJA go for hundreds of dollars.