Can anyone help me ID this? I think the seller said it was Marusan, 20 cm tall. Thanks.

This is an unmarked pachimon or bootleg depending on your view. It is painted very much like a Marusan Gomora but I do not think it is a "Marusan original." There are a few versions of this guy including a mini and a baloon blower. If this is the one that was sitting for Yen 30,000, that is a crazy price. Should be able to find for about 1/10 that.

Thanks for the info. No, this sold for about 2.6K yen last week.

I love Gomora figures, and this one is pretty sweet.

I dig it too.

Definitely a bootleg, but a gorgeous one.

How can you tell it's a bootleg? Are there any pointers as to how to recognize or tell them apart?

Well, Gomora only has one horn on his nose and no third horn growing out the back of his head!

What Sanjeev said. It just doesn't look like the Marusan sculpt. This is one of those times when it is good to have some reference books with photos, like the Green Arrow Grafitti #16, or those little books with all the toy photos (I forget the name now.)

Somebody (with better web skills than me) needs to put together a good database with photos of all the vintage stuff. A Wiki would be perfect for that. I would donate my toys photos for a start.

This is the legit Gomora release (although its a Bullmark in the photos):

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=30878


And in terms of databases, I love Club Tokyo's:

http://www.clubtokyo.org/listings/subCa ... ubCatID=12

+1 for club tokyo, wandering that site is like being a 17 year old virgin walking through the red light district

It's funny how the bootleg sells for more than the original. Have they always been in demand, or is this is a more recent development?

heres a king ghidrah boot that i have been after for quite awhile now. too bad this one had the horns clipped. i think i picked up my gamora boot on ebay for a decent price. they dont come up all that often, but when they do, they are not that expensive.

heres another gomora bootleg.

The wings on that Ghidorah boot almost look like the same wings from the unmarked red bat kaiju (the Super Kaiju Series one).

Yea, fucking rules.

Nice tips, thanks.

Ok, fair enough. But how do you know it's another character and not Gomora?

Sounds like the Ultra sofubi books by super collector Kazunori Saito (known as the "Saito Collection"). There were other books in his series for diecast and vinyl robots but the best to me were the three on the Marusan, Bullmark and Popy Ultra kaiju vinyls. The books came out in 1998 and I sold quite a few through my site and eBay. Glad I kept a set for myself as they have marvelous museum-like photos along with Japanese and English labels.

Those are classic books, but for the amount of info in one place and fantastic photos that cover mini, middle, and standard size of Godzilla and Ultraman Kaiju you gotta get Saito-san's newest "Beautiful Book of Monsters." It sits by my computer and is always handy for a reference.

Mark, where did you buy that book? Sounds like I need it...

Yep, those are the ones. I'd also like a copy of the new Saito book.

The Yuji Nishimura Mooks are great reference too.

is there more than one yuji book? i know of the one that has been released in two editions, but mostly the same content, with all the kamen rider villains and a bunch of other shows.

This is probably what you are looking for:
http://mononofu.hp.infoseek.co.jp/museum/main.html

Good point.

I try to check the bottom of the feet...then ask smarter people like VV or Mark K!