I just posted a close up in the 'closeup' thread... but I'd love to ID this guy.
Ainsley and I found him at a antique shop. She wrote up a little blog post on her blog here: http://lifewithtoys.blogspot.ca/2014/03/vintage-japanese-toy.html

It's in shampoo bottle style plastic.. really light. It's eyes are suspended on a metal bit that's attached on the inside of it's head.

Even better in the close up shots Chris. I love the way the patina on the plastic almost makes it look like an old bronze statue. Excellent detail too, all those fine bumps and ridges, the buttons and his fur - simply lovely.

As far as IDing goes, I can't help with the kanji, but I am sure Oli and a few others can make out the translation. It seems to me that there is some kind of faint makers mark in addition, the small diamond-like stamp that is just partially visible above the 'JAPAN'. There is not enough to make out a clear company logo, but if you see one afterwards it may help later at least to definitively identify it. I also find it very interesting that it is numbered, and so prevalently at that. Typically a mold number would be much more inconspicuous, so it could be some special information, not necessarily a production date, but something along those lines.

This is a great figure. How can such a sad looking fellow make me so happy?

No help on the ID, just wanted to say this one is great stuff! Probably looks much older than it is.

^ Agreed.

As a further example of what I meant, here are some of the more common markings (most are for tin toys, but the same companies often produced vinyl toys as well.


Source


Source

Nice list of Makers' Marks Steve!

If The Moog or Rakiko don't have a lead on this, I don't know who would.

...i love how damn grumpy it looks!

AND thanks for the link to yr blog. It's damn damn cool.

^^ No idea . . . certainly looks quite old . . . I'd say its most likely a promo figure for some company.
The kanji will be your best bet for a clue to i.d.

Are you sure its a dog? It has human hands and feet, not paws.
Maybe its a Yokai of some kind.

I think its wonderful

BTW, I suspect this is made of what is known as celluloid. Lots of older toys from that period were made of this.

I think your right. We tried doing some hunting last night after we realized it was probably a logo above the 'Japan' text. We came to the conclusion it's celluloid. Really light and fragile feeling. There is a bit of give which allows you to open the mouth, but I wouldn't dare try to hard. ha ha.
Ainsley thinks it's a cat... I think it's a dog... but ya, human hands etc.

The first kanji is this 新. Unfortunately I can't make out the second kanji all that well. It may not be a company name. It looks like it reads model 21766. But I don't know for sure.

My best guess is that its a 50s celluloid toy that more than likely wasn't based on any character. That being said, I hope I am wrong. Great find!

Of course as soon as I posted, I thought of Bonzo the dog, which is a character that seems similar and was a popular figure in 50s Japan.

I suggest you do a bootleg of this excellent little toy then we can all have our chances at having one.

Here's a Bonzo I bought some time ago. This one is definitely celluloid, but as you can see it's too weak to stand. the other two celluloid toys I have can't stand either. From what I could find out, these are older than the 50s more like the 20s.


I don't know who this character is but I agree with everyone, it's just fantastic.

[quote="3x3is9"]I just posted a close up in the 'closeup' thread... but I'd love to ID this guy.
Ainsley and I found him at a antique shop. She wrote up a little blog post on her blog here: http://lifewithtoys.blogspot.ca/2014/03/vintage-japanese-toy.html

It's in shampoo bottle style plastic.. really light. It's eyes are suspended on a metal bit that's attached on the inside of it's head.





Sweet piece!

For my looks like a bulldog, it's awesome Axolotl!

yes definitely! I want a bootleg one!


also... I think this thing is some sort of dog-boy or werewolf boy.

like jo jo the dog faced boy..

Pretty sure the kanji reads 新衆

I think you may have it on the bottom portion of the second kanji. But I see four horizontal lines in the character (although one may be due to the contortion of the bottom portion) where 衆 has only three at max.

新楽? "new fun"? doesn't make sense.

I don't think that's the second kanji. The upper portion is too complex on the stamp.

I suspect this figure is pretty old, perhaps as far back as the 1920s. It is possible that (1) the second kanji is obscure and/or not commonly used today, and (2) there is no information on the company on the Internet. Even if we get close on the characters, we may never be able to verify it, outside of finding an expert on celluloid figures in Japan. The only people that I can think of offhand might be the staff at Hen-ya (Mandarake) in Nakano Broadway.

Yeah you're right, maybe an old form or something tho, the top definitely looks like 血. But like you say figuring out what it is is likely to not help at all...

I was just emailing with a friend in Japan about this. This is what he says:

"The upper character is "新" .
Reading is "shin".
This character means "new".

Decipherment is difficult for a lower character.
"衆"?"宗"?"東"?"

He thinks it's likely the company name, but wasn't familiar with it.