While not technically of the same timeframe as what most might consider vintage, these figures - which seem to have come out around 1983 - qualify for me in a roundabout way in that 1) they appeared before the late 80s/early 90s resurgence of full size kaiju toys, and 2) are essentially just direct copies of the vintage deals, which were not available for sale at the time.
They have been mentioned on here a few times before, but I thought it would be interesting and worthwhile to gather all the knowledge people have on them together in one place. I don't know much more than what has already been said, but I am sure if we put our collective toyheads together we might come up with some interesting stories. I know I would love to know more. As a brief refresher,
brianflynn wrote:
The flesh vinyls that you see are almost exclusively the 1983 bootlegs. They are made from the original molds, so they have the same markings, but are a very thin and cheap flesh vinyl. There are both Godzilla and Ultra flesh figures in standard and giant size, as well as a few random characters like Daimajin. They are a light flesh color. There is no rhyme or reason to which vinyls were made other than what was available at that time. Mogera is probably the easiest to find, and is very common. There are 30+ flesh 1983 vinyls.
So, on to the important stuff: the toys.
I have picked up a few of these recently, and while the quality may not be quite there compared to the originals, they are nonetheless great figures and I feel like they occupy an important part of the toy manufacturing history. Bootleg toys by themselves fascinate me, but to have something seemingly random remade like this, in a whole series, without a license, and some 10 years or more after the originals came out is incredibly interesting. I do love the flesh vinyl, but thinking of all the crazy and fun bootleg paint schemes I can dream up that they might have done for the characters really gets me smiling. I'd love to know more about the history of these toys, who made them, how they produced the molds (from original casts?), and how they were sold/appeared on the market. The inspiration to boot the original kaiju must have been really something if you stop and think about it (and very novel at the time, I would venture to say), and possibly lead to the reproductions we see now of so many of the original molds, which we take for granted in collecting, and which forms the basis - at least for me - of the hobby.First off, a "Marusan" KO Daimajin. I really like this guy, even though he might be missing his scabbard. Not as cool as the original, of course, but far easier on the wallet. Daimajin remains one of the classic toy sculpts. A nice transition figure to the M1 repros until I can someday add a vintage version to my toy family. Interestingly, this guy had his legs reversed initially when I got him (see lower photo) just like the originals often did/do. So weird. Especially after all that time and awareness. Anyhow, I debated leaving them as is, for pseudo-historical appeal, but in the end had to pull out the ol' hair dryer and gave him the proper leg stance. Now he stands equally ready for vigilant guard duty in the rockface or town terrorising.
Standard sized Daimajin bootleg:
early shot demonstrating the swapped feet:
). Being a primary 
