EDIT: Added new pics of the '67 and better pics of the '62.

My toy collecting is tied to my childhood love of daikaiju eiga (Japanese giant monster movies). As a kid I spent countless hours watching these movies on TV with my older cousin and re-living the experience by drawing my own scenes of giant monster destruction or playing "monsters" with my friends (aka wrestling in the dirt while making roaring noises).

King Kong vs. Godzilla was a landamark movie of the period. It resolved the endless schoolyard debates of who would win in a fight, and uncovered more secrets of primate behavior than Jane Goodall. Scientific facts that we all now take for granted, like the way that a tired ape can draw strength from a direct lightining strike. Or how a wild ape's natural enemy is the octopus.

Since this was such a memorable film it has always been a sore spot with vinyl kaiju collectors, myself included, that there has never really been a proper Toho Kong figure done. Sure, there have been a few generic "giant apes", and an Elvis haired Bandai attempt, but liscencing and other sticky legal issues have made it near impossible for a truly accurate depiction of the Toho Kong suit to appear in vinyl.

Finally in 2006 something was done to remedy the situation. Something wonderful. Enter the brave and daring souls of the super secret, un-official, un-known company APES. Lawyers and other toy biz scoundrels might characterize APES as a terrorist toy company, but you and I can rest assured that they are in fact vinyl freedom fighters!

APES struck out at the corporate system in true guerilla fashion and produced accurate depictions of not only the afore mentioned '62 Kong, but also his counterpart featured in the Toho epic King Kong Escapes. These heroes dared to defy the legal departments of both Toho and Universal and created masterpieces to fill the Kong voids in vinyl collections from Tokyo to New Jersey.

Recently, through a series of shadowy underworld contacts, I have been able to acquire a sample of the coveted '62 Kong. It is cast in high gloss black vinyl and sprayed simply with brown and grey, an understated and elegant ape that will forever hold an important place in my collection and my heart.

I salute you brave heroes of APES, whoever you are!




New pics:

Freaking Awesome! Wow, I need one!

I really love that movie and I got the Akira Ifukube score when it came out last year. In Oct. the Austin Wind Symphony. will be doing the score. Im psyched, the score is nuts and all that Island music... its going be great live.

http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/

Damn, Alex!!! You know how to drop the Toho knowledge.

I have vivid memories of this movie being on tv. The week of ads leading up to it was the talk of school. I found out mid-week that we were heading out of town the weekend of its airing. Luckily, the relatives we were visiting were gracious enough to let me watch it.

Kong is getting the love!

Great post and congrats on adding something to the collection that has such a personal history. He's awesome.

wow

I just realized how right on the arms are!

We can only hope Mecha-Kong is next.

i personally love the wax job on the pec's...

I think those are just big areolas.

I'm with you Rodney, I'd love to see these guys do a Mechani-Kong!

These sold out pretty quick in 2006 when they came out, but recently they have been popping up on YJA again. Someone must have found a box of them somewhere, or maybe a re-release.

They're not cheap but they're big and cool. Plus the whole cloak and dagger aspect makes them extra fun. No header, no liscencing info. Just pirate Kong goodness. Punk as fuck!

If anyone was at the show in '06 when these were released, please PM me. I have questions about the release.

Thanks for the nice words guys, glad you enjoyed it.

These APE do rule. I am so glad I got these this time around. The first 2 are so freakin expensive!

Do you know if these are a re-release Dennis?

I only saw the first batch in pictures, but I can't see any difference in the paintjob.

I need the King Kong Escapes version.

I think the first 2 were brown vinyl. I havent seen them in so long I have kinda forgotten.

Holy crap! You're right, I just looked at the pics on Club Tokyo. They look greyish or brownish.

I really prefer the black vinyl, now I'm glad I missed out on the first ones.

Also, it looks like both Kongs share the same body sculpt, just different heads.

Really? I didnt notice that. Now I gotta go check. I do like the black vinyl better too!!

If you have it...
Post a pic with the M-1 Kong Goji.

Yeah, they were rereleased earlier this year, guess they decided the "heat" was off !!

Here's a pic of my Kong Family Portrait including the original APES release from last year.

Left to right: Apes Kong '62, Yamakatsu Mechanikong, Billiken Mechanikong, Bandai King Kong, Bandai Mechanikong, Apes Kong '67.

Awesome group John!

Can you confirm if the '62 and '67 APES Kongs share the same body sculpt?

Also what color vinyl were the first pair?

And lastly, that Billikin Mechani-Kong is stunning, is it a pre-painted kit?

Sorry to chime in, but i LOVE Mecha Kong.

I have that kit, it was molded in grey, I painted mine a blueish silver.

There was also a Volks vinyl kit about the same size, with the bomb-belt, but I rarely ever see that one.

KZ's MK looks nice and extra chromey!

I'm jealous about these Apes. They are so nice.

HI TT, thx for the props about the pic. Yes, the body sculpts are identical; the only mold difference with the figures are the heads.

The base vinyl on both of the original releases is a dark blue that is only visible on the bottoms of the feet. As can be seen in the pic, both are painted in a dark grey base color with the '62 having black spray accents and the '67 with dark brown.

They were packaged in a plain clear vinyl bag with APES JAPAN (English text) on the right foot and ゴリ ラ (GO-RI-RA (Gorilla) in Katakana on the left.

My Billiken MechaniKong was purchased second-hand from a comic book store 5 years ago, I think it is the pre-painted kit - got if for $22 !! It is quite massive as can be seen from the pic - all my figures were posed on the same flat-level surface to show relative scale.

Me too - but then again I love ALL Toho Mecha, especially the SHOWA MechaGodzilla and Mogera.

I am working on some drawings to carve a MechaniKong from wood, that'll happen one of these days. Probably blend design details from the movie with the more rustic nature of the Bullmark sculpt.


The Volks MechaniKong vinyl came out in 1984, stands right at 12", a tad bit more than the Billiken. Guess I'll have to fight you for that one as I don't have it either !!

Chime away Paul! Let's see some pics of that Billikin kit!

Pics of Kong vs. King Goji coming in the morning as per your request.


Best $22 spent ever!

Thanks for the additional info on the first APES release John.

I have to get that '67 and a Gorosaurus for him to fight.

I miss those debates

And don't forget the rumors of there being 2 versions, one with Goji winning and one with Kong winning (turned out not to be true...the US version just cut out about 10 min of footage over the entire movie). With the re-release of these remastered Goji films on DVD, including Japanese versions, I'm hoping GvsKK is soon to arrive.

Looks like his hand is big enough to grip a tail?

Maybe you can re-create "Big Swing"!!!

Twisted minds think alike! I had the same idea. I took the pics last night, but left the card reader in my office.

I wanted to take these outside but it was too dark.


Big swing!

The King of Swing!!!!


hahahha!