That's Norakuro of the Imperial Japanese Army!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norakuro

Sorry, I looked through my files and must not have saved a pic. I will let you know if I see another one on YJA.

What a great thread! I've been in graphics for many years and studied art forever, and I have to say that examples such as these are a very rare breath of great and unusual fun!

I just picked this up on yja for 2000 yen! Pretty stoked color pics as well as B&W
The initial bid was the Buy it now price... whaddya know

Heres the page if anyone can hip me to info on this book
http://page11.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/n58958594

Found it on Amazon, see it here. ISBN is 4845997673. Looks cool!

Thanks for the link... note to self check amazon.jp first

You actually saved money by getting it off of YJA.

EDIT: Then again, auction fees, etc., you may not have.

(sorry)

WoW Mark, great pieces! I have a big passion for the kaiju ephemera as well, I'll have to dig up all the vintage Japanese Kaiju posters I have to add to the thread. In the meantime I had a question about the first pic of the framed Bullmark catalog, does the photo wrap around to show more figures? "The Bullmark Story" book (highly recommended) has a few outtakes of that photo shoot but shows more on the left side.
Also, in the book are a series of promo photos showing a father and son hanging with some BIG figures. I really wasn't sure if these were clever and skillfull photo composites or were these actual giant figures Bullmark made for their catalog.

kinda wondering when someone was going to mention poster art . between mark k and onibaba5 this thread go on for a very long time !

Yep, they're real. A Jirass is on display at the Kodomo no Jidaikan in Niigata, I have another book that shows an Eleking that's in the hands of a private collector, and a while back on Toybox DX, someone was telling stories about a guy in Hawaii that had the Gomora on his porch.

OMG!

maybe there were 2 elekings made . saw the head at a mandarake and was told some other collectors had bits and pieces of it . the gamora on someones back porch in hawaii is news to me .

Hey Mark,
I just scored this book new from Kinokuniya bookstore in Manhattan.
A bit pricey but it is definitely amazing!

that came up years back. I think it was missing the tail and has some other issues. Still an amazing find.

I have the red and gold guy. Who is he? One of my favorite figures.
Thanks for sharing. I think the old print ads for the toys are just as fun to look at. Sort of like previewing an old catalog when you were a kid to see what you wanted for Christmas.

Spectreman

Dug this up the day when cleaning out my posters. It is basically a one sheet.

Out from the fire safe...

I got this re issue set back in 2002.
it was well over $100 and I had been pondering it every time I went to the Japanese bookstore.It was just sitting there gathering dust on the shelf.

I didn't EVEN know what was in it.



So there's X3 reproduction children's books with some of the MOST amazing art, a CD of recordings of the records that came with the books, a poster, some bonus inserts.

i wish I could scan it all, but the spine is so tender, i don't want to split them!
One book has "western" style monsters. Like gremlins.


One other has Kaiju anatomy. really amazing stuff, my most coveted of books.

These are phenomenal finds! I have the original book that has the anatomical drawings.... amazing stuff.
I thought I was the only one collecting this stuff.

Heh....I think we're all fighting over this stuff. By the way, I know one of you is "priest-knives". I hate you. Okay, maybe just despise.

t'isn't me... tee hee...

Had to share these great posters I recently acquired. First up are two from Maemura. One advertising a Mirrorman book and the other an Ultraman record that also features other heroes and kaiju including Maguma the space walrus.




A new favorite of mine: a map of Monster Island from a candy company that features Minira encountering Kamakiris, Gorosaurus, Gabera, some unknown lake monster, and Kumonga while Godzilla battles Ebira off the south coast.

there's an old post somewheres around here about the guy. There's a cool die-cast too.

Here's mine:

Mark...those posters are great, great, great!