hey brian, josh, all the rest of staff and most particularly, the rest of the board members:

i was just reading the minor bruhaha that developed over in the gargamel forum about posting zag pix and one new user posting about how they just wanted to learn....

....just recently. akufm6 and i, both presented as topics in japan toys, visual identification lists, mine for dokugans and aks for dream rocket....another board memeber commented then that they had done one for another company, but it was lost somewhere back in the pages....

....many of us, i am sure, when they are trying to remember a toy or get a good picture of it or find a particular version, find ourselves clicking on kaiju taro invariably to find that pic....

....wouldn't it be great if it were all here, in an easy to find place, under separate topic headings?

what i'm proposing is a new forum section that would be just visual identification lists on each major form of kaiju out there, whether it be an artist's certain character or a whole companies output, these lists would quickly become an invaluable resource for many people out there. and it would bring people to skullbrain, not kaiju taro to shop, which is what almost always happpens every time i have to find a pic....i land there and have a looksie while i'm there and then 1 out of 3 or 4 times, i end up buying something there.

so, how many would be in support of a new forum section like this? the reason i think it should be its own section is just for ease of use, finding things, and these lists not getting buried in pages and pages of other stuff in several differnet sections of the forums, y'know?

discuss....

an archive by character would be awesome.

i think the mook will help and any accompanying website

I think someone was working on something like this (thats where the hedoran pics came from). I would prefer a wiki type thing but someone tried making one and it never took off.

the mook will rule..but no way for it to be current after a month.

I think if 1 person could 'edit' submissions and post a sirt of comprehensive archive
by company/character t hat would be amazing.

should be easy theres only eleventy million figures.

this is a great idea
so glad it was done with the dokuguns( now to get the rest of the blobpus family)

Has to be a web application database of some sort that allows searching, updates etc.
To do it with a forum, while a nice idea, would be difficult to update and search and drill down to a single figure.

On a related note, I think eventually this BBS board software will be supplanted by these social networking sites with plugins and mini apps. You'll have your own homepage space, personal calendar, assorted other junk in an online world where you can join or host discussions. You'll be able to embed movies, audio and other stuff.

I voted yes! I am eager and ready to soak in as much information and knowledge as possible!!!

A little birdy said it's already happening with tons of toys and manufacturers. Get ready to be blown away or incredibly disappointed to know how many toys you're missing.

Besides a visual checklist. I would also actually like to see a side by side height chart.
Often times when I buy a figure I'm amazed at how small it actually is. (I just bought a birduzasu and it's tiny)

It could be random but I'd love to see a mini zag, gargadeath, cronic maversau, mutant head, skullkun, fullsize zag, gogamezilla all side by side to see how tall or small they actually are.

i vote yes...i have a short attention span and like to look at pretty pictures.

I will never be disappointed of how many toys are out out there that I'll never own. I also collect hardcore/punk records and I have about 4K in my collection and my Japanese want list alone is about 400 vinyls. I've learned to appreciate what I got and enjoy it(though I'm still looking for a Gauze "Fuckheads" original lp on ADK REcords. will pay good $$).

My impression is that people on this forum do not like pictures of toys.

I would say limit the pix to front and back 'catalog' shots only for archive purposes.

curious..why would anyone vote 'no'?

i don't think this is the case at all. it's all about the manner they are posted in...no?

It's the multiple "spam" threads for one photoshop'ed toy in the same sterile setting that aren't well received. A (near) complete resource in one place would be awesome.

I voted yes but to play devil's advocate on why people might vote "no" I was thinking that it might deter people from actually buying the mook and/or it also cause people to flip or increase prices. People might not sell for rfso prices if they know how rare or how much people would covet some piece. It could cause people to scramble and pay 3x the amount to become completists on things.

I mean 'the website that shall not be named' already has a mutant head on there for 140 when it was sold at s7 a month ago for 60.

Because most likely no one would do it. We would end up with a forum section where the only post are by people complaining about the lack of lists and pictures. Then it would somehow become S7 fault..........

A pic collection db would be rad, but a lot of work to maintain. Too bad each toymaker doesnt have a online catalogue of all their releases But the best thing to do before asking what so and so toy looks like is to do a search

You're right the search function works excellent on this board.

and with a 'new forum' it might cause more hippo policing.

Although I am obviously biased on this question, I think a separate reference forum would be a good way to have a knowledge base built of lines (e.g., Bear Model, Marmit Vinyl Parababies, etc.) that may not necessarily make it into mook form.

I doubt it would cause price increases, except maybe when run sizes are posted. On the other hand, I suppose increased knowledge could lead to increased demand, which could lead to increased prices indirectly. On the flip side, accurate release information would keep people from misrepresenting the rarity of a certain toy.

Overall, I really enjoy this forum as a source of information, and I think reference threads are a good way to keep the accumulated wisdom of board members in a single place.

I like the idea, so I voted "yes", but I'm also curious as to what locomoto is hinting at on the horizon.

I hear what folks are saying. If we worry too much about how this will benefit the flippers we could loose an apportunity to have access to some valuable information. I think this is coming from the secretive nature that came from the pre-internet era of collecting Japanese vinyl/toys. We can always omit going price and runsize if that's the case. So I vote yes..