I just saw this book I AM PLASTIC by your good buddy from KR Paul. All I can say is this thing SUCKS! The books is all up on the jock of SB and BXH, but is gets all the names of the figures wrong. how can you feature them in the front of the book, but get all the info wrong? And if they are gonna be cool guy on the pulse of vinyl today, why did all the good shit get left out and all the lame "looks like everything else" shit get included.

Did anyone else see this book? add it to the pile of other shit "toy books" that can't seem to stop coming out these days. I wonder if all these publishers knew that every other publisher was working on a "toy book".

That's one of my biggest pet peeves. Not just regarding SB, but anything - anything that goes to print with mis-information (ESPECIALLY when they're trying to come across as being "in the know") bugs the shit outta me!

W/all of the info on these figs readily available whos the moron that got the names wrong..Gotta love it!

that is what bugged me most. I think something got translated wrong when they talked to them.

"On the Japanese 'fight figure' front, the name that comes to mind first and foremost is Sucret Bays and their innovative line of 'School Brines."

Is that an actual quote? I have to ask because it's hard to tell when Loco is joking or is being serious!

I haven't purchased any of these toy books yet (mooks and magazines don't count). Is there a "good" one out there??

weird, from the interviews I've seen Paul seems like he's been into this stuff from the beginning. I would think he would know better.

The funny part is with the Biskup cover issue of S7 and 30-45min reading old pages on Skullbrain you could totally fake the flavor and at least act like you know. Sounds like some bad QC and general diletante cheesy cocktail party jive.

I don't have any of these toy books, but would have thought that many would be outdated by the time they were sent to the printers. At least that was while the toy thing was growing, but now it's grown as stale month old bread any new books would be up to date for a few years.

I think Mook's are the only viable thing to do for the cutting edge of the toy scene.

There's "So Crazy Japanese Toys!" paperback for $16 sort of a picture fieldguide to earlier toys. Nothing new like SB or RxH if I remember correctly. A number of photos from Flynn's collection. Helped me to identify some stuff that I'll never touch like a Frankenruge.

http://www.amazon.com/Crazy-Japanese-Toys-Jimbo-Matison/dp/0811835294/sr=8-1/qid=1161219972/ref=sr_1_1/002-5327109-7541644?ie=UTF8&s=books

I thought Vinyl Will Kill was an interesting read a couple years back. Nothing releated to Japanese Vinyl but still nice Coffee Table Book?

This was brought up elsewhere but the weird selection on the cover...as well as the height/police line up where nothing is to scale..
that set me off right away

check out the Amazon reviews!

Posers must die!

none show up for me yet
however kr doesnt own amazon so they can't stop bad press there

KR is trying to hit mainstream and become a "lifestyle" brand. They do not care about "niche" collectors, only about selling more. This book is just a marketing trick to increase awareness of the wonderful toy culture, and KR the world's largest manufacturer and reseller of toys. I haven't seen it, but I doubt it has any insight to offer other than how to "hit it big".

poseurs...you forgot the "u"....hmmmm. what's that mean? but i do know you're a good guy.

let's look at the bright side for a change...people care enough to put out and work on and spend resources on documenting this shit!

i'm serious when i say this...publishing is EASY...anybody wanna volunteer to do the "right job" on japanese stuff...doesn't have to be a huge book...100 pages or so...hardcover - i WILL PAY FOR IT.

there's a challenge. who's prepared? who can do it better?

i wanna see a taker! got any blood or sweat? i know you have tears!

DEAD SERIOUS...I'D LOVE TO SEE IT HAPPEN PERFECTLY.

who's it gonna be? i'll help a tad and pay the cash-ola. i fully agree it NEEDS TO BE DONE RIGHT. you need to be able to get permissions, photos and can write (small amount)

infresno@yahoo.com

If you can write, I can design and illustrate... and I have done my own publications before. I offer my services if others are interested. Doing some form of book rocks. Also I am in HK and its the closest place to China for printing, and we can do lots of great things with covers and special effects.

I know the guys who publish the design books in Hong Kong and I am sure they can help us either getting this published or give me enough info for progress.

Basically I am saying I AM IN. We just need to organize info and photos consistent in some great art directed style. Wanna play?

Just throwing out ideas.

PS. If you want to know what I have done, here is my site: www.atomicattack.com. and I also have a blog with more recent work http://kidcal.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog/ Thanks.

designing books is a long, tedious and often thankless job. i designed a coffee table book for Drew Struzan (he painted a lot of early SW, IJ movie posters). You put tons of work into retouching and color correcting scans, doing page layouts, setting up a six color print job with spots and varnishes and then the publisher turns around and finds the cheapest printer possible (which did happen to be in china), decides that 6 colors is a waste and everything becomes your typical 4 color job and to top it off, they slap a ridiculous looking dust jacket over the whole thing. once it is out of your hands all you can do is just pray. luckily we (my boss, not myself) got to go to a press check in china, and were able to make sure the color was ok. all in all the book turned out good, just not as good as it could have been.

yeah it can be like that, however we can be in full control of this . but the publisher, Victor a good friend I know is also a designer. He produced those victionary design books, top quality work with exceptional printing. http://www.victionary.com.

I think S7 is the organization with the most juice to do a comprehensive book that has yet to be done of the new stuff. Since we pay good money for our toy fix, it's quite possible that they're waiting for a good amount of time to pass to maybe make a large, expensive, comprehensive hardcover S7 encyclopedia, a grail all of its own.
On the other hand, the magazine itself serves as a comprehensive look at the toys we love. A 5-7 page update spread could capture every SB release not in the original spread, (although many are in the toy news section), and the same applies with blobpus and gargamel. The Real Head article hasn't come out because its gonna be some serious shit when it comes out. And Rumble Monsters will for sure be covered. I'm not into classic kaiju or machinders or macross, or RxH, Kaws, etc. but it's the definition of keeping it real because S7 gives equal love to all eras and lines of JP toys. It's always an interesting and well researched read even if I'm not inclined to collect the toys myself.
I say, in comicbook fashion a TPB of sorts should be made, to make the old issues readily available.

You want damn near perfection? http://www.timbrisko.com/super1/

Sure it's not vinyl, but bruvva, it's got "japanese stuff"....

The point is, that if your going to put in the time, effort, and money to put something out, why do it half-assed? As an author, wouldn't you want your work to BE perfect? Isn't QC part of the publishing process, as well? All rhetorical questions. By the way, I HAVEN'T seen this book, and really am not specifically referring to it. More to the idea suggested that it's better to have something out there, even if it is crap, than to have nothing.

or downloadable PDFs! it's basically free.

to Super7 customers only.

I agree with deemranks. There's no real need for a book on J-vinyl when we have S7. That said, I think an S7 book would RULE. They've got the format down and the information and access to information required to put together quality publications. I like the fact that it's a magazine as it's easily updateable. But a large volume, hard-cover book would be nice to flip through every so often.