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El_Notario
Fresh Meat
Joined: Mon Dec 22, 2008 8:38 am
Posts: 46
Location: Montreal
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 Re: Collecting in the Pre-Internet Era Between 1992 and 1997 I was doing my best to collect Japanese toys, but most of what I ended up with were Bandai plastic model kits (SD Gundam, Dougram) and some candy toys and gachapon knock-offs from Hong Kong (including some wonderful SD Getta Robo and Mazinger PVCs and SD Kamen Rider and Ultraman stampers.)
It was only on a series of trips to NYC in 1999-2000 that I picked up some Bandai vinyl (Crazy Gon and Mechagodzilla), some Kubrick (Planet of the Apes and Votoms), Transformers reissue (Hot Rod) at 360 Toy Group and some other stores I can't remember now. I didn't, however, pick up the KAWS Chum as it exceeded my then-meager budget. But Crazy Gon is still one of my favorite toys of all time.
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| Thu Sep 24, 2009 5:43 pm |
 
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Russblue11
Post Pimp
Joined: Sat Sep 11, 2010 8:03 pm
Posts: 2927
Location: Orlando, FL
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Re: Collecting in the Pre-Internet Era Us new collectors definitely have it easy these days...
I wish the photos kaiwi posted were still visible!
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| Tue Jul 09, 2013 8:20 pm |
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chimmychazz
Addicted
Joined: Wed May 25, 2011 7:00 am
Posts: 970
Location: brooklyn
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Re: Collecting in the Pre-Internet Era Reading through this whole thread was great, thanks for digging it up Kevin!
So many old threads here on SB, filled with an amazing amount of knowledge.
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bolboy wrote: why is everyone here such assholes..all you guys get pretty fucking cocky behind your computer screens
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| Wed Jul 10, 2013 9:35 am |
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Waiting...
Comment King
Joined: Tue Nov 10, 2009 1:55 pm
Posts: 1337
Location: Cleveland Ohio
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Re: Collecting in the Pre-Internet Era Absolutely perfect time for this to pop up, a fancy PB&J operation opened up in my hometown ran up there with MarkK and the guy running it turned out to be a collector of varied Japanese goods and after a bit of gabbing back and forth it turned out he knew the guy that ran the shop I used to get a fat portion of my imports from(he did as well) Atomic Eye, in that time before the internet, I also used to get a ton of stuff from ads in indy comics and varied collectors magazines, as a kid I got in well with every comic shop owner I could and that turned out to be a good idea as when I hit my teens and got big into anime I would often get access to the backroom of private stash goodness and adult goods 
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| Wed Jul 10, 2013 2:02 pm |
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BrickBat
Addicted
Joined: Wed Jun 20, 2012 11:03 am
Posts: 534
Location: Philadelphia
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Re: Greasebat wrote: What a great thread..like most guys I was into Ultraman/Godzilla in the 70's as a kid. My richer-than-us neighbors all had Shoguns...I had a 6 inch rubber Godzilla knock-off with a horn on his head and a broken leg. Later in life, like 1985, Cherry from the Japanese punk band Zouo came to stay with us. He gave me a Bandai Ultraman 6" as a house gift. That started it for me. Me and two of my friends bought all the Dougram, Godaikin , Robotech stuff we could find. Some stores in Pittsburgh had the Godaikin knock-offs, we scarfed them up. When my punk band would tour we took my best friend along as a roadie. We would go to a Japanese toy store in Philly, on South Street. They had the big Mazinga store display figure. In Austin we stayed with Tim Kerr and were just blown away...didn't make it to Atomic City though, I forget why. Then we made it out to LA and Japan town. Got some cool stuff there. I worked in an indie record/comic store ( Eides in Pittsburgh). We used to order toys from Horizon in LA, thats where I got most of my stuff. I used to ( and still do ) send rare punk records to a record store in Tokyo in exchange for kaiju... Since the mid-90s I've just been buying off and on. I absolutely love the stuff though. Woah, we had a Japanese toy store in Philly on South Street!!?? When was this, what was the name? I live a few blocks from South Street, its kind of a blessing and a curse that it isn't there anymore. I'd be so broke. Thanks for bringing this thread back. I just read it front to back. What a great eye-opening read.
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| Thu Jul 11, 2013 11:10 am |
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Greasebat
Side Dealer
Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2007 6:48 pm
Posts: 2415
Location: NE OHIO
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Re: Collecting in the Pre-Internet Era Can't remember the name... it was very small and had a lot of different things, but a substantial amount of stuff straight from Japan. Transforming robots, keshi Ultramonsters, Bandai Ultraman figures... they had a display case on South Street with one of the jumbo Mazinga store display figures- about 4 feet tall?
I think I bought my Ultraman 80 "Space Mammy" diecast spaceship there.
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| Thu Jul 11, 2013 8:30 pm |
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BKC
Fresh Meat
Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 4:29 am
Posts: 43
Location: Pittsburgh
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Re: Greasebat wrote: What a great thread..like most guys I was into Ultraman/Godzilla in the 70's as a kid. My richer-than-us neighbors all had Shoguns...I had a 6 inch rubber Godzilla knock-off with a horn on his head and a broken leg. Later in life, like 1985, Cherry from the Japanese punk band Zouo came to stay with us. He gave me a Bandai Ultraman 6" as a house gift. That started it for me. Me and two of my friends bought all the Dougram, Godaikin , Robotech stuff we could find. Some stores in Pittsburgh had the Godaikin knock-offs, we scarfed them up. When my punk band would tour we took my best friend along as a roadie. We would go to a Japanese toy store in Philly, on South Street. They had the big Mazinga store display figure. In Austin we stayed with Tim Kerr and were just blown away...didn't make it to Atomic City though, I forget why. Then we made it out to LA and Japan town. Got some cool stuff there. I worked in an indie record/comic store ( Eides in Pittsburgh). We used to order toys from Horizon in LA, thats where I got most of my stuff. I used to ( and still do ) send rare punk records to a record store in Tokyo in exchange for kaiju... Since the mid-90s I've just been buying off and on. I absolutely love the stuff though. We did go to Atomic city pal, and I continued to buy from there for many years calling him and asking "did you get anything new in? yeah, awesome I'll take it". The store in Philly was called 'Rocketships and Accessories'(I think) and I remember contemplating shoplifting 'cos they had so much cool stuff, I also ended up mail-ordering from there as well. Tim Kerr's house really blew my mind back then, I mean he had so much stuff, thats where I first saw the Bullmark Devilman with removable helmet and became obsessed with (and 13yrs later acquired one). Kimono my House was another place I bought from, I was on the list that they had for their Japan Buying Trips, at the time all I wanted was Jumbos and they came thru for me, twice.
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| Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:31 am |
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Greasebat
Side Dealer
Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2007 6:48 pm
Posts: 2415
Location: NE OHIO
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Re: Collecting in the Pre-Internet Era ^^^^ Ladies and Gentlemen, my best friend has joined Skullbrain! Thanks for clearing that up, I thought for sure Atomic City was closed. All I remember is Tim Kerr's house, and you being chased by a Doberman.
Me and BKC went to art school together, and we scraped & scrounged for Japanese toys for years.
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| Fri Jul 12, 2013 8:37 am |
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Chad Hensley
Illuminati
Joined: Mon Nov 14, 2005 6:55 pm
Posts: 2655
Location: San Diego
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Re: Collecting in the Pre-Internet Era Prints from Atomic City!
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| Fri Jul 12, 2013 10:34 am |
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BrickBat
Addicted
Joined: Wed Jun 20, 2012 11:03 am
Posts: 534
Location: Philadelphia
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Re: Collecting in the Pre-Internet Era Thanks for the info guys! Sucks to have missed out on a cool shop like that.
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| Fri Jul 12, 2013 8:08 pm |
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dokuroking
Comment King
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:26 pm
Posts: 1256
Location: Los Angeles
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Re: Re: That's Quakerhead Collectibles. It started way out in the burbs, then to university city for a few years then to south street. I just saw Ted last week. He's dealing in KPop stuff now. BrickBat wrote: Greasebat wrote: What a great thread..like most guys I was into Ultraman/Godzilla in the 70's as a kid. My richer-than-us neighbors all had Shoguns...I had a 6 inch rubber Godzilla knock-off with a horn on his head and a broken leg. Later in life, like 1985, Cherry from the Japanese punk band Zouo came to stay with us. He gave me a Bandai Ultraman 6" as a house gift. That started it for me. Me and two of my friends bought all the Dougram, Godaikin , Robotech stuff we could find. Some stores in Pittsburgh had the Godaikin knock-offs, we scarfed them up. When my punk band would tour we took my best friend along as a roadie. We would go to a Japanese toy store in Philly, on South Street. They had the big Mazinga store display figure. In Austin we stayed with Tim Kerr and were just blown away...didn't make it to Atomic City though, I forget why. Then we made it out to LA and Japan town. Got some cool stuff there. I worked in an indie record/comic store ( Eides in Pittsburgh). We used to order toys from Horizon in LA, thats where I got most of my stuff. I used to ( and still do ) send rare punk records to a record store in Tokyo in exchange for kaiju... Since the mid-90s I've just been buying off and on. I absolutely love the stuff though. Woah, we had a Japanese toy store in Philly on South Street!!?? When was this, what was the name? I live a few blocks from South Street, its kind of a blessing and a curse that it isn't there anymore. I'd be so broke. Thanks for bringing this thread back. I just read it front to back. What a great eye-opening read.
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Help me complete my collections need Gargamel one Smoking Corps Cigarette Monster (I only need one to complete the set, please have a look!). Want list with pics here: viewtopic.php?f=26&t=18930&p=244514#p244514
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| Sat Jul 13, 2013 7:17 am |
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Materialist Zen
Toy Prince
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 9:02 am
Posts: 181
Location: Pittsburgh
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Re: Collecting in the Pre-Internet Era I couldn't help but notice that no one else mentioned the various CREATION Cons (Star Trek, Dr. Who, ROBOTECH) that toured the country in the 80's. They were a nice break from the local comic shops. Those dealer rooms were like an oasis of amazing genre swag from all over, including toys and books from Japan. You never knew what you would find. Also a great spot to find cult Japanese tv and movies on bootleg VHS. At one point they were being held locally twice, maybe three times a year, but by the mid-90's they vanished. I hauled a lot of Kenner Star Wars, Anime books, and Bandai sofubi out of those shows. They are some of my favorite memories of collecting.
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| Sat Jul 13, 2013 7:50 am |
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BrickBat
Addicted
Joined: Wed Jun 20, 2012 11:03 am
Posts: 534
Location: Philadelphia
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Re: Re: dokuroking wrote: That's Quakerhead Collectibles. It started way out in the burbs, then to university city for a few years then to south street. I just saw Ted last week. He's dealing in KPop stuff now. BrickBat wrote: Greasebat wrote: What a great thread..like most guys I was into Ultraman/Godzilla in the 70's as a kid. My richer-than-us neighbors all had Shoguns...I had a 6 inch rubber Godzilla knock-off with a horn on his head and a broken leg. Later in life, like 1985, Cherry from the Japanese punk band Zouo came to stay with us. He gave me a Bandai Ultraman 6" as a house gift. That started it for me. Me and two of my friends bought all the Dougram, Godaikin , Robotech stuff we could find. Some stores in Pittsburgh had the Godaikin knock-offs, we scarfed them up. When my punk band would tour we took my best friend along as a roadie. We would go to a Japanese toy store in Philly, on South Street. They had the big Mazinga store display figure. In Austin we stayed with Tim Kerr and were just blown away...didn't make it to Atomic City though, I forget why. Then we made it out to LA and Japan town. Got some cool stuff there. I worked in an indie record/comic store ( Eides in Pittsburgh). We used to order toys from Horizon in LA, thats where I got most of my stuff. I used to ( and still do ) send rare punk records to a record store in Tokyo in exchange for kaiju... Since the mid-90s I've just been buying off and on. I absolutely love the stuff though. Woah, we had a Japanese toy store in Philly on South Street!!?? When was this, what was the name? I live a few blocks from South Street, its kind of a blessing and a curse that it isn't there anymore. I'd be so broke. Thanks for bringing this thread back. I just read it front to back. What a great eye-opening read. Pardon my ignorance, but what is kpop?
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| Sat Jul 13, 2013 10:54 am |
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dokuroking
Comment King
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:26 pm
Posts: 1256
Location: Los Angeles
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Re: Collecting in the Pre-Internet Era Korean Pop music related stuff.
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Help me complete my collections need Gargamel one Smoking Corps Cigarette Monster (I only need one to complete the set, please have a look!). Want list with pics here: viewtopic.php?f=26&t=18930&p=244514#p244514
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| Sat Jul 13, 2013 1:07 pm |
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gatiio
Line of Credit
Joined: Thu May 19, 2011 4:03 am
Posts: 1781
Location: Chicago
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Re: Collecting in the Pre-Internet Era 2NE1 for life.
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| Sat Jul 13, 2013 1:19 pm |
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BrickBat
Addicted
Joined: Wed Jun 20, 2012 11:03 am
Posts: 534
Location: Philadelphia
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Re: Collecting in the Pre-Internet Era dokuroking wrote: Korean Pop music related stuff. Hmmm, thank you!
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| Sat Jul 13, 2013 1:43 pm |
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Shirahama
Side Dealer
Joined: Thu Nov 03, 2005 10:45 pm
Posts: 2207
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Re: Greasebat wrote: I used to ( and still do ) send rare punk records to a record store in Tokyo in exchange for kaiju... Since the mid-90s I've just been buying off and on. I absolutely love the stuff though. Mezurashiya?
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| Sat Jul 13, 2013 11:38 pm |
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MattyBoomBatty
Addicted
Joined: Wed Apr 20, 2011 5:23 am
Posts: 867
Location: Inside a Tangled Web of BS
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Re: Collecting in the Pre-Internet Era If you lived in Australia and particularly QLD you got your shit from MY store or PIPPINs and PIPPINS was waaaaaayyyyy better because he had a contact in Japan and he was 20 years older than me so while I knew all my 70s-80s toy shit he knew 60s and up and he was a japanese robots and tin toys specialist.
So people would come to us for "vintage" SW, TF and what I term "modern" mainstream toys and you'd go to PIPPINs for your shit hard, rare vintage Japanese vinyl/tin and pretty much everything else like diecast etc. Plus the guy who actually owned the store I ran was a drug-dealing scumbag who treated the customers like shit and scared more away then he let through the door.
You couldn't get shit in AU though because we wouldn't get the cartoons that went with the toylines so toylines would bomb straight away e.g. we never had the GI Joe cartoon so the toys were a real "WHAT THE FUCK" toyline for us.
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| Sun Jul 14, 2013 2:24 am |
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scobot
Addicted
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2011 1:58 am
Posts: 509
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Re: Collecting in the Pre-Internet Era I'm from Melb and GI Joe was definitely in with the kids
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| Sun Jul 14, 2013 2:57 am |
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delviper
Toy Prince
Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2011 5:19 pm
Posts: 309
Location: Austin, TX
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Re: Collecting in the Pre-Internet Era Chad Hensley wrote: Prints from Atomic City! PRINCE! Haha. I miss Atomic City, used to go there at least once a week. Was able to buy a few cool items from Prince's personal collection right before they closed shop. They'd have storewide 50% off sales a couple times a year and I'd go nuts. Last I saw he was working at a smoke shop down the street from where AC was. I can only imagine the parts of his collection I DIDN'T get to see. Miss that place for sure.
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| Tue Jul 16, 2013 11:28 pm |
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Greasebat
Side Dealer
Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2007 6:48 pm
Posts: 2415
Location: NE OHIO
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Re: Re: Baikin wrote: Greasebat wrote: I used to ( and still do ) send rare punk records to a record store in Tokyo in exchange for kaiju... Since the mid-90s I've just been buying off and on. I absolutely love the stuff though. Mezurashiya? Records Boy ...
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| Wed Jul 17, 2013 9:19 am |
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brianflynn
Site Admin
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:20 pm
Posts: 2674
Location: San Francisco
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Re: Collecting in the Pre-Internet Era Boy records is always a great stop in Tokyo. Now you should just send the rare records to me instead in exchange for vintage vinyl!
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| Tue Jul 23, 2013 11:50 pm |
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Greasebat
Side Dealer
Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2007 6:48 pm
Posts: 2415
Location: NE OHIO
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Re: Collecting in the Pre-Internet Era Ha! I wish I still had all my Dischord stuff to trade...
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| Wed Jul 24, 2013 10:07 am |
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BKC
Fresh Meat
Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 4:29 am
Posts: 43
Location: Pittsburgh
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Re: Collecting in the Pre-Internet Era There was also a string of chainstores called "Heaven" that sold a variety of "cool" or "hip" toys and T-shirts and things, it's where I got my first vinyl figure, a carded Ipatsuman(which I still have), they even had vacuform masks of Gundam and Ultraman, I remember them having diecast Astro Boys, and beat myself up years later for not getting one.
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| Thu Jul 25, 2013 4:19 am |
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