Something I have been working on is a bit of a database to catalogue vintage toy headers here for posterity (and enjoyment of course). Surprisingly, there isn't anything on the board - at least in the VV section - yet dedicated to header art strictly for vintage toys, and aside from being a great source to identify figures, I really just think there is some fantastic art out there that should be saved and shared. They look so great, I think headers alone are worth collecting and displaying. You also get to see some history of kaiju design and packaging - a lot of which still influences Japanese manufacturers today.

To start with, here are some I was bidding on recently on YJA:

unknown maker - Fables of the Green Forest (山ねずみロッキーチャック)


Bandai - Kamen Rider


unknown maker (possibly Nitto?) - 100 Monsters/Yôkai hyaku monogatari (妖怪百物語)


Bandai - Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro (ゲゲゲの鬼太郎)


Bullmark - Return of Ultraman (帰ってきたウルトラマン)


A classic, of course. It is great to be able to see the reverse side, as B-Club reissues don't have the Takkong/Kingsaurus III matchup, with the company printing on the obverse. You also get to be tortured, as in a lot of these cases, by seeing the original price tag for these toys.

Unfortunately I didn't win any of these auctions, so for now we have to settle for the low-res pics I could copy before they disappeared. I will try to aggregate the vintage headers that I have saved and have been posted in other threads here so we have a collection in one location for reference. Feel free to share your own or contribute any extra knowledge on vintage headers here.

^^ Fantastic artwork on all of these. A pleasure to peruse.
Yep, Nitto.
I confirmed it here . . . .
http://www.amazing-toy.com/pac1.html

Great, thanks Moog! I figured that just from the relative - and extremely unfortunate - dearth of yokai toys. It's a pity I don't have some of these in hand (and an SLR) to take some nice macro shots we could blow up. I would love to get some closer look at some of those graphics.

I should mention here too, while there may not be so many variations on headers, particularly from the larger companies, don't hesitate in posting your own. Meanwhile I will go through the headers I can find on here and re-link the ones still active.

Cool idea. I posted some on the for the love of the header card thread a while back but this is more focused. Here are a few.

Pachi ultraman and spetreman



大里玩具 Osato toys finger puppet




Pachi Mazinger

Tsukuda ツクダ Lion Maru target set

Great idea for a thread!

That finger puppet artwork is awesome - plus having the printing off register makes it look so much more badass!

such an awesome idea for a thread!

^^

All of those are so cool . . . here's one of the few vintage headers i own.
I think its early 70's. I dont know the maker.

Little Monster Yadamon.

A few more


Takatoku タカトク Condorman

Bullmark Tiger seven


Ninja Arashi bootleg

thanks Glenn. I thought my eyes were just going bad

header card from a mini pachi set (reverse side is identical)

^ wow that one is great!


more pachi cards

Some Red Baron made by Yonezowa ヨネザワ

All of the lovely Onda Steel Jeeg villian headers...

Ikima

Mimashi

Queen Himika

Amaso

Hiroshi Shiba

Wonderful idea for a thread. I like that we have one specifically for vintage. I was always browsing through the other one just for the vintage headers. Artwork is superior in imagination IMO.

^Agreed!^

Vintage KR headers

That fifth one down is a great one.
Love this thread.

My new favorite thread, lovely headers here all! Will scan some of mine when I get the chance.

Azteckaiser by Yonezawa



Ultraman Ace by Bullmark



Enban Sensou Bankid by Takatoku





Robo-Pu by Popy w/inserts

This thread finally gave me a reason to pry off the staples, open up the bags, and finally let these toys be free from their bagged existence.

I am so happy to see this thread take off. Thanks everyone for your contributions. I wanted to give people so time to post their own before I started reposting the backlibrary of headers on SB elsewhere.

Scott, that Thai (?) Ultraseven header is really something. It is so great to see some foreign ones out there too.

Great news indeed. Totally worth it, and I am happy to hear you did. And that you shared those nice headers here. Plus, you get to really enjoy the toys hands on now, and that is what they are all about, after all.

Keep the vintage paper coming guys! I love it.

That ultra seven header is a sweet one - according to Mark's website it is from 1967/68. This is the badboy that it comes with ...

Steve, Do we want to keep this for headers or are backing cards good also? (I have a few).



^ this makes me happy. great stuff!

That is a good question, and something I had considered when starting the thread. Mark started an excellent thread going back a while here, that has a lot of vintage inserts and flyers (mostly his own) which he shared. In fact, it is part of the reason I wanted to start one just for the headers, which seemed to be overlooked. It hasn't been updated that much and a number of the image links are sadly dead now.

Though my intention in using that phrase was referring to the paper/cardboard headers, I admit that I opened the door now with my use of that comment. And I am all for having paper goods in the same place if people prefer, so sure, if anyone has any flyers, posters, inserts, or packaging they want to post as well, by all means share away - here if you choose, or in the Vintage Paper discussion. If we decide to, I can always rejig this to be something to the effect of 'vintage packaging artwork.'

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention here also that Mark has some of, if not the best collection, of art related to Japanese toys and tokusatsu heroes that I have been fortunate to see in a private collection. You can see just some of it in this thread, so I would highly recommend a perusal of that to anyone enjoying the artwork from these vintage headers.

^ Yeah .. I have alot of cool Box art that would fit in here no problem... Some more Pachi headers...