VINTAGE CHOGOKIN GOLION VOLTRON REPLICA

Voltron was one of my favorite cartoon in the 80s. Unfortunately, due to economical reasons, I never had any Voltron toys when I was small. In the 90s when Trendmasters re-issued the toys under Voltron 3D, I bought a whole set of figures and also the Voltron robot. Sadly, the robot is made of plastic. Then a collector friend told me of a diecast version available, so I went with him and bought the diecast Voltron. It happen to be a lousy bootleg. It was not accurate. The belt buckle had a 'V' instead of the 'Star'. The Yellow Lion face plate is sealed and the instructions is printed on the cover. All in all, very dissappointed. I sold it off. Recently I came across a Taiwan made Voltron, which is still a bootleg, but a much more accurate one. Belt buckle is star, Yellow Lion face plate can be opened and it has a full color printed instruction booklet. The paint job is passable. At last, a near accurate Voltron replica...

This figure is based on the original Golion of Japan. It has loads of missiles of different sizes, weapons that can attached to the lions and of course, the Blazing Sword! Very heavy figure as many parts are diecast. The red and green lion have launching fist (lion head) feature!

Hmmm... I am now am contemplating for an original GoLion vintage...which cost over 10x more than this!!

Mattel Naruto Action Figures

My brother got these for me from Melbourne. He said there was a store closing down and he got these figures for AUD1-3 bucks each. These figures by Mattel are not found here in KL as far as I know. The Naruto merchandise here are often bootlegs from China and sold in Manga Specialty Stores. I believed Naruto have a strong fan.....As for the figures, they are well sculpted and painted and have very cool play features! What I've got was Shadow Clone Jujutsu Naruto (multiple attack action!), Tree climbing Naruto, Dragon Strength Rock Lee, Tornado Attack Sasuke and Chakra Point Attack Neji and Battle Damaged Neji (looks like from a different series coz packaging different). I guess its my early Christmas presents...Checked eBay these figures are quite pricey...over USD10 each...the tornado sasuke selling for USD18++ with bids..

Another Vintage Acquisition - ROTJ Ewoks Wicket

This Wicket Warrick figure is not really in my radar. However I came across a great deal at eBay - got it for USD20 only! Another reason I got him was because he's the 'main character' among the Ewoks. Its selling here for over RM200++ at flea market. Usual selling price is USD75++ for a minty carded figure. Well for that price, there's lots of creases on the card plus the bubble is kinda crushed and cracked and missing a piece in the center. But its still mint on an unpunched card. Made in Hong Kong. 1983. The figure is kinda cute ..small. One interesting note is that this Wicket staff/spear is placed on his right side but I saw some others which placed on the left.

7-11 Kamen Rider BottleCap Figures with Stage

Today, I found this set of 7-11 Premium - Kamen Rider Bottlecap Figures with Stage / Base. I found this in Kota Kinabalu, in a small video cum toy shop. This set is over 8 years old toy, dated 2002. Some of the figures had become sticky. Hence I got this set for over 50% discount. There are 15 figures in all. It's painted silver. I've seen a full color version offered in Hong Kong. Underneath each bottlecaps are the 7-11 mark, some Japanese inscription and number from 1-15. It comes with a brown box. Display really nice. Have always wanted this...finally found it for a good price..eBay selling for USD39.90

JUMBO SCALE 'GUNDAN' (ORIGINALLY CALLED GUNDAM) REVIEW

I found a Jumbo Scale RX-78-2 'Gundan' recently in Speedy Videos stores. Either 'Gundan' is a long lost brother of Gundam or he's a China knock off of original Bandai's Jumbo Scale Gundam. Take a guess. It's 1/35 scale and 500mm tall! This figure is massive! This is my largest model kit/action figure hybrid todate. The figure is pre-built and painted quite nicely with weathering effects. Unlike other cheap bootlegs, this, in my opinion is a good quality knock off.

The toy comes with 2 pair of hands (open palms and closed+gun holding palm), unassembled shield, unassembled beam rifle and instructions. Unlike the box-art, the figure comes with applied markings and decals. In fact, I did a search on the web and found that this isn't its original box. There's this 'Gundan' decal on the head, shoulder, and shield that kinda de-value this toy because its basically shouting to the world 'I am a knock-off!" But then I may be wrong....vintage Star Wars knock offs are selling like hot cakes on the net! (Star Wars collectors would know which one I am refering to)

Just to show you how big this figure is, I've placed a Star Wars 3" Clone Trooper as perspective. Darn, now I gotto find a place to store this huge figure......

I noticed that the foot is a bit too large. The articulation is at the arms and head. It's very obvious the figure is meant for display only. It's a nice kit to have especially if you are a Gundam fan. The cost is a fraction of the original. (Original @ eBay USD200++) The quality...I can't comment because I don't have the original to compared with. As said earlier, it's nicely built and painted. eBay selling for USD99. The last time I checked Speedy videos stores, this figure is being snapped up...

My Vintage Star Wars Mint On Card Addition

Finally, I've acquired vintage Han Solo on card! As a bonus, I got his sidekick Chewbacca too. Took me a long time hunting for these figures for a good price to appear on eBay. Usually these sell for USD80-100++ but I got these for much lesser than that. I am pretty pleased with the purchase, now that I've got all the 4 Star Wars main characters, Luke, Leia, Han and Vader vintage figures mint on card! I guess I'll stop my vintage collection here.....but then...hmm it would be nice to have a Ben Kenobi .....let's see...

Retro, Reissues & Simply Toys!

I've just got back from work and while on the way for dinner, popped by ToysrUs and found these Retro Action DC Superheroes figures. I picked up two of my favorites - Superman and Batman (with removable cowl). It was smaller than expected. From the ads in Toyfare, I thought these were 12" figures but they are only 7-8". These are Megos lookalike, issued by Mattel.

Reissue Again - Hasbro launched the vintage carded figures - sort of like the VOTC minus the clamshell. I got these few weeks ago before my short break to Singapore. I bought Vader because it has 3 piece removable helmet. Boba as well... kind of a must have figure in vintage packaging. Threepio I got it today. At first, never intended to buy Threepio because it has removable face, chest and legs covering as an action feature which doesn't show in The Empire Strikes Back. However, after reading Rebelscum, I found out that Threepio have removable back panels and removable limbs - I am sold! Only thing missing is the cargo net! Threepio doesn't seem like a short pack figure but I notice it's being snapped up!

I was at Singapore 2 weekends ago for a short holiday. Manage to visit 'Simply Toys' store where many of our toys/collectibles products here are imported from them. In the words of Darth Vader "Impressive...most impressive" - with lots of museum quality collectibles! These pictures speaks more than words....sorry..unable to load photos as its taking too long.....