New Ultraman vinyl from M1!

This new Ultraman from M1 features a striking pose quite unlike most other vinyls on the market. And best of all, it glows! But I'm wondering how well it will stand up in that pose. This figure will retail for ¥5,250.

Two great new vinyls from M1!

Here's a pretty neat set coming soon from M1. From a 1977 USA (Rankin Bass)/Japan (Tsuburaya Productions) collaboration called "The Last Dinosaur", M1 is producing a set of vinyls featuring the main monster and ship from the movie. I've not seen this movie, but it seems the ship is called the "Polar Borer", while the monster is basically just a T-Rex.

Two versions will be released; with each item being a different color. Also, the first 150 will be packaged with an autographed photo of Masumi Sekiya ("Hazel" in the movie.) ¥8,400 per set.

An unusual, but appealing vinyl from M1.

This figure is another one of those toys that when I first saw it, I thought it was stupid. "A shirtless guy with Godzilla legs? What's the point?" But a few years in the hobby and I've come to understand the appeal of the more unusual things like this. And fortunately, unlike when I fell into this trap with other toys, I didn't have to pay a premium to correct my mistake. In fact, I think I got this and two other vinyls for about $50 a couple months back.

As you might guess, this toy depicts legendary actor Haruo Nakajima as he may have appeared half suited up on the set of the original Godzilla movie in 1954. At 9" tall and 6 points of articulation (waist, tail, hips and shoulders), the figure, like most vinyls, is basically a display piece. Especially considering the subject matter. I can't imagine anyone really playing with this. I mean, what are you gonna do, re-enact the coffee break the guy took? And in case you're wondering, the watch on his wrist appears to be set to five o'clock. I'm not sure if that means he's just beginning or just ending a day's worth of shooting.

As we've come to expect from M1, the sculpt, paint apps and vinyl thickness on this toy are all top notch. There are at least a couple different versions of this sculpt. This blue "Irasawa" version, and brown and green event exclusives. For the initial release, Mr. Nakajima was available to sign autographs. (Thanks as usual to Club Tokyo for the info.) In fact, one of the reasons I finally broke down and bought mine was because he was supposed to be making an appearance at a Godzilla festival in San Francisco around August, I think. So I was thinking of getting mine signed, too. But unfortunately, the event had to be canceled. Ah, well. I'm not a big autograph collector anyway. It just seemed like a good opportunity to enhance a toy I was already planning on buying anyway.

Vinyl fans, get ready for yet another set of limited releases from M1 through the Tokyo Cultuart art show by BEAMS. Expect the following items to drop tomorrow, August 22,2009.

clear Matango Limited to 150 pieces, ¥5,250, standard size

clear Matango Limited to 150 pieces, ¥5,250, standard size

clear Matango Limited to 150 pieces, ¥5,250, standard size

brown Tetsujin 28 DX ¥15,750, this is the large 18" version and I'm not sure how many will be made.

Tomorrow and on September 8, it sounds like there will also be an art show with the work of Yuji Nishimura? I never really thought about it, but does Yuji paint the headers for M1 or something? Roger, are you reading? What's the scoop? Anyway, it also sounds like there will be some (100) Hedorahs on sale afterwards, but no pictures right now. Anyone who can read Japanese and can clarify, check the source below.

Maybe "he mother never love him", but tons of fans do and they longed for this release for years..

I just realized something.

I haven't seen the movie that Jet Jaguar is from ("Godzilla vs. Megalon") since I was a little kid. I really need to reacquaint myself with this one. Besides Godzilla himself, I think Jet Jaguar might have been the one character from all those old kaiju films that really stood out to me. And watching this awesome German trailer doesn't hurt either..

Anyway, this toy. The first thing that comes to mind about it is that it's long overdue. M1 first released a standard size Jet Jaguar in 2000, but for some reason waited all this time to release a movie accurate color scheme.

However, now that it's out, they've gone and released it twice. Or at least I think so. Initially, the figure came out in December of 2008 and the one reviewed here was released just a couple weeks ago. But my specimen looks to have a grayer body than the previous one, which seems to have a more bluish tint to it. I'm not sure if it's just lighting/camera differences that cause that or if they are really two distinct colors. Either way, if they are different, it's not by much and either one would be fantastic.

Jet Jaguar is based on the original giant sized Bullmark figure, but stands only 9.5" tall. According to Club Tokyo, Bullmark never made a standard size Jet Jaguar sofubi, making it all the more unusual that M1 would keep people waiting so long for this!

There are only 5 points of articulation here (hips, shoulders and neck) but that's really all we expect from a vinyl. Though we don't expect great articulation from a vinyl, we DO expect a great paint job from M1 and rest assured, they'd don't disappoint. However, it's not a perfect job. If I wanted to be really picky, I could point out a couple of spots where there's some color where it shouldn't be. But you know I'm not that type of collector. Especially when they did such a detailed job on the arrow that points to his crotch (and what's up with that anyway?!?!)

Jet Jaguar comes bagged with a header card and a two-sided backing board that is also apparently an homage to the vintage Bullmark. Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about the backing board style of packaging vinyls. I've got a few, mostly from Max Toy Co, but part of me wishes I didn't have more extra packaging to store away. I haven't really made up my mind about it. I guess I'll just have to buy some more until a decision is reached, eh?

card front

card back

This is the third Jet Jaguar vinyl in my collection and I finally feel like I have one worthy of the character. I already had the Marmit Vinyl Paradise one that I scored from Sanjeev at the 2006 Summit and also the Bandai Movie Monsters version, which, while it's really cool, is just not my style as we previously discussed. Now I just need a really cool Megalon to go with it!

Gorgo and Guilala at Super Festival 49!

In addition to the previously announced Ultra Seven busts, M1 will also have some new kaiju for sale at this weekend's Super Festival. And when I say new kaiju, I mean new colors of old kaiju. But it's still good news.

The first new item is a repaint of their Guilala figure. The new colorway is more movie accurate. 28cm tall, ¥6,000 and limited to 50 pieces.

Next, Gorgo is back with not one but two new colors... both glowies! The first is the same blue version that debuted at the Chiller Theater convention over last weekend, but the other is a new, green version, which I think looks nicer. Both versions are ¥7,000 and limited to only 25 pieces each.

M1 Ultra Seven busts at Super Festival.

It's nearly time again for another Super Festival (April 26) and not surprisingly, M1 will be in attendance with another exclusive item for fans. This time, instead of a standard size kaiju, they'll have 2 busts of Ultra Seven. Both are of the same sculpt but will come in two colors, gold and bronze. Each colorway will be limited to 25 pieces each and will retail for ¥10,500.

Oh my god, I need this...

Oh man, I hope I can get one of these! Coming soon (mid-May) from M1 is a near jumbo sized retro style Tetsujin 28! Standing 47cm (18.5") tall, the figure will be sold both with and without the wooden base. Price with base will be ¥15,750. Without the base it'll run you ¥13,650.

Tub time!

I can't remember the last time that I felt two toys were so made for one another that I thought they shouldn't even be sold separately. But that's the case with M1's Manda and Gotengo. I just don't see any reason to have one and not the other. But they are sold separately (available from HobbyLink Japan) so they get two different reviews.

I guess if you had to pick just one, the likely choice would be the Manda, mostly because there's a more well established pedigree of vinyl kaiju rather than vinyl vehicles. Although it would come at a much greater cost, some might opt to get a die-cast rendition of the Gotengo, such as the superlative Shin Seiki Gokin from Aoshima. But at nearly a quarter of the price, I'll take the vinyl, thank you very much.

Actually, I think I'd like the vinyl more than the diecast. Why? Well, this vehicle is a submarine and with no metal content, I'd have no qualms at all about playing with this thing in the tub!

This toy is about 13" long and has a rather dull paint job. I don't mean that in a bad way at all though. In fact, I rather like it. It's a nice change of pace for M1 and contrasts beautifully with the elaborate paint on the Manda.

If anything, I guess I would prefer that the "saw blades" at the front of the ship were painted like metal the way the drill is. As it is, they were just left in the crimson and gray of the upper and lower portions of the ship.

One thing that is pretty neat is that the turrets can actually rotate! It would have pretty easy for them to just leave them in a fixed pose and with this being such a simply toy, I'm not sure anyone would have cared. I know I wouldn't have. But since the feature is included, I do think it's neat.

Of course, since that is the only thing this does, I got nothing else to say about it, other than you can get yours at HobbyLink Japan.

Now available from HLJ.....VINYL!

One of the small things I took away from the recent trip to San Francisco was the knowledge that HobbyLink Japan was now carrying vinyls. Since I stopped collecting die-casts, I really hadn't been to the site in awhile. But as soon as I got home, I took a look through their company list on the left side of the page to see if anything caught my eye. Sure enough, there was a listing for M1 and although the list was short, it did have a couple of things I needed, including this newer, elongated version of Manda.

Manda is from the movie "Kaitei Gunkan" (海底軍艦), released by Toho in 1963 and known in this country as "Atragon". I haven't seen it, but it looks awesome.

Manda had been released in several colors by M1 in the past (and don't forget Sanjeev's custom glowie), but although the figure was nice, it was bit short and you couldn't replicate scenes from the movie, such as wrapping itself around the ship. So in 2008, a new version was released along with a vinyl toy of the Gotengo itself (sold separately).

The new version of Manda features an all new paint scheme and two additional body segments. There is a new curved neck in between the head and fore-legs and also new curved segment just before the hind legs. These two parts make the figure longer and more twisted than the original, while maintaining the same basic sculpt.

The downside it, unless you have the Gotengo to display it with, it doesn't really display that well on it's own, imo. I mean, it looks good, but it will take up more space than the original and posing it can be a pain since it's not really well balanced in any pose other than just wound against itself. Try to spread it out some and it will just fall over.

The good news is that the new paint scheme is really beautiful. The gold fins really catch your eye and the white lines on the fins on the side of the head on the original are removed, which I think is huge plus. I don't need racing stripes on my kaiju.

This figures is packaged in a bag with a generic M1 header card, albeit with a little white sticker across the bottom of one side saying "TM&© 1963,2007 TOHO Co., LTD." and that little gold foil sticker now says "2008" beneath the circled picture of Godzilla. (I just linked the following images from the Matango gallery rather than upload new pictures of the same basic thing.)

Manda is a great figure when combined with the Gotengo and is available at HobbyLink Japan. Great news for non-Japanese collectors since now you don't have to pay the typical import markup fees associated with vinyl kaiju. No more paying $90-100+ for something that really cost $55! Here's hoping that HLJ stocks much more vinyl in the future!