A while back I had the pleasure of visiting Mark Nagata at his home in San Francisco. It has taken me forever to get these photos up, but here are some recent shots of his legendary Ultraman collection. It is truly overwhelming to be surrounded by so many Tokusatsu heroes in one room.

Lest you think the collection is just Ultraman, Mark also has memorabilia from similar shows such as Mirrorman.

Mark's collection is also his office - this is where he paints and designs toys for Max Toy Company.

I was the second person to sign his giant Mirrorman statue. He is using the statue as a place for visitors to leave their mark. what a great idea!

Thanks again to Mark and his family for having me. And thanks to Jack from TFormers for introducing us!

Visit Max Toy Company: http://www.maxtoyco.com/

Visit Mark's Ultraman Collection site: http://www.ultramantoys.com/

Visit Mark's Toy Karma Blog: http://toykarma.blogspot.com/

***UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE***

Sanjeev here with lots of pics to add to this article!

By now, many of you may be wondering where the 2007 San Diego Comicon coverage is. Well, we assure you that not only is it in the works and coming soon, we we have extra special goodies in store for our good readers!

And y'know something? I just couldn't help letting some of of those goodies slip early! ;)

In addition to our trip from Boston all the way out to San Diego for the Comicon, Mason and I headed immediately for San Francisco right afterwards. Oh yes, there are good stories to share from that little jaunt before returning to the Bean...

One such story is about Mark Nagata. Now here's a stand-up guy

Mason already knew him from previous trips to Comicon, but this year was my first chance to meet Mark in person. He was always such a nice guy over e-mail and so very generous (he supplied a staggering number of fantastic goodies for the 2007 East Coast Chogokin Summit earlier this summer, for instance).

Needless to say, I was really looking forward to meeting the man in person. Comicon was great and though our time with him was limited there, he graciously invited us to his place in San Francisco to hang out the following week as soon as he heard that we were going to be there for a few days! So, this past Tuesday, Mason and I met up with Mark and Max at their place to talk toy, share stories, and have a few laughs.

His place is great--though understandibly a little messy from the recent Comicon ;)

Artwork and Max Toy Co figures were just hanging out all over. Seeing all this was a real treat!

Of course, one of the neatest things about his place was the toy room! Being inside is such an amazing experience. You'd be hard-pressed to find yourself a denser concentration of tokusatsu hero toys!

Anyway, all in all, we shared good food, great conversation, and lots of laughs. The Nagata's are great folks and you can be sure the next time any of us Massholes are in the neighborhood, we'll be calling on them!