Retro Ads: TAKARA MICROMAN MICROBORG

This ad features the New Microman MicroBorg. Takara's MicroBorg series of figures would come out just a year before they moved onto to heavily promote the Micro-Change Series of toys. While not ground breaking, they were neat in a way due to their combining toy figures and model kit like parts.

Also featured in the ad are the Armored Suits. Released in two forms, the Double Cannon and GlacSniper feature robotic armor that change into vehicle like forms. These I feel I would have loved a kid. And barely making the cut, the Acroyear AcroSatan. AcroSatan must have been just an afterthought for inclusion the ad, you barely get a glimpse at the figure.

[Brave Series] BRAVE COMMAND DAGUON MANGA: DAGBASE

This is some translated manga I had done for my old website back in 2002. The manga had been translated 3 years earlier and never Photoshoped into the pages. I had colored the cover page in part around 2001. I never actually finished the project. I recall posting an unfinished reduced resolution version on the site but was never really satisfied. I was about to re-post the manga in a cleaned up finished format with a previous blog in 2008 but plans fell through. So in rummaging through old files I figured I would just post it here as I have little else to post on this blog right now that isn't a complete mess of unfinished work.

Please forgive the rough translations, I didn't re-translate it, and it's the same 2nd year Japanese student translation it was back in 1999. The story features the first look at what the Daguon team's DagBase could really do. Up to this point in the animated series and manga, it was a stationary, static construction.

Manga published 1996. Created by Hajime Yatate (story/concept) and Kazunori Aihara (art).

Pages read right panels to left.

[Star Wars] McQUARRIE CONCEPT SERIES

These are no longer as rare as they once were. I need to just get that statement out there before anything else. After Hasbro's typical "Re-issue! Re-package! Re-package!" form of marketing there's really nothing that rare at all about them. But, they were at a time, harder to find, and quite desirable for that reason. The reason I bought this wasn't for the scarcity or monetary value at all. I bought these for the art history they stand for.

I grew up a Star Wars fan, a fan of the movies, the toys and the art. I had a glimpse early on of an art portfolio from the original Star Wars film and fell in love with the work inside. When the "Art of Star Wars" book were released I bought it right away. I just absorbed the beautiful artwork and imagery of Ralph McQuarrie's work. To this day I just sit in amazement at the art when I look through the Star Wars art books. So when Hasbro decided to honor the man who helped shape the entire Star Wars universe I was extremely excited.



The first figure released in the McQuarrie style was the Stormtrooper. I didn't get him, I never even saw him in the stores. The next figures that were going to be for sale at retail outlets would be in stylized packaging, so I was hopeful. I managed to find the Stormtrooper and Darth Vader McQuarrie figures after a good amount of searching. I didn't even realize the Stormtrooper I had found had a rarer coin inserted, which to this day means almost nothing to me anyhow. I had quickly popped them out of their plastic prisons and fell in love with the McQuarrie designs all over again. These pictures were taken the day I got the toys. I only just recently found them again while searching old CD-Rs for old Transformers toy pics.





This pic below is just a digi-deco I did for fun. When I first saw a Gundam robot back in the 80's the first thing I though of was the McQuarrie Stormtooper. And yeah, I think that image came to mind for good reason.

Retro Ads: TAKARA ANDROID A SPACE ALIENS

A new ongoing feature for the blog. The Retro Ads posts will feature old toy ads from Japan. Anything I feel like posting may show up here, as long as it's a toy, and an ad.

First up is an ad for the Takara Android A Uchoujin Space Alien figure. Along with the main focus toy, you can see the UFO 7 toy, the Android A and Robot figures as well.

Japanese Toy Stores: 1984

When I think of toy shopping in 1984 I think of K-Mart, Transformers and G.I.Joe. I often wonder what it would have been like to shop in a toy store in Japan during that same era. Thanks to the magic of photography, I can get an idea.

At the same time I was saving money to buy a Huffer, or Firefly figure, these kids were going home with Bioman, Mospeada or Diaclone toys.

Bandai: MACHINE ROBO MANGA

In the early days of the Machine Robo franchise Bandai opted to forgo a animated television series for printed media advertising. Not the best of options of course, and rectified in 1986 with the Revenge of Chronos series debut. To say the print campaign was a failure however would be a great mis-representation of what the "Machine Robo Club" was. Part of that media blitz in the Machine Robo Club was toy news, mailed in custom pictures, create your own Machine Robo character contests and monthly comics. There were a few different points in time where Machine Robo manga comics were printed, each at a different stage of the original 80's toy line. The first series focused mostly on the original toys up to about 1985. In 1986 the focus shifted to the Revenge of Chronos era, and the stories and art changed to reflect that. In 1987 the manga followed the then current Battle Hackers storylines.

This blog gives you a look at the first series of Machine Robo manga, this one featuring the introduction of the Battle Armor 5 power suits system. Yes it's very kiddified and simple, but the toy line was for kids after all.

note: Comic reads from right to left. I've made a few arrow notes in some panels to show this.

Transformers: SAYBERTRON 6 doujinshi

Finding decent Transformers doujinshi fan comics isn't so hard these days. That wasn't the case 12 years ago. I had known of a few doujinshi created by Transformers fans in Japan when I first took the trip over there. I had hopes of finding some of these and maybe get an idea of what the Japanese fan had envisioned Transformers as. Sadly, I looked and looked and found almost nothing over a 2 week stay. I say "almost nothing" cause while I found nothing in a story based format, I did find a great fan created art book.



I picked up a copy of "Saybertron 6" in a doujin shop in Akihabara. I don't know if this was the 6th in a series, or a six member team creating the art. Probably for legal reasons, details are sparse in the book about the creators. The one thing I did know then, as I do now, the art is amazing. All drawings are done in inked drawing style, sans computer assisted ease, this book shows a wide variety of Transformers from G1, Europe, Japan and even the Action Masters. Here is a very small sample of the art in the book: