[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:

Transformers: Boss Original G1 Figures

A trend has been underway in Japan for the last six years, the inclusion of small gift items with the purchase of a beverage. Buy a 20oz. Pepsi, get a free Pepsi Man cap-figure, buy a Coke get Final Fantasy mini figure. A wide array of little toys and trinkets have been made available for years, but none that I wanted to collect as badly as the Boss Transformers collection.



Boss is the Suntory brand of coffees sold at markets and convenience shops. A beverage not likely linked to promoting a kids line of toys, these were more suited to the adult collector. And with that marketing direction, these fell into more limited venues of sale, cutting out toys shops, department stores and the like. The limited availability, and the fact that product not sold quickly would be disposed due to expiration has made these quite a bit more rare than other Transformers themed novelties.




The Boss line has three distinct varieties. One part was for two unique full size Mini-Con figures, another for three golden colored plastic G1 style sculpted figures. The third, and I feel the best, was a set of ten G1 animation styled figures in color with some limited articulation. Each of these figures came sealed in a baggy and stored in a small plastic capsule. The capsule doubled as a stand for the figure. A catalog was included with each figure and could be used as a backdrop image. The backdrops each had an Autobot and Decepticon choice, with a total of five different catalogs, making ten different scenes.




The figures ranging from 2 inches to just under 2.5 inches are not very tall, but they do hold a lot of personality in their sculpts. The list of characters is your typical run down of G1 favorites; Optimus, Megatron, Bumblebee, Jazz, Starscream, Soundwave, Ironhide, Wheeljack, Shockwave, and maybe the lesser popular, Astrotrain. Personally, I feel this is the best set of novelty figures made for Transformers since the decoys of the 80's.

My Little Pony Japanese t.v. spot

In 1985, Takara worked in partnership with Hasbro to release the My Little Pony line in Japan. The initial line showcased a completely new look to the Ponies. Extremely rare these days, these Ponies are quite sought out by Pony collectors.



This ad aired in 1985 even features a snippet of the classic MLP jingle.