Shikaruna Koubo Giant Madalla figure
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This the Giant Madalla figure from Shikaruna Koubo, made in Japan. He’s larger than a standard size kaiju figure which is normally 8-9 inches…he’s almost 12 inches tall. This is a small edition, beautifully painted on glow vinyl, and I love the baroque pose! I’m not a fan of all the Shikaruna Koubo sculpts, but this one I really gravitated towards because it reminded me of “S’pell Sejin” (see below), the famous alien from the 1960s Ultraseven, episode 12, “From Another Planet With Love” in which Ultraseven, in order to ultimately defeat the alien villain, zings his helmet blade and cuts him in half! My son and I were floored! That scene was so crazy and outrageous!
The episode was also never shown again after it’s initial broadcast in Japan because many survivors of the Atomic bombings during WWII in Japan were offended by the portrayal of the alien villain. The alien race was poisoned by nuclear or “S’pellium bombs” on their own planet and in order to continue living, they needed to feed on the blood of human children, so they invade Earth. This negative depiction of radiation victims turning into alien vampires caused the uproar and Tsuburaya Productions pulled the episode. More detail on it at August Ragone’s excellent Japanese film, pop culture blog that’s also up for a “Rondo Hatton” award. Go vote (category 15)!
Spell Sejin
Ultraseven
Marusan Mini Red King Model
An inexpensive little model kit that put a huge smile on me and my son’s faces.
Based on the legendary, larger, plastic remote control Redking kit from the 60s, this little gem
was quick and easy to snap together. The figure itself has a dash of paint on him adding a little more of a nostalgic feel to him.
More info on the history of Marusan model kits here.
Box art is fantastic!
Even includes the battery operated remote control! Siiick!
Giant B-Club RedKing playing.
Kaiju Patrol
My obsession with Japanese toys and monster shows inspired the concept and characters behind Kaiju Patrol. Back in 2004 I self produced sets of toys based on them that included a mini comic, mini and giant figures. All designed, sourced and distributed by me. The toys and character were a big hit when I introduced prototypes at the San Diego Comic-Con in 2004 and then actual product at the 2005 Toy-Fair. I produced about 400 sets of each character and quickly sold-out by that summer. They were sold mostly to independent toy shops like Kidrobot, Rotofugi and even bigger stores like Tower Records which at the time was really embracing the independent toy scene.
Toy-Fair not only lead to toy sales though. I meet some great people there like “Seen”, “Ron English” and countless others. What really made the costly and exhausting show really worth while was meeting Heather Kenyon from Cartoon Network and buyers from Target.
Heather loved Kaiju Patrol (aka Kaiju Kidz) and within a month or so I had an option deal to develop a show. Heather was just so genuinely excited that her enthusiasm was infectious. One thing lead to another and I ended up working with another tremendously wonderful group of folks from CN and where Kaiju Patrol landed, Alice Cahn and Peter Killcommons. Althought we worked on the show for about a year and it made it’s way up the green-light ladder,
it was ultimately killed for various reasons. But working with such an incredible amount of talented people from the animation industry made it an experience I’ve never forgotten and continue to tap into.
Along with Kaiju Patrol toys at Toy-Fair, I was also displaying my Honk-Honk-Ashoo and Fun-boy products, ie; books, plush, mini figures. Honk caught the eye of “Target” and they felt it was a perfect character for a new specialty toy section they were merchandising. Eventually, this lead to a 3 foot summer end-cap promotion in which I licensed my characters to one of Targets vendors/manufacturers and based on my designs, created plush & magnet sets. Books were supplied by my publisher “Penguin”.
My family and I along with my agent were needless to say, ESTATIC!
We even created a life size costume which I wore and walked around in handing out stickers and product samples in NYC to promote the Honk promotion. Another incredibly physical and mentally exhausting event.
Video below.
Prior to this deal I had plenty of experience in mass retail developing children’s products, manufacturing and merchandising for other companies selling to retail, so I had a damn good idea how this game worked.
However, what could go wrong, did go wrong.
Because the 300 store test and promotion was slotted for a specific installation date that was right around the corner, things had to move uber fast or we would lose that time slot. This all lead to mistakes and the harsher realities of selling to mass retail.
I was in NYC spending a week with my father who at the time was being hospitalized for serious heart problems and surgery when I received the phone call that the factory had retyped text / art for my smarty pants plush and there were typos already printed on the fabric. Product samples never even made it into my hands for approvals before they began screen printing. No time or means of fixing the mistake, product had to be air shipped as it was. Signs created for the displays, weren’t even put up in some stores. What was suppose to be a 4 week promotion turned more into a two week promotion allowing barely anytime for folks to find the displays that were in Timbuktu, or build any word of mouth buzz. Where the hell was Facebook or Twitter at the time dammit!
Kaiju Patrol CN Animatics
These were were concepts I wrote for short animations introducing each Kaiju Patrol character.
I really enjoy creating animatics. It’s a way to really get to the heart of your ideas and gags and fine tune my timing chops.
Honk-Honk-Ashoo
Here I’ll be sharing everything that is my pillow headed pal Honk-Honk-Ashoo.
For starters there’s an animated digital book, cartoon shorts, toy designs, and news on upcoming projects.
Mecha-Boy Custom: Toy Tokyo MTV Overground Show
Custom Mecha-Badboy for the MTV Underground Show at Toy Tokyo in NYC – Feb. 2006
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