strange or rare yahoo auctions post here (after theyre over)

Oh yeah I was following that one too. These guys have gone up a ton recently. I should have bought one when I first stared looking. 30k seemed like a lot at the time

 

Also, this is one you dont see everyday. Blow molded rider one on his hurricane. Got busy at work and forgot to bid.

 

This was one of the star item of the Zenbu 79 auction. And it sold at the aimed price.
One of the rarest vintage sofubi around... This is how you know you'll never be complete on a collection

 

Such beautiful condition.
This is why they make repros.

 

^^^Thanks for sharing @plasticXO , what a beauty!

Ok, not really rare, but ended a LOT higher than I'd anticipated, 38000 JPY!
Bullmark small size Alien Zarab Seijin, in lovely pink!

 

@plasticXO - Speechless, and what a beautiful piece. There is no end to this climb, but such delights are near the top.

@ultrakaiju - I feel the pain you describe, and I would assume the sentiment is easily shared by many of us. Even some of those "less expensive" misses can burn just as hot as missing a once-in-a-lifetime grail. Always looking forward though, eyes peeled!

This beautiful and rare cream-bellied Marusan Gorosaurus went for 92,000 JPY:





Also, apologies if this has already been posted, but this crazy rare Bullmark Jirass sold for 350,000 JPY at Mandarake:



Ochre vinyl? Wonderful.

 

@ultrakaiju David, sorry to hear you wasn't able to grab that Redman. It is a great piece. I have the original but missing sword. Won it cheap also for less than $125 a few years ago. At times I thought about buying the new reissue just to get the sword.

Here is mine.


@deafmetal I watched those also. Boy oh boy did I really want to grab that Jirass off of Mandarake when I saw it. Fantastic.

 

Wow, the condition on that Gomess is incredible! Stunning.

 

WTF.

I was watching that auction...and I still don't get it. First of all, I know about camera/monitor settings and all that...but that is one BLUE-looking green Gorosaurus (there's no cream-belly *blue* Gorosaurus). But anyway, the other photos in the auction showed a bunch of stains on different parts of his body. So...not the best condition. But that price??? Why not just pony up a few hundred more for the minty one that's been sitting on Yahoo for YEARS?

 

@deafmetal , wonderful Jirass, that paint wear almost gives him the appearance of being bronze!
I saw that Goro! At first glance, he's a beaut! So much blue goodness. But then I wondered if he was retouched? I am probably mistaken, but the blue is so dense (and cream belly!) and surprising that there is no spine wear at all. Then as Sanjeev suggested, he looks blotchy in the other photos. An auction just ended on a very nice Kamerking, but I held back on him, because I was also suspicious of the paint on the belly and wing tip variation. The seller did not show a pic of the back view, so no way of checking on the condition of bronze paint on back. I'll post a pic, when I'm back on the computer (clumsy from an ipad). But I'd be curious if you think the Goro is in original condition?

@ultrakaiju thanks for sharing the Gomess post, didn't see that fab creature

 

@Sanjeev @Mr. Humphreys - You both think it's a fraud? I can't tell if it's blue from the light or not, but the belly spray didn't put me off-guard. The piece looks dirty/stained as well, which doesn't help. Ah well, wouldn't be the first or the last forgery if so.

 

I don't know, I'm not an expert to confidently say yay or nay, but it's so very blue as well as blotchy. I'm just wondering if it's a vintage that has been retouched with paint? That's the biggest thing about buying via auction, you can't hold it and examine it. Not sure I'd want spend that sort of money, unless I was absolutely sure. Perhaps a more experienced vintage expert can weigh in? If the Goro was perfect without any blotchiness, I would be more inclined to think that the paint without any sign of wear on the spine would be more in line with a pristine toy. But perhaps I'm a bit paranoid. I only have one perfectly pristine vintage , and all of the rest of my small vintage cuties show some wear.

 

The other weird thing about the gorosaurus is that it looks like there is green under the blue paint. You can especially see it on it's left leg.
Without seeing it in person, and maybe even then, it's hard to tell if it it's original paint. Seems weird that someone would try to paint over the green with a blue to match the common variety.

 

Well, I don't think the Gorosaurus toy is actually a fake or retouched at all. It was just odd to me how damn BLUE most of the images look. But then again, there's a closeup of the head that looks a bit closer to the actual shade of green used on the toy. For reference:


My main concern/confusion was about the price. I bought a really damn clean green/cream-belly Gorosaurus last year for around $600:

Now this one goes for 50% more than that...and it clearly has fucked up stains on his face and tail??? Meanwhile, there's *another* pristine creamy Gorosaurus that's been sitting for ages for just another $300 on top of what this guy paid. None of this computes.

 

Whoops!

Mark K just brought to my attention that the green Gorosaurus that's been sitting on Y!J is actually 180k...not 120k! So...my bad!

Still, I think the person who bought this latest one overpaid...just not nearly as bad as I originally thought.

 

@ultrakaiju - Please keep contributing to the discussion, as I appreciate your and other members' input very much. I have seen more than a few suspect/touched-up vintage figures sell for very large amounts of money. I don't understand it either, as a few of them have been quite obviously poorly painted to resemble Hawaiian sprays, etc. This specific Marusan Goro stumped me though. Since I will at times dabble in the spendy realm, I try to do as much homework as possible, and will also reach out to B. Flynn and others for a second opinion on a questionable piece.

@Sanjeev - Beautiful Goro! Love your collection -- such an inspiration.

Also, I have to say that I have a terrible time telling blue/green hues from photos. I have picked up a few different vintage gojis that turned out to be more of the opposite vinyl hue (blue vs green) than what I thought they were from the crappy auction photos. Not a big deal with gojis, as they are all really blue/green vinyl in the end, but it's a topic that interests me quite a lot.

 

Sorry if I'm stirring up some controversy . I don't mean to at all, I'm just super cautious if I was going to spend that sort of money. As was mentioned, it's hard to tell from blurry photos, and since I'm not an expert, I am even more of a fraidy cat when making a hefty purchase.

That being said, here is the Kamerking that we were talking about. He's a beautiful beast, and I hope to add a vintage KK to my herd one day. The seller did not provide a pic of the back, which I found to be annoying, because you have no idea what the state of the toy is from the back view! From the front, he's very handsome, but a question came up in my mind as to the bands of green, to the left and right of the central belly spine. Those bands seem wide, nearly spanning it's way to the arm pits. From my VERY limited knowledge of KK's, I hadn't seen this before. Also, the wing tips are bright green, and end very sharply, as if you dipped him in paint on the wing-tips. I checked previous auction pics that I'd saved, including Mandarake's, and I have not seen this before. I would very much appreciate your opinions, and please know that my intention is not to cast aspersions on Seller's auctions or reputations, it's that I want to understand vintage figures on a better basis.

Ending at 154000 JPY, here is the auction, and all the photos that were provided



Compare it to the Mandarake Kamerkings:


and



and



and then there is Club Tokyo


and from a toy store:
Toy:



and another one from the same toy store


Thoughts? Is the auction KK a special version?

 

I feel the same way. I'm just not knowledgeable enough to feel confident about adopting him. I have to dig out my vintage books for more "research"

 

I will just throw it out there that there are all sorts of variations on these oldenkaiju, and to further complicate it mobile phone cameras can really mess with colours. All these guys may have been cast on a different day or year in a different factory even, and the photos of them are in any combination of light and lighting.

Having said that .. this is great discussion