Do you follow toy blogs? Have some favorites? Rely on some for up-to-date release information? If you've ever maintained a blog of your own, you know that it can take serious perseverance and a lot of time to get it right and to stay on top of things. Bloggers don't always know what their readers are thinking in response to what they do. During the past year some of my favorite blogs (on a variety of topics) have dried up because the blogger ended up feeling like the effort was just too much. It's understandable when that happens, but it's disappointing if you're a follower and a fan. Consider taking a moment to express appreciation directly to your favorites if they have a contact method, or maybe just express some appreciative thoughts here. Some of my favorites are Kirlkand's Toybot Studios, Andy's amazing Kaiju Korner, August's Ragone's The Good, The Bad and the Godzilla, and Daniel's Robot Loves Monster. We've already lost one notoriously popular blog in the past year (hint: "all other toy blogs suck!") and if I'm reading the winds correctly, we'll probably lose another great one soon. I visit many more than I've mentioned here. Some haven't been updated in awhile. So I feel compelled to say THANK YOU to everyone who maintains toy collector and related blogs of interest. I know it can seem thankless sometimes, but your hard work is appreciated!
I appreciate everyone doing a blog. I know how time consuming it can be especially if you have a full time job and kids. I ran one for a while with interviews and reviews and it definitely became overwhelming the more people started noticing it. So much respect and appreciation to everyone taking the time to entertain us and provide us with the news we desire.
http://mypusheadaddiction.wordpress.com is mine. Very niche, since its only my Pushead toys and not a general toy or even Pushead blog, but... I try to update it every time I get a new piece.
When I eventually turn into a super flipper (I'm just looking for the right girlfriend to help me scam people!) I totally will
Right now I'm concentrating on just making sure I KEEP a hairline... I can't promise bangs. But I did just buy a cap to wear backwards cause I can tell the end is nigh.
Thanks Dean. nice to get a shout out. I've been doing toybot studios daily for over 7 years now and it takes a ton of time. I really appreciate the support and readership from everyone on skullbrain. You prompted to me to reflect a bit and as I go back in time to 2005, one of the first posts that started it all was an interview with Mark Nagata and his Ultraman collection. http://www.toybotstudios.com/2005/10/most-ultra-ultraman-collection-in.html Mark's collection obviously set the bar pretty high. How about this interview with some store called Super 7: http://www.toybotstudios.com/2005/11/spotlight-on-super7.html. this was the first time I met brian and he introduced me to this wacky toy called the Ghost Fighter. Going back through these early posts, I must have had a ton of time because I sure wrote a hell of a lot more. let's see, still single, no kids. yep, that explains it. It was nice to see my tastes in toys have remained relatively consistent. Still a fan of Super Robots, mecha, etc. But I seemed to really be into Kubricks back in the day. lol... sometimes I get criticized for not posting this or that for whatever reason and I thought about going more "mainstream" and trying to keep up with all the latest releases, but i've realized that if I did, it would probably lead to burn out. so for my own sanity, I have remained true to myself and simply posted what I want.... what I think looks cool. I try to avoid any so called "toy journalism" as I don't have the time or patience. one friend described toybot studios as "toy porn". I'm ok with that, lol.....
I remember those old posts, K. I've never been to Mark's house but as I understand it's a museum of Ultraman. I don't know how anyone can keep up with Ultraman toys. It seems like hundreds if not more are released every year. Also, I remember that before he moved and had kids, Brian had posted a photo of his enormous vintage collection somewhere here. I think the photo was taken down at some point (I have no memory of what thread it was in) but it'd be cool to see an updated version (sorry for the nudge and hint, Brian.) Gotta love those super-collectors.
THIS! There are some I visit at least once a week (Toybot, KaijuKorner). I hope this thread will add some to the list. Others, like luciferj's http://jme7315.blogspot.com or auxpeer http://www.auxpeer.com I kind of check out when I remember they exist but at least then I got some scrolling to do. I also check out http://omgposters.com/ every now and then (I know it is not a toy blog, but hey, it is colorful, too ). But yeah, whoever is doing a blog, I just have to repeat what Dean said - you may not know, but people really appreciate what you are doing!
It's poorly written, but updated daily and it's my baby. blog.nakamatoys.com it has more than just kiaju but I try to cover as much as possible. I'm more proud of my store that it's linked to, but I enjoy doing the blog coverage too.
Here's what I look at daily: Toybotstudios (My favorite) Kadomiumtank http://blog.goo.ne.jp/kadomiumtank/ KaijuLab http://kaijulab.blogspot.com.au/ Kaiju Korner (My other favorite) Spankystokes (posts everything toy related.) ToysREvil Albotas (not Kaiju....still all right blog.)
MY additions; jme moved to OMOCHA, http://omocha.keedan.com/track http://www.toy-people.com/ (also Taiwan based toy blog) http://www.kfhc.us/ http://monsterbrains.blogspot.nl/ (not toys, but awesome!) http://pinktentacle.com/ (not toys, but awesome!) Big thanks to Kaijukorner, Toybotstudios, kaijuchronicles! And my very own not even a month old blog; http://www.kaijumonster.com With KaijuMonster I try to create the blog I was missing. Daily updates, all latest release info, event coverage and Free Monster Thursday! Also I try to get some interaction going on. Please let me know what you think. Constructive or not, just tell me. Fanpage, stay up to date via a facebook "like"; http://www.facebook.com/pages/KaijuMonster/277240235634266 My facebook; http://www.facebook.com/kaijumonstercom Kaijumonster twitter; https://twitter.com/kaijumonstercom Sorry for shamelessly plugging my own blog^^ But I think the kaijumonster blog can safe some of your guys a lot of time keeping up to date with all the toys/art/sofubi/kaiju you like.
It's good. ^^^^^^^ You seem to put up pics/stuff other people either don't have up at the time or that I have missed seeing elsewhere so I like that.
I wonder if it will have flipping tips and tricks? Ahem, but yea, anyway. For years I have appreciated the work of Kirkland, Joe, Daniel, Andy and others. Even if I don't necessarily like the toy they're covering, I will still read their article because I appreciate the knowledge and enjoy looking at toy photos of any kind. Daniel's lengthy posts about older RxH releases are particularly interesting and I look forward to Andy's coverage of festivals every time one comes around. Much respect to all the toy nerds that provide us other toy nerds with information and news on a regular basis, whether it's sofubi or not. Great idea for a thread, Dean!
I think we can add the gloriously myopic Garamania to the list. Our Man Mitch does a fantastic job of keeping us up to date on the past and future of all things Garamon, plastic and otherwise.
Thanks, I'm glad people are enjoying the event coverage on KK. As everyone's saying, creating content is time consuming, but it's nice to build something that everyone can check out. Over the last couple of years, I've added a broader range of content, like behind the scenes reports, interviews, collector resources (shop visits, Tokyo toy map, etc.), toy reviews, studio visits, etc. I hope people will also check that out. One of the things I really enjoy is learning about what's behind the releases, so after the recent show, I dug deeper and wrote reports on the backgrounds of one-day releases and upcoming figures from Linden, Handsome Tarom/Jetture, etc. Anytime you can research and write about an obscure 1973 TV show in which Godziilla helps alien refugees overcome galactic predators...well, that's just a good time.
Today I went back to 2007 on your blog Andy....and started reading from there. Where does it actually start at?