The article is hands down amazing. Don't get me wrong. I remember when I joined in 2007ish? Wanting one badly after seeing Vinyl Glow Addict's kougai kaiju's...and remember when the wave of mixed parts were collected and painted over by many artists including... like PK and MVH etc which were equally amazing. I even remember when the board member Jay paid 400 for a two headed red bemon which seemed so absurd at the time. So so many fond memories of the toy. But as I've gotten older..I like things that I can obtain and admire without breaking the bank. 900+ for a toy that sits on the shelf or 900 for books for my kids first year of college? I have to put aside my own stuff and am practical in my approach to collecting and now I like the hype surrounding toys that still are affordable.
@xSuicide Squadx Appreciate that. It's definitely a slow burn. And I agree, Honda-San remains a mystery, which I'm sure is exactly how he'd prefer it. In this day and age, that's an amazing feat. @bryce_r I hear you on that. I grappled with including prices but ultimately found it interesting and part of the story. The original prices were considered expensive at the time... you'd be hard pressed to find anything for that price today. It seems that a lot of people were priced out of BeMon before they could even catch on, which is truly a shame. I am thankful though that BeMon has stuck to relatively the same business model for over a decade, and hasn't resorted to the kinds of shenanigans you see from several of his peers. @---NT--- LORD BEMON IS NOT AMUSED. I'm not kidding when I say that this was in the article at one point. I also found the photo of it being sold at Toy Tokyo. I really hope it's still out there in someone's collection.
I have been confused by this image for years. I always saw the goga, but until today I hadn't noticed the bemon behind the smoke. I must have a worm in my brain like rfk jr
@blakewest there are several people around that can properly explain this. I know who it was now, but at the time for all I knew this could have been anyone. http://lordbemonisnotamused.blogspot.com
Oh I was just confused by what I thought was a picture with a caption "Lord Bemon " minus a Bemon. Now that I see the Lord in the photo, it makes more sense. Praise the Lord!
If you do a search Lord Bemon was a member sort of a spoof and his/her or whoever it was always got their threads locked. Most of the stuff was trolling aka the barbecuing of the goga
Would’ve made way more of an impact, at the time and especially today, if it had been a BG! (And if you subscribe to the idea that the BG was inspired by the Kougai, it would have also made a bit more sense… not that sense has anything to do with this).
Zapatoco did light a BG up with some firecrackers, but I don’t think it really did much damage. Probably some minor burn discoloration. It was a blank, a gift from Shig if I recall correctly and later sold here on the board.
There was a collector who would make (or just buy?) rotocast Kougai and they put a smoke bomb in one of them. Thought it was clever (nice touch with the color choice).
Definitely Kevlo and his KFHC brand. I personally don’t like about 98% of resin toys, but he did some fun stuff with his.
I logged in to say I loved reading the history behind everything, whenever I see a show on the discovery channel about the big toy makers out there I wish there would be an few episodes dedicated to the indie toy scene. I still have my copy of Super 7 the book, and Super #1 Robot. I want an update with Paul K, Buta, MVH, Owl Toys, Splurrt, etc Rampage Toys etc. In that same vein Skullbrain needs a book. Amazing research and great subjects make for a great story. Thank you for your work.
Same way for me, @slipstar01. Something I've noticed in the past year is that, while the continuous flood of makers and toys continues (as Bryce alluded to), information is more scarce than ever. The blogs are dead but people are hungry for info. I think there is a market for sofubi-related content, be it a podcast, book, YouTube, substack, newsletter, blog... or all of the above. I don't think there would be a shortage of stories to tell.
Agreed. Lots of hype photos but very thin on real content. I am also really disappointed with the lack of quality search functionality on social media. I would really enjoy seeing a resurgence of content creation outside of SM that was searchable again.
Something interesting that happened recently regarding the Kougai Kaiju. Two months ago, a mysterious one-off that no one had seen before showed up on Mercari for the somewhat typical price that one-offs tend to go for right now. When the seller was messaged about its provenance, the listing was quickly pulled. A couple of weeks later, it appeared again as a part of Mandarake CoCoo’s upcoming 5th anniversary sale. It was again pulled before it could be sold. It turns out that someone took a blank sample and tried to pass a custom off as the real thing, sticker and all. Honestly, it’s a nice custom. But I wonder if it’s a sign of things to come.
