I really want the clear Ultra Ace figure! I have NEVER seen one for sale. There are no clear vinyls of any of the other characters in the series either.
Whoa, thanks for all the scans. Pickle- nice score on the set. That clear Ultra-Ace is a 'gift' version (apparently for answering a questionnaire).
I've checked an early Marusan catalog I have and the giant gorilla is not from One Million Years BC (even though one website I looked at said so) nor is it a Marusan "original" (in that it was not released with the other "originals" in 1971.) It is, however a sculpt original to Marusan. The catalog shows the copyrights for all the characters released that year, and the giant gorilla shows the "circle SAN" mark. It was released in 1967, the same year as King Kong Escapes so it may in fact have been an attempt to cash in on King Kong. Certainly many collectors use this figure to fill that spot. I think it got reissued with the Marusan "originals" because the rights belonged to them. The original release of this toy is quite pricey but there are many repops available.
i wrote some about the gorillas here... nothing new about it though http://pickleloaf.blogspot.com/2008/07/ ... rusan.html
Here's a shot of the Marusan Original finger puppets I have. It is interesting to note that the headers read "Ultra mini kaiju." (I can scan the header if anyone really wants to see it clearly-both sides are different) I recently saw a catalog scan that showed 2 more in the series. The pic was pretty small but it looked like at least one of them was wearing a cape-perhaps UltraAce? I have never seen the other 2 in the series. These are only kind of scarce and there are vinyl color and paint variations. Expect to pay between 3,000 and 7,500 Yen when you can find them.
That totally made me laugh out loud, but it looks to be true from the catalog photo. Those are all great scans. Nice pickups pickleloaf! That's like an instant starter set I guess.
all of those scans are fantastic ! love all those finger puppets mark . they are actually kinda hard to find . the big size size marusan originals can be a little tricky to find .
i found this folded up in one of my marusan bags. i cant remember if it was with bera or a gorilla i have the text scanned closer up if someone wants to translate it. just let me know
Pardon my ignorance, but who is the winged guy next to Guiron? I know I've seen him before but I'm not sure what his name is.
It might not show in the catalog that way, but the bagged one I used to have had a One Million Years BC header card.
Thanks for the info Crowzilla and welcome to the boards. The catalog lists the copyrights for the various characters and since the giant gorilla was an original sculpt and not even in the film it was only listed as a Marusan copyright. I made the wrong assumption that it was not released with the others from the film. Damn, after scoring an archaelon, I thought I had them all.
Thanks Mark. Mike J introduced me to this site not too long ago, and while I'm not as active as I used to be I'm certainly happy to contribute whatever I can.
all conventional thinking that I have heard through the years was that it was made specifically to be a King Kong knockoff. They may have just used one million BC to help pass it off as something legit, that way they would not be hassled by the real licensors.
holy shit! what figures are the creepy clown looking robot guy and the figure to his left (the one with the clear top of his head)? i must have them. where can i find them. my brain is melting. these are the coolest things i have seen in awhile!
I was going through the process of transferring archived pics from DVD to hard drive today and came across these pics of the Torutos and Dorango, plus some of the paperwork that came with them (these are the 1997 reproductions). The colors are off - something happened when I reduced them in size - must have had some other setting on that I didn't notice that changed the hues slightly, but they are still pretty close.
I think it's strange that the reissue Dorango's horns are curved, where they were supposed to be straight, judging from the original. Most of the reissues are dead-on. Wonder what happened.
Could be that they just warped from storage somewhere? Hairdryer could fix if they are supposed to be straight....
Yeah, could be warping from storage. Maybe a production issue. Found this odd mash-up Marusan dino on YJA (auction has closed). It's about 12 cm long. I thought it was from the 1M BC line, but the foot stamp is different- more like the Marusan originals.
That triceratops is from Norakuro of the Japanese Imperial Army. The original Marusan vinyls had characters holding various dinosaurs. This one is marked, but I believe others were not marked. I know this was mentioned in several threads previously. You see them pop up bagged with the dinos every so often on YJA and they go for sevreal hundred dollars mib.