marusan originals

i dont believe this is a marusan original. Mine has "Banana" on the bottom of the foot. I think i asked Roger about this, but his friend at marusan didnt know anything about it. Congrats on a great score.

 

Nice, should have known you had one of these. Whats it look like on? Is it just a standard light bulb socket? Mine has "banana oil" on the right foot and a barely visible マルサン (marusan) JAPAN on the other foot. The beetland lamp (and this guy) is a much harder vinyl that doesnt get too soft with the light on.

 

There's a definite shortage of lamp kaiju these days.

I love these things, I'm an idiot for passing up a beetland Godzilla at a decent price not too long ago. I should've gave blood for a week to get the $$$$$$$

 

Who can tell me about this guy? I think his name is Blue Kong. I just grabbed him because I thought he was awesome looking, but I havent been able to find much info on him.

 

^ Curly D! Hes from the show Captain Ultra, a Toei show from the 60's. Not part of the Marusan Originals line though.

 

Yeah, I know he's not an original. Just couldn't find much info on him anywhere. Not even photos really.

 

Captain Ultra has some crazy-cool kaiju that are very underrated imho. Yours is actually translated as BullKong.
First time I saw this at auction. Ended at 51,000 Yen. Pretty high for a finger puppet. Go to the top of page 6 of this thread to see the standard and giant size versions in Josh's post.'

 

I know what you mean. I thought I had all the finger puppets, and even a few paint variations, until I saw this catalog scan. Here's hoping a few show up hidden in a lot of other toys

 

I'm usually not a reissue guy, but I couldn't pass up the reissue of Marusan's Gosura from the Tsuburaya Creative Jam anniversary event in August. Never say never, but I think I have about as good a chance of finding the original as I do winning the small lottery required to afford it.



The packaging is exquisite... a velvet rope tie-bag within an outer bag w/header. I love the retro-style shiny Marusan sticker on the bag. Attention to detail.





And the figure does not disappoint. Much like the new Bullmark reissues, the quality of the vinyl and paint has been much improved since the late 90s reissues of the Marusan originals. Still, this actually feels like a vintage figure... pretty light for its size and the joints are looser than normal. (I wonder if they are pulling these from the original molds.) The reissue omits one noticeable paint detail on the original: the red 'lipstick' spray.

Unlike the prior Marusan original kaiju reissues, this one is apparently produced and manufactured by Medicom with Marusan involved in planning. Although I bought one of the figures from the original run, there is an open run via Medicom's website that is still accepting orders. Hopefully, this bodes well for future reissues of the big-size originals.

 

Great looking toy and pics Daniel, nice to see Gosura without looking at a tiny auction pic. If they reissue a giant Ragun or Bakura I'm going to be all over it. Medicom is at least doing some of the rarest of the rare vintage toys that I doubt many of us could afford, or have to enter a huge bidding war etc...i.e. Yonezawa Nodders, Tritons etc.

 

@Lixx- Thanks! I also really like Medicom's recent direction in giving attention to reissues of some of the more obscure vintage rarities.

@ultrakaiju- The joints are loose enough to allow you to swivel the head and limbs easily, but they definitely hold their position. They are loose in comparison to some modern vinyls, like Dream Rocket or Marmit figures.

 

I've been on the verge of pre-ordering this since it was first announced, but the high price tag has so far held me at bay. I will see how long I can hold out...

 

First thing, Kaminaga-san did a talk at Kaiju-Con and he talks a bit about the original kaiju:



He says he sold 5,000 Giant Gorilla reissues in 1997-1998, his best seller! By comparison, he said he sold 5,000 Godzilla reissues over the course of 15 years.

Second thing, was there a second wave of Marusan Original kaiju reissues in the 90s? I am seeing additional ones on Mandarake that weren't on the black and white flyer or in Hyper Hobby Dash 11. For instance:

https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/detailPage/item?itemCode=1084926179&ref=alist&lang=en

https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/detailPage/item?itemCode=1030026971&ref=alist&lang=en

There's also a Bondora on eBay right now:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Soft-Vinyl...m-Ultraman-Kaiju-sofvi-Tsuburaya/264314222521

Lastly, regarding Hyper Hobby Dash 11:

I forgot that there were multiple blue gorillas, but where is the brown one?

 

I'm not sure when/where the reissues of standard size Bakura and Daggle are from. I have the Daggle, and the quality seems similar to the '90s reissues, and not the modern ones. Perhaps they were reissued after that Hyper Hobby article came out.

 

Better photo of the reissues from Hyper Hobby Dash 11.

 

Wow, Mandarake put out some colorful reissues.

https://www.mandarake.co.jp/information/sale/marusan-marumon/en.html

 

Whole bunch of entries on Marusan original kaiju here:

https://www.mandarake.co.jp/information/column/sp01/

 

So the "King Godzilla" キングゴジラ is considered an original? Basically it's an unlicensed Godzilla like monster differentiated by "King"? Both sizes are really great.

 

The name is "King Godzilla" but it is definitely not licensed from Toho. Marusan was just trying to get kids' attention with the name.

I got me a Seabull:

 

I felt like this thread needed some more love.

Ive been collecting these finger puppets slowly for the last couple of years. They are one of my favorite things now.







Two from the standard size line that I picked up somewhat recently