The latest Mandarake Zenbu auction is revelatory; so many of the figures in here up for auction in bag and mint condition. Something that stood out to me in particular is this one, which I’ve never seen before. A Miura Kaiju based on Baragon; a fifth in the famous series that includes Goji, Ghidora, Gomora and Aboras. Here is a link to check out the auction with plenty of more photos.
@bbb I fell out of my chair when I saw this last week. Never even heard about this guy, much less seen for sale in the last 15 years of hunting.
that Miura fake-baragon is earth-shattering. who knows if it was ever sold or just a sample that got cancelled or something. totally amazing to see.
Yeah, it's amazing that a toy would be released 50 years ago and never showed up in an auction or book until now, but sofubi toys were seen as cheap and disposable. There may be many more, deep down in landfills.
I ended up buying a copy of the latest Zenbu since I didn't want to spend hours pulling the photos off of Mandarake's site. I've never bought one before, and the production quality is pretty nice given the 1000 yen price. My only gripe is that they don't include all of the auction photos. Some of the more prominent items (such as the Miura Toy 'Baragon' above) get multiple photos, but many only have a single shot. Given the rarity of some of the items, I would have liked to have seen multiple angles and all sides of packaging for future reference.
To underscore how important the Baragon discovery has been, the auction just ended for a cool ¥4.9M ($34K).
I honestly wonder how people can justify to themself to put so much money on a toy... I'm not judging, I am just asking..
I always assume its extremely rich people, where the amount is pocket change to them. There's a Chinese guy on FB I know, he literally spends his life going from art show to art show, staying in top hotels. Either that or he's travelling to Japan and buying RxH etc. He just seems to have endless cash, and expensive tastes in all the 'coolest' stuff, whether it's cars, trainers, toys or paintings.
Some of these people don’t have as much money as you think. There are plenty of people out there maxing out credit cards and taking 2nd mortgages on their house to buy toys. Some people just have an addiction and some people know it and can’t stop. In a case like this, this is probably your only chance in life. If you have a serious collection and you need it to complete, you probably feel like you have to do whatever it takes. Even if you do need to open a new credit card or take out a 2nd mortgage. that number sounds crazy but I’m sure that there were a bunch of super disappointed dudes who were in the race now wondering if they could have gone higher.
Goodness, that is a serious chunk of change . I "get" collecting, and it's a beautiful and unique toy. I honestly can't understand over extending your finances to a point where it's a detriment to everyday existence. I always thought it was a group of crazy rich Asians dropping lots of moolah. Didn't realize people are going to the extremes of second mortgages and serious credit debt . I wonder if Elon has a secret room behind motorized walls filled with toys! That would be fun to think that . On a more pragmatic note, those of you with large and expensive collections, do you insure your toys? I've had several discussions with you collectors and I think one member does. I spoke with an insurance agent and they said it's like taking out an art rider on your home owner's policy. You need to manage documentation and proof of the details of your collection and validation of worth. I actually had my house broken into. It so happened that the night before, I had started unboxing and unbagging a lot of toys. Seven Tiger 7s sitting on a table with lots of unbagged butas, racers, and vintage, all waiting to be arranged and put in cases. I came home to find the front gate lock broken. Then noticed the front door was split in the middle. They had difficulty breaking the front door (old school solid stuff). The broke the sheet rock around the door frame and I later saw that they split the joist to pry the front door lock and break it. Uh oh, I know what this is about", I thought. My first thought was my kitties. I worried for them and hoped they were still inside and hiding, not lost on the streets . I couldn't enter the house, as I wasn't sure if the burglars were still there. 6 cops showed up and did a walkthrough, the burglars were gone. None of the toys were moved or taken. It was a very unusual break in. The police said it was very professional. They broke through the inside wall to break the wiring. They went through every room and took the contents of all the cabinets and closets and literally dumped them on the floor, in each room. They only took iPads and two very old laptops. Awful experience cleaning up everything and putting things back in place. Damage to the font gate, door, framing, outer. and inner walls, tile, and wiring alone, was almost $30k! They were looking for something specific, and the police think they mistook my house for another. Kitties were hiding in terror to my greatest joy, they were safe. Sorry for the long rambling. Just goes to show that a collection could be stolen, but in my case I was extremely lucky. Unless I was extremely wealthy, I couldn't justify putting myself in financial jeopardy to buy a toy!
I'm glad to hear they didn't know the value of your toys, I think the general public have no idea about geek stuff like sofubi. What an awful event, luckily your kitties are OK!!
At some point in my life, i did not have a couch or a fridge and it mades me smile to think that if any burglars break intro my flat they would think it was already ''visited'' But yes,.toy value is currently very much unknown, lucky for us!
@JoeMan exactly this. There are collectors who have been in the game for longer than the internet has existed. Imagine thinking you have a full set and one day finding out you don’t. Also it’s not always either extremes. Some people have savings. Maybe they’re older. Maybe they’re retired. Maybe they want to pour their hard earned money into their hobby. Doesn’t mean they are rich, doesn’t mean they are poor. @Roger when the auction was first announced, rumor was there were several collectors in Japan committed to keeping it in Japan. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them succeeded. @Mr. Humphreys I’m so sorry to hear this. I think it might be time to insure my collection…
Thanks guys! I think much of the western public is oblivious to sofubi. In all seriousness, that Miura Baragon is a stunner. Wasn't there a situation a long time ago, where someone had part of his collection stolen and it appeared on eBay? The auctions were shut down I think. Also, I think it would be difficult for burglars to sell to such a niche market. As sofubi values continue to increase, it may change at some point? My best friend knows not to drag my collection over to Goodwill, but to reach out to Skullbrain. Someone will have to help him with pricing, because I'll be dead and won't care . No, i have no surviving relatives Who needs the twin Buta GID vacuum ladies?
Rich people collect toys too. It is weird to pay 34k for a toy but it is even weirder to rant about what other people spend their money on. Toy collecting has never been bigger and the vintage market is still way way undervalued. A lot of what was just sold on zenbu 123 were incredibly difficult to find figures in amazing condition. These prices will be far far higher in the coming years. Collecting these toys is still far cheaper than a lot of what other people collect: baseball cards, watches, art Please don't go into debt collecting toys. Also, I'll give you 1k for the pair of vacuum ladies
I'm curious about why you say that "the vintage market is still way way undervalued" and "prices will be far far higher in the coming years" What is this based on? Speaking as someone that has been watching these figures for a while, I think the frustration is valid. A good lot of the auction items were sub-$100 figures, even as recently as 5-10 years ago. Even some of the rarer stuff would have had a hard time cracking $1000. To see the same figures going for $500 to tens of thousands of dollars is a little hard to swallow. When I see values jumping up like that in the span of a few years, I always have to sit back and kind of scratch my head. It's not like everyone suddenly woke up one day and realized that these figures were worth way more than they were yesterday. I think it's just new people collecting. New people with lots of money. A lot of these are not super rare toys, and the prices they achieved suggest to me that the bidders didn't really know their pricing (and, perhaps, didn't care). Eventually tastes will change, economy will change, and then the prices will settle back to somewhere around where they used to be (perhaps a bit higher due to time). Even within the new vinyls, there's been bursts and boosts in the pricing as lines become 'hot' or people come in and try to buy their way into a collection. Most of it has evened out over the years. You could argue that the pricing is still going up, but I think it is mostly attributable to a really narrow range of figures at this point. Personally, I'll wait it out. All that said, never thought I would live to see the day that people started throwing down on the 90s reissues of the Marusan originals.
@akum6n your last sentence is timely, and I couldn't agree more. I'd add that's the case for select B-Club stuff, too, lately. Not as dramatic as the MC reissues, but still.
I think that there are collectors with money, for example Robin Williams turns out collected toys. They just keep it in the down low.
Yep, that's what I think too. They're not like the average collector, who puts time and effort into researching the history and pricing of the toy. They just like it, it's a cool collectable which will likely increase in value. I got outbid on YJA for rarer Bear Model stuff so often it became a joke. Some of the prices people want on ebay are hilarious too!
