I recently received the 30th anniversary Giant Robot book, and was pleasantly surprised to find that their article on Gargamel made it into the compilation. For those who remember, Gargamel was featured by GR in a 2006 article, just as things were getting started with this 'neo kaiju' thing. There was some discussion of it on the board at the time, and I remember making a dismissive comment, which I've always felt bad about. Looking at it now, the article is a time capsule of the sentiment surrounding the evolving designer toy movement, and definitely a nice nod by a pop culture institution to one of the original new vinyl companies. As an added bonus, there are some rare photos of the selection at Thrash-Out at the time, including a display of old test shots and test paints. You can still pick up the individual issue with the Gargamel article, but the anniversary book is definitely a worthwhile acquisition: https://www.giantrobot.com/collecti...g-asian-american-pop-culture-hardcover-signed
Need this! If you're interested in other Gargamel content from around that time, the first issue of Kaiju Taro's Kai-Zine featured an interview between them and Rumble Monsters, and subsequent issues had a column penned by Yukata Taguchi. Looks like there was even an exclusive release:
@bbb Yeah, I've always meant to go back and use Google Translate to 'read' some of the old Kai-Zine content. I should get back on that.
ChatGPT and DeepL are a couple of other translators that are a little better, I've found. GT has to catch up.
