strange or rare yahoo auctions post here (after theyre over)

Thanks. And that's nuts. I remember buying one around 15 years ago, despite being from a US seller it only cost $150. I don't think prices are ever going to slide back down from this peak, at least in our lifetimes.

 

@Roger - Fully agreed, all the vintage Toho kaiju prices have gone nuts in the last few years with the Hedorah being one of the more hyped characters. An example that was missing an arm sold for 40k yen from Toy's King last week. The vintage train does not seem to be slowing down and is picking up more passengers.

 

I bought a pretty pristine one maybe 5 or 6 years ago for about $300.
Now how much would the Hawaiian go for these days is the question.

Has anyone noticed that on the reprints they washed away some of the detail on the bottom of the Hedorah. I always wondered if this was to identify reprints listed as vintage. Or just made the figure easier to pull.

 

Do you have a picture that shows the difference?

 

Yes, I highlighted the spot. I don’t have a reprint, and I think the tail is twisted a bit different in these images, but you can see it on the belly above the joint. Not sure the reason but to me there is a clear lack of detail in the reprint. Or maybe I’m just crazy.

 

Here is what two of my reissues look like, glow is from M1GO, orange is Bullmark:



I'm not sure I see the difference between mine and your vintage one. It's hard not having them in hand alongside one another. I do remember that when the Bullmark Story book came out and the first Hedorah reissue was offered as a mailaway, it was promoted as being pulled from new tooling from the master mold. Maybe they had to fix some details along the way.

Or was this just an excuse to get "upskirt" photos of people's Hedorahs, Joe?

 

Maybe I’m just seeing things. Getting lost in the sauce. But If you thought that was interesting, you have to check out the difference on the underside of the vintage large Godzilla and the reissues.

 

Again, I don't have the vintage one to compare against my reissue. I believe it, though. Many of these molds had to be re-created from scratch when they did the reissues.

I checked the Bullmark Story book and it does explicitly state that the tail was modified, and perhaps completely resculpted, when the new molds for the reissue were created.

 

I actually don’t have any of the giant godzillas, just trying to get some more upskirts

Interesting about the Hedo, then maybe I’m not crazy.

 

Good info on the Hedorah. I will add what I know, but I'm sure others here know even more:

Vintage Bullmark - mold is slightly smaller than the master mold unless you have some rare early example. The examples I have show consistent tails and are all roughly the same height.

M1GO reissue - retooled from the master mold so slightly taller than the vintage Bullmark examples. Tail and underside look similar to the vintage Bullmark though larger in proportion so can kind of look "different" or a bit more spread out. They look quite similar in sculpt and molding to me.

M1GO/neo-Bullmark - retooled again and now slightly smaller similar to the vintage size examples. The tail and underside look a bit different from both the vintage and glow vinyl M1GO examples. I do not have other M1 examples to compare against, but didn't Yuji create the smaller mold for some of the other M1GO releases? I just do not have any other M1's to compare, but I have a few of these recent Bullmark reissues that all are smaller with this newer-looking tail.

Vintage Hawaiian Hedorah in excellent condition sold for 1.55MM yen (~$10k USD) back in February. A similar example with a slightly-bent left arm sold for ~$7,800 USD on eBay in June.

 

I think this is the highest I've seen the OG Bullmark go for. It's in excellent but not minty shape, and no card or header:

 

@jetJagger - Wild price jumps lately, especially considering the one sealed in the bag with header that went for 280k yen back in June. (that I lost)

 

@deafmetal that one wasn't actually sealed (https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/m1140997218).

Came with the header, card, and bag, but it had been opened and probably played with. This most recent one was in better shape.

 

@jetJagger - You are correct, I forgot that one had already been opened. That overall condition does indeed explain the higher bids, but it still feels way too expensive for these toys.

 

@deafmetal Agree with that. Last year or so has seen some crazy escalation

 

Absolutely killing myself, because I forgot to bid on this... Does anyone know why the final price was so low? Was the auction ended early for a private sale? Gorgeous critter, just look at that metallic blue paint. Wonderful condition.

 

I’ve been seeing a lot of vintage toys end at sky high prices and when the auction is over it reverts back to the starting price.

 

Shill bidding?

 

I don’t think so- it seems like a privacy thing. Even similarly happening on eBay- I went back into my watchlist to look at the prices are set to 0.00

 

I've been waiting to see if the critter will be relisted, which might hint at shill bidding. If not, I guess that it was sold privately. I seemed to recall a few low bids at the beginning. Can a seller end an auction with live bids on JYA?

@joshuajh crazy price on that Leafman! Do you think it's with the original sword? You guys had 3 or 4 in the old S7 shop (all standing size by side!) in bygone days, all in great condition too. So glad I adopted one of them back in the day. And I thought $300 was pricey! Sheesh! Vintage (and neo) has skyrocketed into some insane price levels

 

I dropped in to see what goes on in these parts. That might've been a mistake.

 

@Mr. Humphreys Grace looks li the original sword to me.

 

Goodness! Thank you @Alebrije , they are rarely found with original swords!

 

I traded a minty one w/ original sword to @Lixx for a GID Buta Hayabusa lady years ago. One of my favorite trades I ever made, we were both stoked.

Miss that dude. keeping that Hayabusa for the long haul.