I picked up these 1985 Bandai figures.Would love to see what you have.

For starters there also this Nuppeppo

kitaro's father is very cool



i had red demon too, but i sell it to Dedo

Okay, so this has been bugging me for some time. ^^That's not a nopperabo...it's a nuppeppo. Nopperabo are the normal-looking humans who face away from you...and when you get close, they turn around and they have no face. What's weird, though, is that I've seen the names get mixed up in other places, too. For example, in the trailer for the Daiei yokai films, they list their names transposed as well.

Does someone have the 411 on this weird phenomenon? I should probably just hit up Matt Alt...

Anyway, these toys are great. I have Abura Sumashi at home!

Beat you to it Sanjeev!! Unfortunately mine is not complete, may be yours is?

Sorry for the mistake guys, corrected now, but yes, as far as I was aware that was the name. My bad, but it is quite commonly transposed then from everything I have seen, likely just a simple translation error. Thanks for the heads up Sanjeev! I do love this series

That's the one, Axolotl! Awww...but he's missing his mino and his walking stick. But don't worry: his mino looks more like a Hawaiian grass skirt than a farmer's raincoat!

Just to follow up--'cause, y'know, I like to obsess like that--it turns out that Nuppeppo IS named properly on the toy's packaging. The transposed name thing musta just been a coincidence then.

Matt Alt, the David Attenborough of the yokai world, says "Nopperabo (also called "Mujina" in some places, thanks to an apparent mis-translation by Lafcadio Hearn back in the early 1900s) are definitely "faceless ones" and Nuppepo the blobby guys. If the names have been conflated maybe it's a translation error since they're so similar."

Anyway, here's Abura Sumashi with mino and stick!

Sanjeev, do you (or does anyone) know why the Abura Sumashi is so pricey? Was it really more rare than the other figures? The others are fairly easy to pick up, but this guy when I saw him was about 4x the price. I mean, sure, he is my favourite too, but that is a bit steep.

I bought mine for about 5k yen. Didn't wait or look too hard. It's incomplete though...

Mmm...can't help much there either: this dude was given to me, loose, as a gift from a friend. She'd just upgraded to a MIB one, so I'm guessing they're not TOO hard to find.

I've already posted some of these elsewhere, they're not vintage but awesome little toys


Sunguts GeGeGe No Kitaro by Rudebeast, on Flickr


Sunguts GeGeGe No Kitaro by Rudebeast, on Flickr


Sunguts GeGeGe No Kitaro by Rudebeast, on Flickr


Sunguts GeGeGe No Kitaro by Rudebeast, on Flickr


Sunguts GeGeGe No Kitaro by Rudebeast, on Flickr


Sunguts GeGeGe No Kitaro by Rudebeast, on Flickr

Those sunguts pieces are cool.
What size are they?

I missed this auction about a month ago on YJP.
Fell asleep at the wheel...

Wow, talk about getting told on the GeGeGe no Kitaro collections. Truly impressive diceone, I wouldn't worry too much about having missed that auction.

No no... I'm just sharing what I've seen and the few pieces I have.
My friend Josh's girlfriend, Regan, has them all I believe, MIMB.

And I am sweating that auction as it has the two rarest figures in the lot.
In addition to having the mini medama oyaji that comes with Kitaro, which I also don't have.

If you ever see that Keshi Gomu board game pick it up.
It's really really fun to play.

What's the name of the eye dude?

Medama Oyaji
目玉おやじ

Quite small, approx 4 to 5" I'd say but I'm just guessing as I don't have them here with me

I just got turned onto this stuff. Does anyone know where I can find dvd's or possibly have the kanji to search YJ?

^^^
Yes.
Go to a search engine..such as google and type in GeGeGe no Kitarō.

If you're looking for it on YJP lets coordinate as I'm also after it.
I have most of the line, and if a large lot comes up, I'm only looking for a 4 more pieces... I think. Maybe 5.

Would rather work together than battle a fellow collector for the same lots!

I'll PM you as well...

For those that don't know much about GEGEGE no Kitaro, it's by Shigeru Mizuki.
He is one of Japan's oldest working cartoonists and designers.
He has a compelling and inspiring life story. Including losing his arm in WWII and re-learning to draw/write with his opposite hand. I seriously well up with emotions thinking about this guys ability to be so productive and over come so much AND stay married.

Kitaro has been around since the 1960's, and while lately "Yokai" seems to be a new buzz word that's infesting the "what's cool" toy jockeys... It's always nice to see a real understanding of the significance of the pieces. So major bonus points to you for wanting to watch it online, or buy the books and DVD.

Of course the toys are awesome in their own right... and were also my gateway to Kitaro, and Mizuki.

You can get Kitaro manga from Kinokuniya and most other Japanese friendly book stores.
The older the books, the better as the Yen has climbed in value against the dollar. So something imported 10 years ago is less in US dollars, than the same exact copy imported today. I recently experienced this at Kinokuniya, and thought they made a pricing error on two identical copies of a book on the same shelf.

So go to your OLDEST stores first!

Bandai has made items more recently in 1999 and later. The quality of the vinyl is not so awesome.
they're ok... I have them but the toys look very different when next to one another.

I'd look for the sets from 1997 or earlier.

And if anyone is curious, Mizuki had his first ever work translated into english.
"Onwards towards our noble deaths" is a recount of his days under his maniacal commander in WWII. Drawn in his classic style. It's humorous and horrifying all at once. While it may seem like comedy, it's a literal documentation of his peril and escape from war. Highly recommended and please order it from your local non-chain store if possible.

Sorry for the long post.

How's about that? MORE science on the Nuppeppo/Nopperabo conflation from Master Alt:

"...A lot of people credit Mizuki Shigeru and his Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro series with creating the yokai genre, but that isn't the case. He's an undisputed genius, but he didn't create the yokai -- he mined them for inspiration to make his own new series. The comparison I always use is 'Shrek,' an equally wildly-popular series built from totally unrelated folktales, using a newly-created protagonist to tie everything together (Shrek / Kitaro.)

Forgive me if you've heard this before, because it leads into what the deal is with the confusion around Nuppeppo/Nopperabo.

Mizuki played around with a lot of the yokai, remixing and reinventing to suit his needs. (So did Toriyama Sekien, the man whose 1776 illustrated yokai encyclopedias established what the yokai actually LOOKED like for the first time. Most of Mizuki's (and everyone's) portrayals of the yokai are based to a greater or lesser degree on Sekien's designs.) He mashed-up the names of the Nupeppo and Nopperabo to create a new character, 'Nupperabo,' which is what the sofubi is based on. He also tweaked the background; in traditional stories, Nupeppo are composed of meat that if consumed gives you eternal life. Mizuki's Nupperabo sings a song that instantly ages anyone who hears it.

Yokai are all about tweaking and remixing, so unravelling threads like this is part of the fun!"

∆∆ Some really great stuff here - i would love the Sunguts versions . . . .

I recently scored this set - the seller said it is 90's Bandai/Popy 10pcs with each figure 2.5" - 3" High

Just wondering does anyone own this set? I cant find any info at all about it online -
i've found lots of other Kitaro toys but not this particular set . . .

Anyone have better pics, confirmation of the size etc ?? Just curious . . . . .


GeGeGe No Kitaro Mini Set by The Moog Image Dump, on Flickr