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Grip Character Diecast Catalog

Click on the image to Enlarge. Eidai Grip diecast vehicles were produced in Japan during the 1970s and featured many popular TV licences not unlike Dinky and Corgi did in the United Kingdom. In fact, they shared many licenses like Gerry Anderson’s UFO (a personal favourite), Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet. They also (understandably) covered Japanese […]

Pod Stallions 40: The Micronauts

For our 40th episode we are joined by actor/comedian Chris Tallman (@MrChristallman on twitter) for a celebration of the Interchangeable World of the Micronauts, the classic toy line from Mego that is about to get a major motion picture and new comic book series this year. The discussion begins with the toy line’s Japanese origins, it’s halcyon […]

Pod Stallions 37 : Godilla

Episode 37 is our first “lost episode” as we had to re-record half of it after a computer glitch (sorry), so we know it’s not October. This one has J & B discussing all things Godzilla and his Toho pals, something we’re both fans of. Subjects include our highlights (and lowlights) of his film series, […]

Popy Godzilla!

This year I managed to cross a toy off my want list that has been there since I first saw it in 1995. The Popy “Jumbosaurus” is the Japanese equivalent to the Mattel Shogun Warriors Godzilla. Mattel kept a few of the trademark items (like the firing fist and the wheels on the feet) but the differences outweigh […]

Toy Hunting in Japan

A couple pals of mine went to Japan this week and while I was unable to join them, they did the next best thing and took photos of everything they could while toy hunting. Here are just a few samples… Japanese live action Spider-Man had a car and a killer robot, which seems to be […]

Star Blazers action figure gallery

Star Blazers was a huge phenomenon in my neighbourhood when it hit the airwaves in 1979, my friends and I would gather every day at the one house whose ariel got the channel just to see if the Argo did indeed save earth. That’s why these action figures produced by Nomura in Japan blew my […]

Battle of the Planets Card Game

As space is so limited around here (kind of like money) I tend to not buy a lot of Battle of the Planets stuff these days,  unless it’s a) Cheap and b) features Zoltar or his Spectra goons. This Japanese card game checked both of those boxes, it’s got my favourite transgendered villain on the […]

A Japanese Toy Store Flyer from the 1970s

It’s no secret I’m fond of vintage toy store flyers but getting them from foreign countries is even sweeter! I can’t read a lick of Japanese but I can spot fun classic 1970s toys like Jumbo Machinders (We called them Shogun Warriors), MicroMan (Micronauts here) and the amazing Henshin Cyborg,check out the 1970s Japanese Toy […]

Popy World Hero Update!

When I first launched the Popy World Hero gallery, I had a few mysteries to solve like who certain characters were and the like. I’m happy to announce that the gallery attracted like minded folks who joined in and helped out, filling in a pile of gaps, like who was mystery figure 17? I now […]

Gatchaman Stamp Set

For some reason I was really chuffed to discover that Japan not only likes cheap-o rack toys but that they even get the exact same kind. This little set has little stamps of the phoenix, Mark and Zoltar, it would have so easy to put this on an english card and market this to us […]