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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 […]

Starlog stores in Japan

(click on any photo for an enlargement) Like a lot of 70s kids, I cut my nerdy teeth on Starlog magazine. It was basically my window into a world of wonder that wasn’t available where I grew up. As a struggling student in the 90s, I used to visit the Starlog store in New Jersey […]

Costume Spotlight: Goldar from Space Giants

There is nothing I love more than Halloween Costumes based on obscure properties and brother does this fit the bill. Space Giants was a 60’s Japanese TV series that ran in syndication until the late 70s. This outfit was actually produced towards in the tail end most likely due to a renewed interest in science […]

Podstallions 19: Japanese toys

Episode 19 sees Jason and Brian explain their deep affection for toys from the land of the rising sun. Even though we both grew up in North America, our childhoods were made happier by the imports that did manage to hop across the Pacific leaving us with a thirst for more. Japanese Toys tries to […]

Pod-Stallions Episode 17: Transmute!

Episode 17 is a benchmark for us, as it’s our first guest and that guest is comics legend Alex Ross. Alex joins us to talk about a favourite subject of both Jason and Brian, the animated series Battle of the Planets. We discuss our earliest memories of the show, it’s origins, merchandise, further iterations, how […]

Ultra Seven crashes into a toy store

Oh my goodness, where to begin? One, this is not only a mall appearance of one of my favourite characters but it’s in a 70s toy store setting.  On top of that it’s in a 70s JAPANESE toy store. Adding to this frenzy is one of my holy grails just sitting on a shelf, the […]

1978 Popy Toys Catalog

Oh Japan, how i love thee.  The Popy Toy Corporation is not terribly well known to North Americans but their influence definitely had an impact on us. In 1978, they had a tremendouse amount of cool licenses such as Gatchaman (Known to us as Battle of the Planets), Starzinger (which we called Spaceketeers) and your […]