Mexican bootlegs are a branch of toy
collecting I wish I could get more involved in. It's such a bizarre
genre of toy collecting. There's no list of what was made, so who
knows if you have a complete set or not. They are meant to be a
novelty of sorts, which would drive completists absolutely mad. If
you find something that catches your eye, buy it quickly because who
knows if they made 10 or 10,000 of that figure. I'm not one to say
something like that, one of my base rules of collecting is there's
rarely only one of anything; but this isn't normal toy collecting. I
have friends that own small armies of Homer from the Simpsons as
every DC and Marvel character imaginable and near full sets of
vintage Star Wars figures made out of lead. I own a few bizarre
figures myself, from “Big Chap” from Aliens to E.T (bagged as a
character known only as Space Friend) and today's topic of
discussion, Ultraman.
Bought off of an eBay auction in mid
December, this particular Ultraman figure has no maker's marks or
indentifying symbols. This isn't a surprise since most unlicensed
Mexican figures are void of such markings. The figure is molded in
silver plastic, possibly blow molded like most figures just like him
from south of the border. No paint applications on the toy anywhere
nor any traces of paint lead me to the conclusion that this figure
was meant to just be a silver hunk of plastic. The only confusing
thing about the figure is the gym shorts sculpted on the figure. The
ridge on the head is an Ultraman trait as well as the chest piece,
but the booty shorts left me scratching my head. I know toys such as
him are often sold by sidewalk vendors, especially in front of
Luchador exhibitions. Maybe the figure was meant to represent a
certain masked wrestler, the mystery may never be solved to be
honest. Enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment