Icon series Captain America from Marvel Toys/Toy Biz

Who doesn't know the story of Captain America? To explain the back story on Cap who be like rehashing the Superman or Batman origin, basically useless filler. He's the most iconic hero of the Avengers and not much has changed about him over the years (well, except for that unfortunate “death of Captain America” story that led us all into a really convoluted and boring series of comics that turned the whole Marvel Universe upside down). The Ultimates story brought us a really more well equipped Captain America, a more detailed costume that showed off a better designed utility belt full of just about anything a super soldier could need while taking on a Nazi stronghold or just simply paying for a $8 cup of Starbucks coffee. Marvel Select and Marvel Legends (ToyBiz or Marvel Toys) gave us their interpretations of Ultimate Captain America, but the Marvel Legends Icons version tops them all.

(What do you think the "A" stands for, FRANCE?)

Over the years, Toy Biz's Marvel Legends gave the collecting world some of the best figures we had ever seen. Also, they dropped the ball several times but they had far more wins than losses if you ask almost any collector. I'm a sucker for large scale figures if they are done well and the Icons series was no exception. Exceptionally detailed and painted 2 up scale figures of all the Marvel heavy hitters really appealed to the collector in me. My favorite from the line was Captain America, even after I sold off all my Marvel Legends I kept him because I felt it was the only version that had actually captured the iconic Cap'n. In my opinion they captured every pen stroke of the Ultimates Captain America, from the wrinkles in his boots to his stone hard look of determination across his face. The also succeeded where the 6 inch line had failed in my opinion by re-enforcing the joints with a ratcheting system that held the figure's pose, even under it's own weight. No detail was left out of his utility belt and the face sculpt is so life-like I almost wait for him to yell “AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!” I consider him a treasured piece of my collection and a must have for any Captain America fan.

Kilazee from Ultraman: Towards the Future by Bandai

(for lack on actual show footage, I must rely on the SNES to give us some visuals)

A monster from Earth's past destined to destroy it, the winged monster Kilazee made his appearance in the final episode of Ultraman: Towards the Future. The final battle in any Ultraman series is usually something to stop and take notice of and this is no exception. This red dragon of death and destruction was nearly impervious to all human weapons, it even sustained a direct hit from a nuclear weapon and did nothing more than shrug it's shoulders and flapped it's wings in response. Looking like the end was certainly near, Ultraman Great took on his final opponent atop of the the great mountains in the secluded outback of Australia. Even though Kilazee seemed indestructible, Ultraman Great triumphed by using his last Great Slicer and Star Beam to kill the beast before picking it up and carrying it into space. Neither was ever seen again.

The Bandai Kilazee figure is leaps and bounds better than the Dreamworks American release. Granted the Bandai figure is smaller and the paint application isn't as good, but the textures and details sculpted into all 7 inches of this figure makes it a feast for your eyes. This version is much more show accurate in detail and fits in with the rest of the Ultraman saga figures from Bandai. The only thing I feel is lacking from the figure is the lack of paint applications. Take into account, the Dreamworks figure has a more colorful paint application but is still far from show accurate. On a personal note, all of the monsters from the Towards the Future line are really hard to find. I've been collecting for years and I'm still 5 characters short of a complete set of this line, Bandai never really went into any great degree of repaints/ re-issues of characters from the Towards the Future line making the figures very collectible and commanding higher prices on a secondary market.

Sharkticon warrior by Hasbro/Takara

(I think the movie starts in 3 days)

My first introduction to the Sharkticons was in the Transformers movie. The character was utilized afterwards in the cartoon series, but their performance was most memorable in the movie. Used as the personal army to the Quintessons, the Sharkticons sole purpose was to catch intruders and either bring them to so-called “justice” by their masters or render the intruders to a scrap pile of leftover parts. When their Quintesson masters delivered sentence (and it always ended poorly), the accused was dropped into a watery pit full of these living garbage disposals where their fate was ultimately to become a mere snack.

(innocent?)

The character is one of my top 5 favorites in the Transformers legend and it's gotten very little love since the 80's. The design is really unique and hasn't been replicated in years, rows of chrome teeth and eerie neon green eyes are the main highlights on the figure. In primary mode he looks the most show accurate. The large head that starts to tapper off as you get closer to the tail, frail looking front arms offset by the larger hind legs and the tail tipped with a spiked ball makes the character look like more of a hybrid between a tadpole and a piranna. In robot mode the design is kind of lacking. The best thing I can say about it's robot mode is the head is amazingly accurate and well detailed. The real overall detraction for me is the legs. I'm not sure if they are to long but they are deffinately too close together, causing the figure to be top heavy and suffering several face plants off my shelves, risking damaging or breaking the toy.

Being a Transformer of the 80's, the construction of the Sharkticon is sturdy but if you apply too much pressure to the joints you'll run a risk of snapping the plastic components. Newer Transformer toys are equipt with pressure sensitive ball joints that purposely snap out of place when too much pressure is applied. You simply snap the limb back in and continue playing, just that simple. Many a Transformer of the 80's suffered battle wounds that had to be super glued into place, ultimately ruining the play value and eventually ending up in the garbage. But, such was the fate of many toys and thus bringing about the sometimes unholy cost of purchasing some of these toys from our childhood.

Centurions Ace McCloud flashlight from Kenner

Centurions: Power X Treme was a half hour American cartoon brought to us by Ruby-Spears and animated in Japan by Sunrise in 1985 as a 5 part miniseries with was followed up by a 60 episode season in late 1986. Comic book legends Jack Kirby and Gil Kane contributed to the design and concepts of the show and some of our favorite voice actors of 80's cartoon lent a hand at bringing the characters to life. Kenner brought the world of Centurions to toy store shelves and DC Comics provided a comic book series that was sold all over the world.

Centurions was a great series of 8 inch scale action figures with the ability to “plug” in upgrades to take on any challenge, much like the TV show. The line was comprised of 3 three heroes(Ace McCloud, Max Ray and Jake Rockwell), 2 villains (Hacker and Doc Terror) and about a dozen or so add-on kits to make taking on challenges on land, in the sea or in the air easier. About 32 holes lined the heroes jumpsuits where you could mix and match upgrade pieces, giving a sense of creativity to any kid who played with them. It was such a hit at retail that Remco (famous for knock-off toys) made their own version called Man-Tech. It Never had a chance and only lasted a few months at retail before hitting clearance.

Along with full sized figures, Kenner made a series of 3 ¾ inch figures outfitted with flashlights or binoculars. The figures themselves were almost identical to their larger counterparts with only a few exceptions. I think it could have grown more popular if they had pushed the 3 ¾ figures harder with actual mission specific attachments. Mind you not every figure in the set was as cool as Ace McCloud here, the Doc Terror figure really blows since the flashlight is permanently stuck in his chest.

Ace McCloud here is the perfect scale to slide into a GI Joe or Star Wars battle. Poseable at the shoulders and hips, the figure loses articulation at the elbows and knees which is the only place this figure fails. Ace still has all the ports on him the 8 inch figure does , which makes me think where this line could have gone at a smaller scale. The red rocket backpack takes 1 AA battery and is wired to the lamp head, which will plug into the figure wherever you can find a hole. The only other minus I’ve found about the figure is the lack of removable helmet, but depending who you are is the real deciding factor whether this ruins the toy for you. All things considered, it's a really cool pocket-sized interpretation of the figure that kids of the 80's could have taken with them everywhere.

vintage figure restoration- whiten your whites without fading your colors

My love for vintage toys and other collectibles has forced me to purchase some pieces most people wouldn't touch. I look at a yellowed Stormtrooper or a box of unstrung GI Joes as an opportunity, there's a story behind that toy discarded in that box. Someone loved it greatly and forgot about it in a flash. Recently at the Tampa Comic Con I ran across a table with a vintage 12 inch Stormtrooper standing at attention on a table, but it was already noon.

"Why is it there?" I wondered as I neared the table.
"They probably want a ton for it, might as well keep walking. I might miss out on something cool if I stop and ask about it, besides I already own two of them. What the Hell am I going to do with three? Oh look, it's mustard yellow. That is some serious sun damage, I wonder how much they want for it?"
                                               
The booth was run by Kensho Comics out of the bay area, nice bunch of people that were really enjoying the show and had very reasonable prices on everything on the table. Much to my surprise the trooper was only $5, I think they were equally shocked that I didn't dicker with them over the price. As we introduced ourselves, I mentioned my Facebook group (Raging Nerdgasm) and the fact I consider myself a toy historian and restoration buff. Discussing my techniques, we exchanged business information and I left with the figure tucked under my arm and my mind racing with what I needed to do to bring this figure back from almost 35 years of neglect.
                                    
Getting the figure home, I assembled my list of supplies. A gallon tub, two bottles of hydrogen peroxide, an oven bag ( newly introduced to me by my loving wife) and a paste of my own concoction. Putting the figure in the bag, I added both bottles of hydrogen peroxide until the figure was fully submerged. After the figure is fully submerged, I pushed all the air I could out of the bag, tied it off and placed it in the gallon tub. Next is the most important thing, a sunny spot to put it in for 12 or more hours. The heat isn't the important thing, it's the sunlight. The peroxide and sunlight is important in reversing the yellow "aged" look.
                                 
Roughly two days later (it's Florida here, so most sunny days are soon followed by rain....even in the middle of November) I pulled the figure from it's basting bag and give it a rinse. The Stormtrooper now looks surprisingly clean, not mint by any means but certainly not the mess it was when I bought it. A few treatments with the homemade paste (don't mix chemicals boys and girls unless you are a professional and don't get this stuff on colors because it will fade the crap out of them) and I feel I've done everything that can be done to this figure without damaging it. I've gone from a junk piece that a collector wouldn't look twice at, to a piece that is suitable for even some of the pickiest Star Wars fans. The white is fresher looking, there is absolutely no fading on the black paint or the fabric string to hold the trooper's gun and a little Mop & Glow Future polish in a pinpoint dispenser to tighten the wrist joints and it's ready for display or to be sold somewhere down the line.

Some things to remember-
Don't mix chemicals, it's seriously dangerous if you don't know what you are doing.
Always work in well ventilated areas, fumes get overwhelming quick.
Use the simplest techniques first, once you've gone to far you can't reverse your results.
and most importantly
These are old toys, anything that's too white or clean is going to get some weird looks or a lot of questions.

Mexican bootleg Ultraman by unknown maker

Viva Mexico!

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!

Ultraman monster Gan-Q by Bandai

Sofubi- the mostly Japanese style of vinyl action figures.

I have been a sofubi collector since the early 1990's when Ultraman and Power Rangers came to American TV. I collected it before I knew it was called sofubi. For my 9^th birthday I got all the the Ultraman figures based on the US TV show along with the Super Nintendo game. This was my entry into Kaiju culture, and I wanted more. A year later, my mom found out she had a friend who went to Japan and became a female professional wrestler but came back to the US when her career was put on hold while she raised a family. When she returned to the states, she brought suitcases upon suitcases full of just about anything you can think of from Japan to sell at my Aunt's collectible shop. From what she brought back in her suitcases, I went home with gashapon toys to 15 inch tall figures of Godzilla, Ultraman and so much more. This was a little slice of heaven until the hunger grew again.

Until I got established on eBay in the late 90's, I just didn't feel comfortable buying from Japan. Plus, I didn't have a credit or debit card which was the payment of choice when doing overseas purchases. Every year, I added a couple of pieces to my collection. Whether buying from eBay or going to Mega Con, Dragon Con or Metro Con; I was getting an education in Kaiju and sofubi.

1/ They retire pieces then reissue them in alternate colors. A reissue could be a funky, psycadelic color or just something as simple as trading dark grey highlights for light grey highlights.

2/Bootlegs are plentiful, so be wary of claims to be an “original”. Look for trademarks and maker's marks on the figure. Check the composition of the figure, if it's too stiff it will be (more than likely) a bootleg.

3/Retired pieces go for a small fortune, bring extra cash if you plan on buying something special. While a current character will cost you $10 to $15, a retired piece could go for 3 times the original price or more.

My sofubi collection is very important to me, it's a type of collection that very few people attempt. I think they are very unique and represent a world that most toy collectors don't even know about. Through attaining what I think is a very healthy representation of sofubi, I've made friends with collectors and sellers a whole 7,000+ miles away. One of the more interesting pieces I've bought in the last 3 years was Gan-Q, a monster from the Ultraman TV series. Gan Q is an inter-dimensional joking monster that first premiered in Ultraman Gaia episode 5 in 1998. It later appeared in episode 30 of the same series and in episodes 5 and 6 of Ultra Galaxy Monster Battle (revived by a medieval wizard and no I’m not making this up) . In both shows he can launch replicas of his own eyes and can fire energy balls from them and the eyes on his body.

Gan-Q is your average 5-7 inch vinyl Ultraman figure. Jointed at the shoulder and waist, the figure is more for standing there and looking good than dynamic action poses. The figure looks just like the character from the show; which is a characteristic I like about sofubi toys; they don't get cheap on the sculpted details. The only downside is the figure could benefit from some extra paint applications, a few of Gan-Q's eyes aren't painted in on his backside but this is to be expected. The rear half or quarter of most sofubi figures are void of any decoration other than what was sculpted.