IT CAME FROM THE FLEA MARKET- EPISODE 2- THE PHANTOM FLYING TURTLE

Gamera 9 inch figure by Rocketpro of America

  I'm a huge Japanese vinyl collector and I've always been of a mindset that the bigger and more detailed pieces are the ones most worth collecting. Don't get me wrong, I have a vast amount of 6 inch scale sofubi but the ones 9 inches and taller are really eye catching. It's a pretty easy task, over the years I've upgraded my largest Godzilla 3 times and my largest Ultraman twice. But, I came to a stalemate when I started pursuing a larger and nicely detailed Gamera......until one day at the flea market.

I had run into several issues while trying to locate a decent Gamera. Most I have from Bandai are poorly sculpted and just never did the character justice. Over the years Gamera has had some image overhauls and every figure to represent those falls short of impressing me. And it's not limited to scale, I've had 6 inch to 12 inch scale figures and models of Gamera in my hands and each one was insufficient for my collection. I searched for over a year before I lucked into a version of everyone's favorite flying turtle I hadn't seen before.

While visiting my friends at Weekend Warriors Comics at the Oldsmar Flea Market I had stumbled upon this gorgeous piece. Released by X-Plus/Rocketpro in the late 90's, Gamera stands 9 inches tall from top of the head to bottom of the foot and is incredibly well detailed. Rocketpro is the American branch of X-PLUS of Japan, known for making really nice and well detailed heavy gauge vinyl figures. The figure originally belonged to one of the co-owners and had been in his collection since he'd bought it out of a Diamond Distributors ad, unfortunately it had been banished to storage due to lack of display space until he felt like parting with it on this fateful day. After purchasing it for a more than fair price, I happily dusted it off and proudly displayed in a place of honor. This version is the best I've seen and I encourage fans to buy one for their own collection.

Baltan figure from Ultraman by Bandai

Baltan has always been a character I considered the quintessential Ultraman villain. Some of the first stills I ever saw in a magazine about Ultraman was him and Baltan locked in an epic battle. Over the years Baltan has showed up in several of the Ultraman TV shows, each time just slightly different than the last. Out of all the variations, this one has always been my favorite. Simple by some folks standards but I feel this version captures the most pure incarnation of the character. It captures the large metallic claws, Egyptian skirt and shrimp-looking face of this iconic character.

(to a fan like me, it doesn't get much better than this)

This arthropod from outer space is actually one of a race of alien being that came to Earth in microscopic form in the early Ultraman series. As time passes, the alien's powers grow and evolve. His abilities range from an assortment of energy beams that shoot out of claws to being able to shed its skin if too badly damaged in battle. Many people refer to them is "space ninjas" due to their ability to use illusion and stealth techniques. Anyone who's watched the show will never forget Baltan's sinister laugh.

(man, that's a creepy laugh for a space bug)

Here we have Baltan by Bandai from the 1983 release. Just like all Bandai releases, quality and accuracy of the sculpt outweighs paint applications. The figure is molded in a light blue plastic which sort of matches the character's suit in the show. Other than the claws being molded in a sparkly gray, the only other traces of color on the figure is a light dusting of metalic gold on the upper torso and head. There is an accent of orange on the eye cavities and what looks like maybe some silver paint underneath it to bring out a general “glow” about them.

The one aspect I like about my personal figure is the scribble on his back. A series of Japanese characters “branded” on his backside, more than likely a name. I think it makes it totally awesome because this really belonged to some child who probably liked this toy as much or more than I do to personalize it. It has a real history behind it that may never be unlocked, but some things are meant to be a mystery.

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.