|
Post by mazfan on Jan 19, 2006 22:56:51 GMT -5
I still remember the day when my obsession started... My sister and I were walking around a mall in Northern California when I saw GX-02. I was drawn to it because I thought it was Mazinger Z. I was immediately intrigued but was a bit put-off by the price ($150). However, my sister insisted on buying it for me (she owed money) and I didn't hesitate...
I was somewhat excited by the purchase. GX-02 immediately brought me back to my giant robot days in the Philippines. However, I truly wanted Mazinger Z instead. I immediately researched GX-01 and discovered that it was my favorite robot (yes, I am one of those odd Filipinos that like Mazinger Z vs Voltes V).
From that initial search... I was hooked. This was 2000 and so I was able to acquire GX-01, GX-04, GX-03 and PX-01 (the base). It's been six years now and I still love them. The fact that they are die-cast and oh so well designed does not help my addiction/obsession. The SOC's are just so much better looking than the vintage ones.
How Did You Get Addicted?
|
|
|
Post by Omni Existence on Jan 19, 2006 23:17:27 GMT -5
yes, I am one of those odd Filipinos that like Mazinger Z vs Voltes V LOL! I guess I'll second that, although I liked Grendizer over Voltes. My addiction to SOC's started when I was shopping for Macross toys. This was within the first year that I started collecting. I saw a GX-04 on the shelf, but like you, got turned off by the price, but I did promise to get it. It's been 5 years since that time, and I've already been able to buy the GX-04B, but there's nothing like the regular colored Grendy. It's been all downhill from there.
|
|
|
Post by supergetterv on Jan 19, 2006 23:45:50 GMT -5
All it takes is one. Buy one Chogokin and you will forever be hooked.
Okay here is my story: I don't really know. I knew about Soul of Chogokin from way back when I first started to collect toys, and the only memories I have of Mazinger Z are from those rectangular shape Japanese Bubble gum that has a water transfer tatoo of Mazinger Z on the back of the wrapper. Sorry to say that I have never seen an episode of Mazinger Z in my life, but I remember seeing these SOC from when I started collecting toys. I've been collecting since 1997 and at the time, I really didn't have a lot of money or a job. So I can only afford cheap action figures. I bought what I wanted and never because of what it was worth or what it will eventually worth. Then when I got a part time job, I was able to afford more Higher price toys, ie MG Gundam Kits and PVC figures and statues. WHen I got my first full time job, I started collection resin statues. I usually buy video game characters. Got about 3 Chun LI statues, and a Mai Shinurai statue that is worth a lot more than what I got them at. My goal, when I started was simple. Get all the Kotobukiya Final Fantasy VII series statues, buy they were way out of my price range. Luckily, last year, they were all reissue and made available for the US market. With the purchase of the Cloud on Hardy Daytona statue, I lost most of my desire to continue collecting. After all, that statue before it was reissue, cost around $500+. The reissue wasn't cheap either, costing me more than $180 after shipping. And while I was trying to get these statues, I see SOC all the time, because I got these Resin statues at toy stores and Toy websites. Passed up the SOC's because weren't what I wanted. But because there are few statues that I want now days, and because I was no longer unable to afford expensive toys, I decided to give SOC's a try.
But what really got me hooked was watching a Chinese television series and remembering one of the characters that collects Chogokins. HE would buy them, and his wife would get mad. Seeing him at toys store in Hong Kong and seeing a couple of SOC on that show made me want to buy Chogokins. And after buying a The Chogokin GT-08 Combattler V because it reminded me of a old Voltron 1 I have back in 1985, I wanted more. Been addicted ever since the start of this Year.
|
|
|
Post by jwm on Jan 19, 2006 23:46:51 GMT -5
Ahhh- this is going to be my next web project after I finish the last episode of Doesn't Play Well. But that's for the future. I stumbled on Japanese toys in an odd way- back in ln 1977 my girlfriend gave me a talking Robocon as a little joke. It's plastic, about 12 inches tall and it has a phonograph inside to provide the voice. It came with three tiny records full of sayings in Japanese. The thing was a crack up. My girlfriend said there were some other Japanese robots at the toy store, but they were complicated looking things with a zillion parts so she didn't think I'd be interested. She was describing the Ark Black King. I had it that same day. As I look back, that was the only good that came out of that relationship. I'll tell ya'-- I ended up liking that toy robot a lot better than than the girlfriend. I haven't seen her since 1982. I still have the toys.
JWM
|
|
buffy
Rusty Robot
The Chosen One
Posts: 56
|
Post by buffy on Jan 20, 2006 0:25:48 GMT -5
Well my toy addiction started when toys were starting to become popular with the release of Spawn figures. I always look at toys whenever I saw some at the local comic book shop, but never bother buying them coz they cost a lot compared with comics. On a business trip to japan, I came across GX-01...at first I wasn't so sure what the hell this thing is. I mean, I know this is a mazinger Z...and from the looks of it, it looks die-cast....and it looks good compared with those popy figures! I then open it (the SOC in Japan didn't have tape on the boxes), I like what I saw even with the high price, around 3000 yen I think. Well, it's cheap now compared with the prices we have today! haha! I had fun with it back at the hotel....and 2 or 3 other business trips the next couple of years, I had gotten gx-02, gx-03 and gx-01b....so that got the ball rolling! I'm now a certified toy collectors of SOC and action figures! hehe!
|
|
|
Post by 45caliber on Jan 20, 2006 0:47:15 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by xiombarg on Jan 20, 2006 1:10:21 GMT -5
Robots and monster toys were always my favorite toys ever since I can remember. My first Star Wars figure was R2D2, and I freaked out when I saw gokins. As a kid I had Shogun Warriors, Micronauts, one Bullmark character (that I still do not know who it was to this day) and a few other odds and ends. Mazinger was the one that caught my eye first, but Reideen turned out to be my favorite of the ones I had. I got a jumbo Mazinger too, but where he was almost as tall as me, he was a little awkward to play with. I was lost in my teens, but then in college I scanned Ebay for years looking for good deals on vintage but there was no way I could afford anything being in college. Finally about three or four years ago I picked up modelling and occasionally bought PVC figures like the Final Fantasy or Armored Core stuff, but still didn't venture back into gokin, although I researched them all the time because you can't model and not run into gokin. Then somehow I caught wind of MF Gaogaigar and was really impressed by the detail (being a modeller primarilly at the time) but the price stunned me and I couldn't justify buying it. Then I finally got my current job which was a big step up for me, and that was game on. Haven't looked back since!
|
|
|
Post by sizzlak on Jan 20, 2006 1:20:59 GMT -5
I've got a sickness no doctor can cure. Mine started when i was shopping HLJ (curse you HLJ) for gundam models. I can across Grendizer and Com-battler. I loved the look of the figures but I felt the price was to high for some toys that I'm just going to put on a shelf. Later that year I saw the Daiku Maryu Gaiking at the San Diego Comicon. I thought OK this interest me, still I didn't make the purchase. I think it was for $80. Anywho I finally decided to start buying SOC's when I heard that the Getter Robo G a.k.a. Starvengers was going to be released. I think you know the rest.
|
|
|
Post by mannyD on Jan 20, 2006 6:24:59 GMT -5
i got a gx-01R included in a trade deal in may last year, i was simply awed by it. then i sold everything else (other toylines) and started collecting gokins thereafter. and i was also lucky to have met other gokin collectors who guided me on my gokin purchases after soc mazinger. collecting gokins is the best!
|
|
|
Post by 45caliber on Jan 20, 2006 6:59:47 GMT -5
i was also lucky to have met other gokin collectors who guided me on my gokin purchases after soc mazinger. collecting gokins is the best! who? care to share? is it from your friendly neighborhood spiderman who was bombarded by a tear gas ;D ;D...
|
|
|
Post by lancerx on Jan 20, 2006 7:09:52 GMT -5
Well, my case, i grew up with mazinger z, jeegs, gackeen, daiku maryu and company, so in 2004 i typed mazinger z on ebay, damm ebay, i couldn't bulieve what i saw, so many beatiful robots calling me, buy me, buy me, i'm back to your live again, buy me, i hesitate for 2 seconds and there it was, my first soc the gx-01rg, since then i've been addicted to it, except of the evangelions, i've bought almost all socs and many resing statues, i've become addicted and i can't and i won't stop ;D
|
|
|
Post by Ben-Ohki on Jan 20, 2006 9:21:53 GMT -5
Get comfy because this'll get long-winded... When I was little it wasn't uncommon for me to get robot toys of all shapes and sizes from relatives in Hong Kong.... some were bootleg and some weren't, and being a Canadian, it's not like we got actual Gundam here on television for me to know the significance to that name. The one toy that stands out in my head is the Battle Fever DX set ...there was nothing else like it (to me anyway). But I was a fairly humble child and I knew that toys cost money. I had my share of Transformers but I never had the nerve to ask mom and dad for Optimus Prime or any of the "big" sized bots. In 1998 I had just graduated from university and had just secured a job... my first real job (fast food restaurants didn't count)... the catch: it's the federal job I'm doing now - I had to wait for security clearance. In the end I didn't get around to moving until the following summer in 1999. In the meantime I worked part-time and got home pretty early and caught Power Rangers in the afternoons... there was nothing else on and I'd be damned if I were going to soaps. I realized by this time that the rangers were no longer quite as campy as when they first started out and actually started to like the show's sense of continuity... And since I had money at the time, I started buying a few of the big size bots I was always afraid to ask for. I was able to budget for myself and it progressively got worse. By 2001, I had a living room full of deluxe sized Megazords... However, it was also around this time that I had changing tastes in life. I was beginning to realize that some of the multicoloured plastics were simply eye-sores or simply tacky. I got bored of most of those toys. I do keep several on display in the living room but most of the zords are back in their boxes now. In time I was phasing out my zord-collecting into Transformers-collecting (the reissues had started coming out around that time). During that transition, however, I had still been keeping up with ToyboxDX and the goings-on in the industry. But I still hadn't bought a single chogokin yet. Fast forward to early 2003. I was surfing HLJ one evening when I spotted the God Ginrai set on sale (it'd dropped a ridiculous 70% off the original price and I had to have it). With the money I was "saving" I decided to order the GX-01R... and I also got the GX-11 "jus'cuz." I watched Tranzor-Z when I was little. Plus I watched Goldorak a bit (not that I understood much French back then). But I knew GX-01R was something special ...why else could anybody reasonably charge over $60 for a toy? When I opened it, my initial reaction (and honestly this only lasted a few seconds) was bit of shock... I knew beforehand that it was about 9 or 10 inches tall, but it still looked a little on the small side of things when I actually had it in front of me. But after that first kneejerk reaction, I started to appreciate its simple elegance... and I soaked in the nostalgia remembering the gokins I had when I was little. A GX-02R and GX-04S on eBay followed. I think I'm over it all now tho... Goldorak (or Grendizer to everyone else) was my grail - the character is a cultural icon here in Quebec and he rightly serves as centrepiece in my glass cabinet flanked by the two Mazingers. I still buy the occasional gokin toy but I'm not scoping out all the latest. Plus I have the Yamato stuff to keep me busy too. ...or maybe I'm just in denial.
|
|
|
Post by ayakoholic on Jan 20, 2006 10:10:59 GMT -5
I blame you guys completely. I came here as a sentai toy collector, but perusing the gallery section of these very boards, I saw Black Wing Mazinkaiser and Shin Getter Devil Wing, and the seed was planted. I was already nuts about black sentai versions, and the black SOCs and Aoshima gokins all looked soooooo preeeeeetty... My first gokin was SGDW, followed soon after by a really good deal on a Neo Getter Test&Training and then a GX-01B... and my collection has never been the same since.
Neither has my wallet. >_<
|
|
|
Post by dirtyroboto on Jan 20, 2006 10:24:57 GMT -5
It was in 1978 that my brother and I were bought our first robots, they were 2 foot hight PVC figures of GX-01 and GX-18. After that my brother and I watched all the mecha-toons we could, we bought the TXformers and Gobot collections and only really stopped being into it when the Zoids and beast type txformers came along. We lost all of those goodies when we moved house in the late eighties ;( I was doing a search on the 2' high figures we had, and found the same figure made by Bandai as a die cast model. after more searching and some deep consideration over an ebay page I jumped in and bought my first real SOC figures, and boy are they great. My brother is coming over tonight and he doesn't know I have them. He is gonna throw a fit when he sees them He was more into them then me.
|
|
|
Post by sketcher on Jan 20, 2006 16:44:05 GMT -5
I have always collected since I was a youngster. Growing up in the Bay Area we had the shows on television and Saturday monster movies to feed my appetite for giant robots and kaiju. My folks were often getting me figures or whatnot for birthdays and holidays. Even at my young age, I took really good care of my toys and had managed to keep them all pretty much intact, with boxes and paperwork. Round about the time I turned 18, 21 years ago, we were moving and my toys were all stolen. I was pretty upset at the time but at the age of 18, I had other concerns (partying and chasing girls) so I quit for a while. A few years later, I started again, slowly at first, by purchasing some vinyl kaiju toys. This started my quest for Godzilla and Ultraman related toys. The issue is, I had now aquired all of those toys that I had as a kid but it does not stop. I was obsessed with finding and collecting everything I can put my hands on. Fast forward to early last year, or was it the year before, its all a blur. I decided to start finding the chogokin toys of my youth. Oh man! Talk about a bug that can bite and leave you with a fever that won't go away. I started with the Shogun Warriors and it went from there. Then I find RobotJapan and ToyboxDX! Doomed!! "Hmm, what is this Soul of Chogokin thing...." "Maybe I will pick up those 2 figures Doublas and Garada. They are pretty inexpensive." "I think I should get that GX18. He looks even better than the Shogun Warrior I just re-aquired." ... and so on. I am up to 8 SOCs and have several on preorder right now. As I said before, Doomed!! Thanks guys! ;D
|
|
|
Post by Kidchuckle on Jan 20, 2006 21:17:34 GMT -5
I was a student in Art College. Part time job working most of my hours in the summer and limited to weekend during school (to focus on school). I was walking through Pacific Mall (I hit the hobby store in the corner). I stop in my tracks. Gx-04 (grendizer), and Gx-05 (gaiking + Daiku), Are sitting on the shelf near the bottom. I totally froze! I had zeen Gx- 02 and 01 previously (but didn't grow up with them), so the impact wasn't the same. But when I saw them for the first time.. I was so excited till I saw the price. Gasp. With my income, there was few ways I could own this.
Fast track to 2004, SOC Dragun, Lyger and Posideon came out I purhcased them quickly. And 2005 end + 2006 I finally have Gaiking and Grendizer!
|
|
|
Post by GDomino on Jan 20, 2006 22:47:40 GMT -5
I guess it started when I was in the Marines. I was in Okinawa Japan in 1996-98 and I went to a ToysRus to look for Macross toys... That was when I discovered Evangelion and Gundam but no Macross toys. Bought some JP beastwars TF toys, some Gundam, and the Sega Evas for my nephew and I ended up just giving him the Evas and kept the rest for myself when I came home. I didn't think of toys for two years until Gundam Wing popped up on US TV, and I had the urge to get more JP toys, specifically Macross and that was when I discovered the Bandai 1/55 Valk reissues in 2001. I bought some of those on eBay and I thought "hey if it's this easy to recapture my childhood, I might as well look for TranzorZ (MazingerZ), Daimos, Voltron, and VoltesV" and that was when I discovered the SOC Mazingers and CombattlerV, (sadly no Voltes or Daimos yet, but not much longer!!!). That was when I was hooked on this toy crack.
|
|
|
Post by Steve Armstrong on Jan 21, 2006 17:32:02 GMT -5
My start? Well...DEPRIVED CHILDHOOD....I think I have told the story here before. Long story short...My Christmas money/gifts were in safekeeping of my older sister. We saw a GODAIKIN Voltes V at a mall back in 78 or 79..she did not want to buy it with my money...money was used for my school she said. I am pissed off and swore of all "childish" things..:-)
Fast forward...1998...I was in Narita and saw GX-01 SOC Mazinger for $50...too expensive i thought...
1999...I was sent an email by a friend regarding the complete story of voltes v and its ending we in the Philipines never saw...
The childhood love for Voltes V was reborn! I bought my first Godaikin Voltes V from a guy in one of the robot forums I was on..
...the rest is history!!
|
|
|
Post by lurkerx on Jan 22, 2006 15:04:07 GMT -5
My story seems very common to those mentioned previously: Part I. childhood robot immersion usual Phil stuff Voltes, Daimos, mekanda, mazinger, jeeg, starzinger and everything else I went Xavier school in elementary, where all my classmates were rich and had everything they'd be brining stuff to school like the small yamato ship later re-issued by toycom, the starcrow, jeeg, mekanda among other things and all i could do was stare and beg for them to lend me. My father bought me a Voltes V dx during one of his business trips to Hong Kong and that's pretty much it for Jp toys I owned. I felt very deprived. Part II In December 1997 I was walking around Pacific mall I got to Pacific Models where they had a GX-01 at their window, I instantly said I just had to get this, I've always wanted a mazinger z die-cast toy since I was a kid and there it sat even more beautiful than i had remembered it in my childhood [and it really was] so I got it. Shortly later I got the toycom yamato bandai re-issue then I took my Voltes V out from storage and displayed it once again the collection cycle begins. Part III 9 years later I've spent a significant amount of $$ building my collection which now seem to be somewhat out-of-focus largely because of impulse buys actually writing this seems rather therapeutic in that it reminds me of why i actually started my collection to begin with having said that I'm off to weed out some of its weeds
|
|
|
Post by DVST8 on Jan 22, 2006 17:02:54 GMT -5
Grandizer first did it for me, followed by Space keteers, g-force and tekkaman. Then moved onto Transformers =). Now that I have a job, i'm able to rekindle that reminiscent feeling of nostalgia once more.
|
|