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Post by yojugod on Mar 5, 2006 0:03:27 GMT -5
Today I received a nice large box chock full of Henshin goodness from Japan. The pictures below show the accumulation of a few months worth of "gathering". Today surpassed Christmas a few times over!
Enjoy the pics and feel free to ask questions about anything in the photos.
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Post by yojugod on Mar 5, 2006 0:04:44 GMT -5
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Post by yojugod on Mar 5, 2006 0:05:45 GMT -5
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Post by yojugod on Mar 5, 2006 0:06:10 GMT -5
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Post by yojugod on Mar 5, 2006 0:06:58 GMT -5
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Post by yojugod on Mar 5, 2006 0:07:39 GMT -5
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Post by hypnotator on Mar 5, 2006 8:44:39 GMT -5
Some beautiful and enviable things here, Yojugod. I expect it all cost a pretty penny.
The one thing I've never seen before is the Combat Joe ad, which I think predates Henshin Cyborg. I've never even seen Combat Joe come to think of it. Is he identical to the early GI Joe, anybody? That ad looks like a photo of Joe with the child painted in. I know there was a very early Action Man head different from the one I knew.
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Post by yojugod on Mar 5, 2006 12:22:53 GMT -5
Hypno- Yes, those pre-date Henshin Cyborg. I think GI Joe was introduced in Japan in 1967-68. That ad shows the costumes that were made for GI Joe before the introduction of Henshin Cyborg. Some came in a long box already on a Joe figure. Some came carded as a costume only, I believe. And then some were redone in vinyl as well. The pre-Henshin stuff dates from 1971 I believe, considering Cyborg was released in '72, that seems logical. There was also a vinyl version of the MAT Team Member (guy in orange suit in middle of pic) costume, for instance. Some of those early costumes came with color molded hands rather than vinyl gloves. You can see that the Silver Mask Giant has blue hands. The main differences in the Takara Joe versus the Hasbro Joe, that I can tell so far, is the hands and head. Both are original sculpts for the Takara Joe. Maybe that was a licensing issue, I'm not sure. However, Takara did license the Joe and subsequent Cyborg bodies from Hasbro. Even the Denys Fisher Cyborg stuff is licensed from Takara and Hasbro (I think the reason the Denys Cyborgs are 1/8 scale is because of licensing issues and no-compete clauses due to the Action Man line in England). I don't think the initial run of GI Joe was referred to as Combat Joe in Japan. I believe the Combat Joe had its run in the 80's. But I'm not an expert on GI Joe, so who knows for sure. Maybe Guy can enlighten us. Personally, I jones most for the Gekko Kamen figure in the middle of that ad, the dude in white with the cape. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) my wife won't let me take out a second mortgage on the house to buy it!  |
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Post by hypnotator on Mar 8, 2006 7:34:59 GMT -5
Fascinating! I always assumed that they did the smaller Cyborg here in the UK for the same reason that they first did Microman – because the 12” figures were too big and unwieldy to do accessories for. But of course, it was the Palitoy company who did Action Man here in the UK, and they might not have been too happy with Denys Fisher. I’ve always wanted to track down someone from the old Denys Fisher company and interview them about Cyborg, but I’ve no idea how to go about finding them so it’s a dream really.
Don’t remortgage your house, Yojugod! Your wife is right; they’re only toys!
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Post by GUYx1 on Mar 8, 2006 11:21:44 GMT -5
Please hang on for a bit.
I am working on the big reply about the Takara Joes and licensed characters. It will be a new posting.
I have a serious amount of fact checking before I feel secure to post.
As a foreign Toy collector going on almost 2 decades, I have seen a lot of unusual things happen when a toyline enters a new country.
Palitoy created the Eagle Eye feature for Action man. Amazing improvement. The Japanese are known for making constant tweaks & improvements.
As Brian Heiler said "if they are licensing GI Joe, they probably would have gotten the whole kit and kaboodle". As this new GI Joe was Manufactured in Japan, likely there would be a few improvements on Takara's end.
While it was a nice theory, that bit about the "no-compete clause" was supposition seeing as Denys Fisher was actually OWNED by Palitoy.
According to Brian Heiler, Denys Fisher, the Palitoy Subsidiary "seemed not to compete with core Palitoy lines", but there is not a lot of detailed information beyond that. No legalities or anything.
Hopefully that clarifies things a bit.
I am currently working with my experts to compile a seriously detailed post on the Pre-cyborg toy line.
You will go home happy.
Cheers,
Guy
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Post by hypnotator on Mar 11, 2006 5:16:15 GMT -5
I suppose it's possible that Palitoy came up with the idea, but GI Joes were definitely sold in the US with the eagle eye feature before Action Man in the UK. My brothers used to get imported US Marvel comics with the comic strip ads for GI Joe, and the eagle eyes were advertised. My dad worked in the US and brought back an eagle eye GI Joe for my brother and an Intruder for me (what a disappointment!) before they hit the shops here. I always thought eagle eye Action Man/GI Joe looked rather amazed.
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Post by GUYx1 on Mar 12, 2006 0:49:36 GMT -5
Sorry about that. First hand experience with this stuff as a child is something that seriously I wish I had. That one flew past my fact checkers. I guess we all assumed that Palitoy made that feature since all the action man dolls we ever say looked permanently startled all the time. According to the company websites it is a toss up: BOTH claim it came out in 1976. www.hasbro.com/gijoe/rah/default.cfm?page=historywww.actionmanhq.co.uk/pages/history.html I generally tend to assume if something is cool and well engineered, it sure didn't come from here. Which is why I collect what I collect. I wouldn't go crazy trying to find Australian Planet of the Apes dolls, if I was simply happy with the USA versions. At any rate. I will researching the eagle eye thing, but ito make my point, it IS well documented that Palitoy created the Flocked head feature. This then trickled back to the USA. Other innocations form palitoy were Atomicman's bionic teet and modifications on Bulletman's boots stayed back in the UK. I always loved atomic man's fro! At any rate, I collect foreign oddities. I love bootlegs too, but most of the toys are liscensed and retooled for foreign markets. Often a creative spark happens in he process. That is what I was trying to get at. |
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