If you liked the final Manta Raider in its packaging that Joe Amaro shared with us yesterday, then you’re going to LOVE the custom Manta Raider pilot by Joe that’s based on Rudy Obrero’s packaging art. I know you wish this bad boy came with the Manta Raider (he doesn’t) – the only way to get this one of a kind figure *and* his Manta Raider is to place the winning bid during the Power-Con / ThunderCon Charity Auction. Joe shares more details:
The auction will take place during the convention on Saturday, September 22 from 4:00pm – 6:00pm. Fifty Percent of the auction’s proceeds will benefit Keep A Child Alive. Keep A Child Alive provides treatment, love, and support to families affected by HIV/AIDS in countries around the world.
Joe Amaro just sent us a brief update on the Manta Raider. Because these are all handmade, he’s got a very limited number that will be available to purchase at PowerCon. They’ll be available at Rudy’s booth for $50 each, but no pre-order as originally planned. Better make that your first stop!
But not to worry, the rest of the Manta Raiders will be sold online after Power Con to everyone. Rudy has agreed to sign all the back cards so every Manta Raider will come signed, just in case you missed the opportunity at Power Con. That was the main reason I wanted these for Power Con.
Our pal Joe Amaro sent us pics of the Four Horsemen’s booth at El Paso Comic Con. The 4H’s Shane Dittsworth and Owen “O-Dawg” Oertling were on site. For fans of Seventh Kingdom, Gothitropolis, and the Masters of the Universe 200X line, there’s some great shots of 2-ups that I’ve been lucky to see in person – but I’ve never gotten a good look at the backs of the prototypes before, though, and there’s some great details in these shots. The El Paso Times also has some local coverage of EP-Con, including a couple of pics of O-Dawg in action.
Regarding the Manta Raider that Joe is working on with Rudy Obrero – I checked in with Joe recently and he said he’s still working on them, and will give out more details on how to get your hands on the custom vehicle when he’s 100% on the details.
Mark Nagata of Max Toy Co was kind enough to speak with Jedd-the-Jedi at STGCC. If you missed it, click here to check out the first part of the Mark Nagata interview. In the conclusion to the interview, Mark tells Jedd about finding his toy Holy Grail, his top five toys, and more!
Do you have a special story of a collectible toy of any kind that you obtained through extraordinary circumstances? Have you gotten a hold of something you never dreamed you’d be able to own in a million years, something so extremely special?
(Laughs) Yes, I do! Yes, I do have a story about that. So, there’s a Bullmark figure, which is a Japanese company from the 1960s and 70s, and they issued, in very small numbers, a standard size Ultraman figure in red vinyl. Now the reason why they released it in red vinyl is they were hoping the colour red would appeal to girls, instead of the grey or like silver colour of what Ultraman is supposed to be. But Ultraman never was red in the series, and then the girls hated the figure anyways, so it never sold, it was a flop for them.
So going forward when I started collecting the figures in the late 80s-early 90s, and I’m doing research about all the different types of figures I had to find, when I found out about the red Ultraman that was always at the top of my list, like if I go back to Japan I’ve gotta look for this, or if I’m looking at eBay or Yahoo Japan or something I gotta find this. So on one trip to Japan, we were in the Nakano mall, which is a very famous mall with like different shops, like Mendorake and toy stores.
One of my friends said “Hey, go look over in the case; I think that’s something you’re looking for!” So I walk over there and there’s a red Ultraman sitting there right, so I was like “oh my God”, and I had to find out, I had to go over and ask how much, right? So I went over and in my very, very poor Japanese asked “Ikura desuka?” – you know, “How much?” And the guy goes “$5,000” – USD $5,000. I just thought… ”I can’t, I can’t. My wife’s gonna kill me!” And I only had $2,000, that’s all I had – for the whole trip, so no way, and I don’t wanna use credit card or anything. So all my friends said “Oh, you know, I’ll loan you a couple of hundred dollars, maybe you’ll get enough to make a big pool or something,” and I said “No no no, I don’t want to have to owe you guys!” So, I left.
Mark Nagata is a Renaissance man. He just might have the largest Ultraman collection in the world. As a designer and artist, he’s worked for the likes of DC Comics, LucasArts, and Hasbro. For several years, he published Super 7, a magazine focused on Japanese vinyl toys, before going on to start the Max Toy Company, designing and manufacturing vinyl art toys. On top of all this, he’s a tremendously nice guy!
Jedd-the-Jedi had a chance to sit down with Mark at STGCC. In the first part of their conversation, they spanned toy collecting, the differences between working for the big guys vs. running your own show, and if it’s alright to play with your art toys. It’s really a fantastic interview. Read on!
Jedd: Hi Mark, great to be talking to a fellow lover of toys. First off, what got you into collecting toys? You wrote on your site “I think it’s safe to say that most of us collect because of our childhoods,” so do you have any childhood memories of a particular toy or action figure that you want to share?
Mark Nagata: Oh boy, for sure. Well I think the first impression I had for Japanese toys is when I was about 9 years old, and I had an aunt who was living in Japan, and for Christmas she sent a very big box to me, and inside were about 20 different Japanese toys. So Henshen cyborgs, Bullmark figures, kaiju toys… but at the time, I didn’t know that’s what they were called. To sort of back up a little, I’m third generation Japanese American, so my parents were born in America and my grandparents came from Japan to America, but me being third generation, actually I don’t understand Japanese and I don’t speak Japanese, so when I got this box of toys, I couldn’t read anything except for the company name Bullmark, ‘cause it was printed in English. I didn’t know the names of the characters, I didn’t know that they had TV shows; I just thought they were toys.
So, from that point, it was really… I fell in love with the visual part of the toys. The way it looked, the packaging, because all the packaging had like very dynamic artwork and colours, very crazy colours, and all the kaiju for me… were just… I couldn’t even put into words what it did to my imagination. Because at that point, my toys in America were GI JOE 12 inch, Major Matt Mason, so very… 60s, 70s types of toys, but um very plain, based on like a real astronaut, or an army man. No imagination, right?
So when I opened that box, and I saw these crazy colours, and these kaiju and these spacemen, I was like… you know, what is this? I haven’t seen this before. So when I look back all these years, that’s the point that started me on this journey to this day, which is being able to make actual kaiju toys in Japan.
