Gotta Get 'em All

Everyone knows the old cliche about the Japanese love for Italian brands. But did you know the affair is mutual? When the brands involve robot toys, anyway.

America has its share of super-collectors, but they are few and far between compared to Italy. Part of this is due to the sheer number of Italian anime fans: between 1978 and 1986, dozens upon dozens of Japanese animated series were translated and broadcast in the country. (In America, we had to content ourselves with a paltry handful of shows like Starblazers, Robotech, and the painfully localized Voltron.)

Another factor is that the vast majority of '70s and '80s anime series were created purely as vehicles to sell merchandise, and the same toys sold in Japan were sold in Italy as well. (Again, contrast this to America. Until the Reagan era, legal regulations prohibited the marketing of products based on cartoons to kids, crippling the incentive to import anime series. This is why anime failed to really gain any traction in the USA until the mid-1990s, nearly two decades after it took Europe by storm.)

Don't believe me? Check out Italian collector Virgino's display of vintage Japanese diecasts above. How do YOUR collections stack up, American otaku?

Comments

[Todd Ciolek]

Is that the blue-and-gold Magnos the Robot in the right-hand case, second shelf down? And is that Dai Apolon, the UFO-Football Warrior, next to it? I'm impressed.

I'm also impressed with how much anime European kids got to see. It seems as though every time I look up some now-obscure '80s series, I learn that it was shown across Western Europe and South America shortly after it aired in Japan. All while I was watching Turbo Teen and The Wuzzles, mind you.

And, to answer your question, the toys I own wouldn't fill a single shelf in those cases.

[Matt]

"Is that... Magnos the Robot?"

It is. He's known as "Ga-Keen" in Japan, and a surprising amount of merchandise was produced for what's really a pretty obscure series. Like this big vinyl version:

http://www.toyboxdx.com/datafiles/data/sanzen/images/gakeenvinyl.jpg

More here:

http://www.toyboxdx.com/datafiles/data/sanzen/

[Aceface]

"And is that Dai Apolon, the UFO-Football Warrior, next to it? "

Indeed it is.There was a version made by Bullmark(known for Ultraman vynil doll)that three robots unites and become Dai-Apolon.
http://www.geocities.co.jp/playtown-Dice/4403/sonota/daiapo/daiapo.html
All this Cho-Gokin reminds me the third CM on this youtube clip starring Aikawa Kinya.
超合金はポピーだけ。
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=2wkQ-LtH3r4&feature=related

[Aceface]

Dai Apolon opening theme.

Distrubing thing is I can still sing this Simon Masato song!
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb5qXSrqchc

Gotta love the unique phrase "Gasshin合身" Mixture of Gattai合体(Combination)and Henshin変身(transformation).
The revolutionary concept of Dai-Apolon is the combination of three robots form the outer shell and pilot himself grow into a giant inside.Which makes Dai-apolon,a gigantic.....Kigurumi?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kigurumi

Anyway kids at the time thought it was Ultramanesque superhero and giant robot rolled into one.
I've also been thinking that American football is played by 5 people(of both gender) until I saw the real game in the States in'81.I'm not making this up.

Another trivia I've just found out watching the clip is,the series was created by the nation's No.1 gourmet manga"Oishinbo" writer Kariya Testsuya.WTF?

[xTIMMYxCOREx]

Where did you get the display cases?

[ChrisM]

Well,
I admit that the chogokin crowd is a bit more rabid in Italy and even in France and Belgium, but one thing I noticed they don't have as much over there is Godzilla and Ultraman.

Paris had its fair share of vintage chogokin-but not a single Bullmark vinyl or ANY Godzilla toy to be found. It was easier to find She-Ra then some of the 'zilla toys...

and frankly a world without Godzilla just seems little too foreign for my taste..

[ChrisM]

Well,
I admit that the chogokin crowd is a bit more rabid in Italy and even in France and Belgium, but one thing I noticed they don't have as much over there is Godzilla and Ultraman.

Paris had its fair share of vintage chogokin-but not a single Bullmark vinyl or ANY Godzilla toy to be found. It was easier to find She-Ra then some of the 'zilla toys...

and frankly a world without Godzilla just seems little too foreign for my taste..

[Matt]

>>I've also been thinking that American football is played by 5 people(of both >>gender) until I saw the real game

"Mach Baron" had an American football player army too (all bad guys, though):

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=X4fvwDo0KOU
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=eL8gaLv7LoU

Funny you say that about football, since I grew up thinking there were giant robot bases scattered throughout the country... What a disappointment when I actually arrived! So much for "cool Japan!"

[Roger]

My collection is stacked up in the closet, out of sight, where it belongs...

[NEOGETTER]

sadly, I dont have anything near this nice nor near that number of toys. Unfortunately...my stuff too is packed away in a closet... :(

[Mr.Dandy]

In the SF Bay area where I lived as a kid, the stations ran pretty much everything that had been translated, and even the Spanish channel was showing "Dai Apolon" and "Tranzor Z". Which is probably why so much US anime fandom sprouted from there. Still must have paled in comparison...