Bullmark fosters a Dream of Children

Just got this beautiful reproduction set of Bullmark catalogs and posters in from Japan.
Packaged in a very classy way ( as only the Japanese can do ! ) I half expected to open delicate rice crackers or manju in each of the boxes ! Perhaps not as tasty but equally exciting, this set includes two boxes with posters in them, a main black box with Bullmark catalog reproductions, a nice Mid sized Earthtron kaiju, an over view booklet, coupon for ordering exclusive toys, a dvd of Bullmark commercials / clips, a Bullmark cloth, and finally a nice autographed board by the remaining living founder of Bullmark.


above, exact reproductions of classic Bullmark catalogs.. for the vintage collector really a treasure trove of information, as these were the catalogs that toy dealers and wholesalers got to order their toys from Bullmark. The keen collector will note many painted Kaiju that were never produced in such colorways .. or even some toys that were not produced at all .. One being the 12 inch Bullmark Ultraman Ace with removable mask ...


within these tubes contain some many posters .. my mind blew a fuse ;-P Of note the classic posters of the child sleeping with Bullmark figures ( printed on very heavy weight ) and the line up of the Kaiju Parade ( this one sporting so many unproduced colorways of kaiju ! ) Note that most of these posters are printed on a lighter weight paper stock .. but the printing is top notch, nonetheless.

above, the Ultraman poster here is printed on a heavy weight paper with a pebbled texture .. nicely done !

tons more posters and sales flyers are reproduced here ...

above, my favorites of the set are these two posters .. for sure I will frame these !

for the lucky ones who buy this set, you can use this coupon to order these repro Bullmark figures .. the Mecha Godzilla is sure to be a much ordered piece .. alas the actually firing mechanics are not included .. but still an excellent repro for way less than a mint in box on goes for...

finally this autgraphed shikishi board, autographed by one of the founding members of Bullmark, Mr Ishizuki-san. It reads 1) is the date he signed (it shows in KANJI characters). It says '5th of November, HEISEI year 21 (it means 2009).(Heisei is the name of an era that we use in Japan) 2) is the actual autograph of Mr. Ishizuki. 3)says 'Bullmark fosters a Dream of Children'. This is the actual catch phrase of Bullmark toys. They have been using this phrase since they have started, I think.
There are two red stamps at bottom. One on the left is Bullmark stamp and the other one is Ishizuki-san's name stamp. ( thanks to Yo Miyamoto for the translations!)
Ok so with a retail of about $200.00 USD is this set worth it ? For me the answer is Yes .. a 10 out of 10 rating... to amass the original versions of these would of course cost you way more than $200, the poster with the Boy sleeping alone would be $200+++ "IF" you could even find one ( believe me, I've been looking for one ! )but to be honest, if your only sorta interested in the history of Bullmark and not interested in the paperwork, than I would say it probably would not be worth it for you. But if you want to order those toys, you have to buy this set, as it contains a special coupon to send back in with your money .. and you have to order it via a friend in Japan ;-)

Japanese Village and Deer Park

I have very vague memories of Japanese Village and Deer Park while growing up in Southern California. My family lived in various locations in Southern California.. before moving up to San Francisco in 1974.
I have this photo of my Dad and I feeding the deer , circa, 1971 or 72 ? I would have been about 7 years old... must have been a hot day since my shirt has busted open ( ha-ha )

also saved this toy deer from there .. amazingly it's survived my childhood which was filled with setting my 12 inch tall GI Joes on fire and such ...
the figure is about 2 inches tall by 1.25 inches long, and made of a semi hard plastic. I found this Wiki on the park for more info..so sorry to hear about the deers, though..sniff ... as well as some amazing photos on this blog here ...and here .... really nice blog with great pics of early Disneyland and such.

Kaiju Comrades Art Toy Show Tokyo March 12th, 2010

Promo vid for the upcoming Kaiju Comrades 2 art toy show at Design Festa Gallery, East Room, #303, Tokyo , Japan. Dates are March 12th, 13th, and 14th, 2010.



I'll be there in person, as will many artists .... to be announced very soon !

Current artists line up :
[JAPAN]
BLObPUS
GUMLIENS
HARIKEN
JUKI
IMIRI SAKABASHIRA
JUNICHI YAJIMA
KONATSU
KAIJIN
NARI SHINTANI
NERDONE
NAWOKI KARASAWA
NAOHIKO HAYAKAWA (YUTARI)
NORIYA TAKEYAMA
PECORIN
PICO PICO
S. WAKAHARA (RUMBLE-MONSTERS)
SHUJI
SHIN TANAKA
SUNGUTS
SHIGEKI OKUDA
TOUMA
TULIP
T9G
UAMOU
YUKI ISHIYAMA
YOSHIHIKO MAKINO (TTToy)

[U.S.A. and other countries]
ALEX WALD
BAIKIN / SHIRAHAMA
BOB CONGE
BOB EGGLETON
BUFF MONSTER
CHRIS RYNIAK
CARLOS ENRIQUEZ GONZALEZ
ERICK SCARECROW
EMILIO GARCIA
JOSHUA ELLINGSON
KILL!
LAMOUR SUPREME
MATT DOUGHTY
MIKE SLOBOT
MATT WALKER
MARK NAGATA
PAUL KAIJU
SEBASTIAN CURADEAU
TONY CIAVARRO
UGLY DOLLS – DAVID HORVATH AND SUN MIN KIM

you can bet there will be show only exclusives, one of a kind custom painted toys as well. The theme for this show is each artists interpretation of " Kaiju " .. ya that pretty much leaves it wide open ! which is what we wanted ;-) I've seen some sneaks and there will be some jaw dropping figures and art on display and of course for sale !

We'll have more info and details as we get closer to the show, but for sure will be an awesome event !

Ultraman Jack Guns

My Ultraman collection has a few piece that leave me scratching my head .. wondering what the idea was behind some of these items. A pair of these are these Ultraman Jack ( Return of Ultraman ) army type guns. Both of these come in fairly large size window boxes (Each box measures 26 inches long.) and contain a M16 style plastic gun and a more heavy duty machine style gun. Both examples have seen better days as far as condition and one is missing a tripod for it's base...but I have not seen these before so of course had to add them to the collection.

Each one operates on batteries and have sound effects and light up at the barrels end.


My guess is the toy gun maker thought we have these military guns in stock, and hey that new Ultraman show is out... why don't we make a nice box with Ultraman Jack on it and stick a Ultraman Jack sticker on it and viola we have a Ultraman Jack gun to sell ! The only problem is the MAT ( monster attack team ) would use ray gun types of weapons .. and not your standard military style guns against the various aliens and kaiju ;-)

UpComing art toy shows Max Toy and Mark Nagata

As much as i try to post on my blog and web sites, it's always a struggle ;-P I have so many projects in various stages that sometimes I forget to mention them !! Below are a few I should mention ( ha-ha ) before they come and go ! and even though all three are international, at least you can see why I've been tied up a bit in preparing for these shows... stateside I'll be posting more info about my December art show at Double Punch ( see previous blogs ) next month, and more about Winter Wonderfest in Feb 2010, where if all goes well we will reveal the newest Max Toy figures ... stay tuned !

This weekend, thanks to good buddy Yo in Japan, Max Toy / Mark Nagata will be at the Design Festa 30 show in Tokyo. Look for new giclee prints and a new Red Neo Eyezon ( not painted ) for sale.
and in a few weeks we have the " I Love Kaiju" show at the Kaiju Blue gallery in the Marui Shopping Mall in Shinjuku, Japan.


some really cool Max Toy customs by women artists and a special Kaiju TriPus exclusive figures by BlobPus. I'll also be releasing a hand painted, signed and numbered to only 8 pieces Kaiju Eyezon at this event. Also I will be selling original artwork, paintings and more ! I'm not sure if there will be a direct link to ordering these figures, but you can check this blog here .. and as i find out more will post to this site and the Max Toy site as well.

and I will be co-curating this first of it's kind Kaiju art toy show in Barcelona, Spain - June 2010 , Kaiju Attack !! at Atticus gallery. Emilio Garcia ( Jumping Frog fame ) and I will be adding a few more select artists in the next few weeks, so keep checking the web site for more details. Needless to say I'm very excited about this show and trip and look forward to meeting new artists and having good food (!) I also look forward to exposing Kaiju art and Japanese toys to European fans !

Star Wars in Concert

This past weekend we had fun at the Star Wars concert held in San Jose...on the down side probably where Max picked up the flu ;-( Other than a few glitches with the big ass screen, was cool to hear the various scores .. although I'm not a fan of the newer set of movies, so seeing them inter cut with the original trilogy was a bit annoying (ha-ha ) Anyways it's for Max and not this old man ...

the music was so good, that one tended to forget that it was being played live and not the actual sound track ! Oh and C-3PO, Anthony Daniels, in person was the narrator.. pretty cool !



The props areas were swamped, of course ...here's Max worried that a big fat fan next to him would squish him ....

Max lamented there were no toys to be had ... in fact I said what they needed was a John Williams/ Star Wars conductor action figure or C-3PO and R2D2 set, where they're wearing the drums and percussion pieces ( from that poster long ago )

Oh well maybe next time ... !

Catching Up on Blogs !

Ah, were does the time go ?! So behind in projects and blogs ! Ok so thought I would just throw all the ones i've been meaning to post up in this one blog ... ! After about 2 months finally have my new studio / collection room about 90% set up. Not quite there but as you can see from the pic above at least i have stuff up on the walls (!) Actually had to take some pics of the room for an upcoming magazine article .. more on that as soon as I know the street date, but it's a really cool magazine called Illo ... check them out ! I also highly recommend their other publication called Illustration Magazine I subscribe to both and unlike other mags I keep these ...
Ok so in no particular order ... my buddy Chris and I checked out the newly re-opened Kimono My House over in Emeryville, CA. ( near Pixar by the way ) .. while only a small room now, still packed with Japanese toys .. and I'm sure to the non collector an impressive sight...

and while your there say hello to the Monster cat .. I think 20 pounds worth ?!! Nice Kitty ...
Cool retro style tin wind up of a Space Man Trooper ( not the Japanese ToyGraph one ! ) from Schylling Toy Company, thanks Chris !

and coming very soon, the Bacteria figure from ALIMAÑA and Amorfo companies from Mexico.. here are some pics they recently sent me...


and finally while unpacking found some artwork from my days as an illustrator, oh way back when ;-P All from the days before a computer and the internet..yes ancient times indeed.. in fact when I had my rep in New York, I'd have to fax drawings to them ..I saved a few faxes from those times but guess what ? There all faded and brittle ! Any how, for those wondering all these are done on Crescent Illustration board, 300 heavy weight, acrylics brushed and airbrushed. Sizes vary from about 11x15 to 20x30 inches.

above: a portfolio piece - based on a mystery book novel - from my early days as an illustrator. I marvel that a friend of mine and I actually had the nerve to go to New York with nothing more than a art directory, our portfolios and basically cold called art agents ( reps )and dropped off our books( portfolios ) trying to get an agent... I also remember standing on a corner in the rain and of course a cab drives by and totally soaked me while standing there ... hmmm, so thats why no one was standing so close to the corner ? I must not be from New York !! One agent said we didn't have what it takes ;-) and showed us an original brothers Hildebrandt painting which of course made our portfolios look like crayon drawings (!)... rather than making me depressed I thought to myself, heck, your not stopping me (!) ... luckly for us one of the last agents we saw , Peter and George Lott, took a chance on us young folks.. I have to say in my 13 years in freelancing I really got an education in working fast, making changes on the fly ( no photoshop days ) on the art and dealing with stressful situations.

above: give yourself goosebumps book cover - thought it was interesting that more than a decade later I would make a toy called TriPus that has a similar vibe, No ?!

by the way TriPus made it into the latest Spectrum Fantastic arts book coming out very soon.. number 16.

above: another in the endless stream of kids and teen horror book covers I did.. it seems like a blur now ;-P

above: I originally did this piece for my portfolio, but my agent was able to sell it for use in a Toys R Us ad that appeared in New York newspapers during Christmas time.

above: Silver Surfer - another failed attempt at getting some work from the comic book realm back in the 90's.. but still a favorite of mine and Max's.
Ok so enough rambling on about days past..back to custom painting toys and coming end of this month Max Toys will have a booth at Design Festa in Japan ( thanks to Yo ! ), November, Max Toys / Mark Nagata have our Kaiju Blue show at the Marui department store in Tokyo, December group art show with Dream Rockets, Sunguts, Dead Presidents at Double Punch Gallery in San Francisco... going forward Max Toys has a table at Winter Wonderfest Tokyo in Feb 2010, and Kaiju Comrades art show at Design Festa Gallery in Tokyo ( I'll be there for this one ! ), and June 2010 Kaiju Attack !! show, Atticus Gallery in Barcelona, Spain ! phew ... and new toys you may ask ? yes while it's taken awhile we have 6+ of them lined up... ;-) more on that very soon, but in the meantime the fiberglass Eyezons are about to be shipped from Rommel in the Phillipines to be painted by you know who in Boston, Killer Kaiju book from Collins design and Ivan Vartanian / Goliga Books, is set to be released in December !... geez, I promise to take it easy next year (ha-ha) but looks like there will be another "event" in the works that I can not say more, but will once again raise the bar on what Japanese toys are in a historical context ;-)
More soon !