Blogs

I was at KMart earlier today,and there's new (AFAIK) Kenner carded figures for ROTJ just like the ESB ones from earlier in the year. For those who don't know,these are new figures but with oldstyle packaging that even goes so far as to say "Kenner" instead of Hasbro.
I got Ackbar,who looks great in the package. Can't speak as to his articulation or anything since this is one of the VERY few toys I'll actually keep MOC. He comes with the little gadget he has in the movie plus the little baton or whatever it is that the original figure had. I know everyone says this,but Hasbro are really the masters of action figures for U.S. mass market. This is a fun kids' toy but easily could be called a collectible as well. SW toys aren't flimsy like a Revoltech,but don't have QC issues like a Mattel toy. If you look at one of these versus one of Playmates' 2009 Trek figures,it's like they aren't even competitors.

Notmally I wouldn't do two blog posts within minutes of each other,but I just read Dino De Laurentiis passed away. Say what you will about the quality of his films,but I'm willing to bet most of us here have a soft spot for the guy.
He's the person who taught me that the orca is the only animal besides man who seeks revenge!
King Kong (Dino's version) is the first movie I can remember watching as a kid.
Conan features Ahnold killing a seagull Muppet with his mouth!

RIP to a true moviemaking legend.

Some of you might remember my somewhat strong views on designer vinyl. It was something I swore I'd never get into,and I made many comments about the types of people into collecting it.

Well,my wife and I bought a couple kidrobotXThe Simpsons blind box figures at Borders,and they're awesome. we got Burns and Maggie,and they're a nice blend of Groening's style and hipster blobby art. Plus,Burns came with Bobo the teddy,and Maggie came with the rabbit from Life Is Hell.

I don't have a digital camera at the moment,so I won't do a for real reals review but suffice it to say if you like the Simpsons and you like skinny jeans you'll love these. At 8 dollars they were I little pricey,but we had coupons.

I've been assimilated.

"The Show Must Go On"

Although it's an old theater saying, I think it applies here. I fought with myself back and forth about how long to keep their memorial on the front page. Each time I would hear Dan in my ear, telling me "What the hell was I doing?", and that he would want nothing more than to see this site continue and succeed.

So that's what we are going to do.

I've placed an image on the right of the page that links to their memorial page here. We will see them each time we come here, we will think of them when we think of CDX. They will always be part of our family.

The funeral is in a few days. I think this is something I needed to do before then. Maybe it will help brace myself for the event.

Thanks again for all your support.

Josh

Interested in how a IJA soldier lived during the Pacific War? Southern California's own 2nd Sendai reenacts the standard IJA infantry soldier in WWII. Most of the goal of 2nd Sendai is focused on learning combat tactics, drill and the daily life of the Japanese soldier in WWII and participate in living history and education events.

A long time collector of Militaria myself, lately I have been purchasing original WWII Japanese items for my collection. Just like Japanese toy and record collecting, collecting Japanese Militaria has educated me on the Japanese experience during WWII. I have long been fascinated with the Battle of Iwo Jima and assembled an original uniform of WWII USMC that I'm nearing completion and plan to assemble a IJA uniform to go along with the USMC kit for my collection.

Showa Pop! Futari No Ginza is the Greatest Film I Never saw!
By Leonardo Flores

It all started off when I doing research on a record that I just received. The song, "Young Echo" was a duet with Ken Yamauchi. While researching Ken I came across this film clip:

Needless to say I was blown away! Especially with his costar Masako Izumi. Her charm just captivated me and after some searching I was able to locate the original 45rpm on Toshiba Records which was I was to later to find out was called Futari No Ginza, which translates at Two People In Ginza. It's Romanji title is Ginza Lights. The record, on glorious Toshiba red vinyl is a duet sung by both Masako Izumi and Ken Yamauchi.

So after over 20 years I finally found out what her name was: Priscilla Chan.

Back in 1988 my family moved up to Watsonville CA near Santa Cruz. There I was enrolled into an International High School / Jr High. I was 14 and this was during the height of my Japanimation phase. I will truthful say I was at the height of the only time I was truely an Otaku. Everything I said, did, eat and breath had to be about Japan. I was most likely very annoying!

We had many Asian students from Honk Kong and one had a nickname that everybody called Disney. Well Hong Kong was close to Japan in my mind so I was always bugging the kid.

One nice thing he did was give me a couple of cassettes of Chinese Pop, or Cantopop, to borrow and copy. Lacking the equipment to do it correctly I put one player on another and pressed record. I made a cover from a Animage Z-Gundam cassette cover that were given inside the magazine at the time.

Last Saturday Uptown Whittier had one of its street fairs. Being a collector of Militaria I always take my time to look through photographs to locate Military photos from WWI and WWII.

It was when I was looking through the photographs that I came across this original photo of a young Japanese girl in a Kimono that most likely originated in the 1920's or 1930's.

The photo was taken at the Yeghi Photo Studios in Shimbashi Tokyo. The main Yeghi Photo Studio was located in Ginza with the Shimbashi studio being just a branch from the main studio. The Yeghi studio's heyday was during the Meiji and Taisho era with many of the photographers retiring in the late 1930's. After nearly 70 years of service Yeghi studios finally closed its doors during WWII in 1943.

I have a bunch of toys. Some robots, some superheroes and some monsters. I want t keep a lot of them, but there are at least as many I would like to (and probably NEED to) get rid of. Ebay takes up too much of my time. Vintage Stock wont give very much money for them. I will make a list soon of what I'm hoping to get rid of.

What should I do?

Gundams and Geass oh my.

Visit Archive.org to listen and download.