I picked up King Joe at the last East Coast Summit from my pal and fellow contributor Roger. I was jonesin’ for gokin and he had my fix.

BIG, BAD VAMPIRE BAT!!

I love toy finds like this one. The Nomura Message Capsule was a cheap, 45 yen counter toy back in 1978, filled with junk to amuse the kiddies. This toy comes from the series Space Battleship Yamato (or Starblazers in the US).

King Joe is one of the Ultraman Sofubi to end up sold in the US as part of Godzilla’s Gang. These toys were individually bagged and came with a header card that listed all of the figures in the line. At the time, these sold for about 99 cents each!

This is another example where the original Popy Jumbo Machinder is infinitely better than the Shogun Warriors version, but regardless, I'll always love this Mattel toy.

Though inferior to the Popy toy it's based on, the Shogun Warrior Gaiking is one of the most famous and beloved Jumbos worldwide.

In some ways, these toys were better than the toy they were based off of. While Astekaiser was fragile, the Star Mites were solid, sturdy chunks of metal.

You are looking at one of my personal holy grails, the GA-09 Black Raideen. As my Raideen collection inches toward completion, the remaining pieces become more elusive and more expensive.

If you want to add this machinder to your collection, I guarantee you won't regret it!

This little guy has the unlikely name of King Joe, and the equally unlikely role of giant super-villain from outer space.