My very first commission with John Groff of KaijuZoo...and also one of my very first glowies. ...The start of a great friendship and a near-obsessive collection focus!

One obsession of mine that's no secret is my insatiable lust for glowies. The problem with many vintage-style (usually kaiju) glowies, though, is that their paint schemes are...well...either too dull for my tastes or the paint obscures too much of the glow power of the vinyl. I'm no stranger to customizing toys myself, but back in '05, I stumbled across a website advertising expertly-done custom/restoration work for vinyl kaiju figures at reasonable prices. I contacted the owner of the business, John Groff, and a great friendship was born...

His site, KaijuZoo Toys, offered something great for folks either lacking the gumption to take on customizing their own stuff or just not wanting to deal with the hassel of paint supplies, the mess, etc... Now, people can just relax and focus on the color scheme of whatever vinyl figure--glow or not--they want painted. John even offers services to remove old or damaged paint jobs prior to restoration or custom work. Whatever you want, just ask him! Jonee's a bit of a jack-of-all trades when it comes to customizing, and he'll work with you to create a masterpiece!

It's really a great service if you think about it. For example, lots of vinyl kaiju manufacturers these days release unpainted lucky bag versions or other exclusives of their figures--in glow or varying colors of opaque or translucent vinyl. The thing is that most folks may have no desire whatsoever to paint their own figures. I mean, I don't even own an airbrush--let alone have the space to set one up properly! This is where Jonee comes in! Besides being a great guy to chat about daikaiju eiga with, he'll work directly with you via phone or e-mail, and take as long as needed to come up with the perfect paint scheme for your figure. He's an experienced kaiju toy nut, himself, making his feedback in this process invaluable. He's a real fan, a true artist, and it clearly shows in his work.

So as a client, I get to sit back and let my imagination take off. This figure is actually my very first KaijuZoo custom! Sorry it's taken so long to review it properly! ;) It started its life as an unpainted glow M1 Manda figure from Atragon, Destroy All Monsters, and the opening moments of Final Wars. Jonee's transformation of this toy still has me speechless!

This guy's so good, I've gotten into the habit of doing Yahoo!Japan searches for unpainted (glow) vinyls for anything that catches my eye as something that Jonee can transform into a one-of-a-kind work of art.

Now, I've always loved Manda...something about a majestic undersea serpent had me pretty much hooked when I was little. M1's gorgeous sculpt of this monster certainly helped, too! This KaijuZoo custom would actually end up being my 3rd or 4th glowie ever. Ah...the good old days...when my vinyl kaiju could fit on one shelf...or could be counted using just your fingers! (I think at the time of writing of this review, I have somewhere around 120 glowies!)

Anyway, the paint scheme Jonee and I came up with mirrored a previous one he had painted for another client, only this time, he used translucent paints and left more glow vinyl exposed. I was definitely clear about that part: the finished product had to SHINE!! And, oh my head, did Jonee deliver!

Just check out the glow effect on the teeth and eyes--that's all Jonee's handiwork! He came up with this method of hand painting those details to make for an incredible glow effect.

Not much more to say about this piece, really. The pictures speak rather clearly for themselves. Again, this was my first KaijuZoo custom ever. Since then, Jonee's painted three others for me, including this Marmit glow Getter 1--yes, he can do robots, too! Next up? I'm just waiting patiently in queue for him to do a fifth custom for me! Stay tuned!

This is one of the most beautiful vinyls in my entire collection.

Since my last Matango review, I finally got around to actually watching the movie. I thought it looked beautiful, but tended to drag to much for me. For some reason, it just didn't really speak to me. Strangely, I went on a bit of a Matango buying binge anyway and picked up this amazing M1 limited release of Mami.

This is a somewhat difficult to categorize toy. It's not quite kaiju really, but I wouldn't consider it exactly a girly figure either. Whatever it is, it's exquisitely done. The soft vinyl figure is about 7" tall and the feet are molded to fit into the resin base. It is articulated in four places, the neck, waist and both shoulders.

The paint job is simply breathtaking. Every detail is meticulously attended to. Not only does the color perfectly match the clothing in the movie, but the eyeshadow, lipstick and nail polish is has been very delicately applied. Her right pinky finger is curled in to that you cannot even see the nail from the front, but if you tip the figure back and look, even that's been painted.

The base features a small patch of mushrooms around her feet with the name of the movie written on the front in red lettering. The toy comes packaged in a box with some nice imagery from the movie. The box measures approximately 8.5"x2.5"x4.75".

A figure of this quality is enough to get me on board, but if you are loathe to buy something that isn't out and out monstrous, well they've included a little mini Matango too. This guy is about 2" tall and molded in pink vinyl with blue, yellow and red paint sprays. And you can wear him wherever you go since he comes on a long gold, plastic necklace!

This figure was released as a limited mail-away exclusive in conjunction with the 1999 release of the Matango laser disc. Another figure of a transforming Matango was also released at that time.

"Up from the depths of prehistoric mystery rages.....GORGO!!"

M1 and Club Daikaiju combined to release three non-Japanese giant monsters as part of their "Great Monsters of the Movies" series. (Besides Gorgo, there was also Reptilicus and Rat Bat Spider.) Gorgo is from the 1961 British film of the same name.

Interestingly, there was no consistency among the three releases in terms of packaging. Whle the Rat Bat Spider came in a box and Reptilicus loose with a tag, Gorgo comes in the more commonly used bag and header card.

The figure itself is beautifully sculpted in green vinyl and accented with metallic blue and silver spray. It stands 10" tall and is articulated at the hips, shoulders and tail. Unfortunately, though, you cannot turn the head at all.

In the movie, British scientists find a giant monster and bring it back to the UK. But it turns out that this "giant" monster is just a baby! Mama Gorgo comes for her child and reeks havoc in the process. And as an added bonus, this toy comes with a mini vinyl of the child Gorgo. Using the same vinyl and paint, the baby version has just one joint at the waist.

The Gorgo reviewed here is the "Irasawa" exclusive, but Gorgo was also released through Super7 Magazine in a blue spray, in unpainted beige and blue painted beige variations as well as green with gold spray instead of silver.

Yup, the brotha's at it again...another custom glowie!

Hey, all! Sanjeev here, back again with another custom glowie by yours truly! Some of you may remember my first custom glowie, the Marmit Vinyl Paradise Garamon/Garadama piggy bank that I finished in glow spraypaint a while back. Well, when the opportunity to pick up a cheap M1 Giant Sized Garamon in unpainted glow vinyl came up, I hopped right on it knowing it would look great along with the Marmit!

Now, I got the inspiration for this figure from Nekrodave, who picked up the blue spray version of this figure some time ago. And y'know something? He was damn right: this is one creepy figure. The babydoll eyes are just weird! I LOVE IT!!

So, just as before, I grabbed my trusty glow spraypaints from ReadySetGlo and my Parafilm-M (for masking), and went to town!

The results are pretty killer, if I do say so myself! ;)

My creativity was a tad hampered by my previous efforts since I wanted this figure to match the piggy bank in terms of color scheme. If I hadn't painted up the Marmit previously, I would have tried a more daring color scheme (maybe blue or pink and yellow). As it is, however, I still dig it. It came out well, I think, and any experience with these tricksy paints is valuable (you may recall, my only other endeavor with glow spraypaint was Daimajin). The stuff's real tough to work with...

So, sticking with the red color scheme begun with the piggy bank, I tried something I learned with Daimajin: I sprayed down from above with red spraypaint after spraying up from below with purple (this sorta complements the red I used on Garamon and the purple I used on Garadama for the piggy bank).

The overall effect is pretty cool! If you notice, I also masked off the middle of his chest with torn masking tape to make an interesting pattern. Over the gap, I blended in orange glow spraypaint, again to match the piggy bank.

As you can tell, I touched up his nostrils with black acrylic--he kinda didn't look right at this scale without it. And finally, I masked around the face, hands, and feet, and sprayed his lips, toes, and tops of his hands orange.

One of the last steps, of course, was sealing the paint job. As before, I used Minwax Polycrylic: three quick coats and some light brushing to remove excess dust, and I was pretty much done. The only thing I had to be careful about was the eyes. I had to cover just around the eyes with a good seal to protect the mechanisms from getting gummed up with the varnish. Worked out great, see!?

Aiight, aiight...I know what you're saying: enough yappin', let's get to the glowie shots!

Done:

Not a bad effect at all, huh? When fully charged, the red glow color glows just as long and intensely as the bare glow vinyl. The orange and purple, however, last a little bit longer. The effect over time is pretty cool: the green glow vinyl and the red dim a bit after a while, but the orange stays a bit brighter...and the purple undertones on the down-facing surfaces glow a bit brighter blue.

My spray coats were a bit thicker than I would've liked, but it creates a stronger, more contrasting look under normal light. Even a little too thick, the glow effect of the paint matches well against his face and other exposed bits.

Finally, I'll leave you with a group shot! From left to right, we have the Popy/B-Club reissue of the original Bullmark mold, the giant M1, and the Marmit piggy bank:

M1 re-issue of a vintage Bullmark classic...

1973s "Godzilla vs. Megalon" was the one and only appearance for this partcicular kaiju, but that is no reason not to have an abundance of toys made. This release from M1-go was based on a vintage Bullmark mold and still features the Bullmark logo on the bottom of the right foot. Megalon (or "Megaro" メガロ) is a pretty cool looking monster and I've yet to see a vinyl sculpt of it that I didn't like. The trick for me has been getting the color scheme to my liking. I've never really been able to find one that I truly like, but I wanted to have a vinyl of the character so when I saw this at Mandarake Shibuya for 2,000 yen, I figured I'd grab it, even though it didn't have it's packaging and was covered in dust. There's still dust resting in the nooks and crannies of the skin. I need to powerwash this thing or something.

This standard size Megalon is about 8.5" tall with articulation at the neck, shoulders and hips. The sculpt on the head is pretty cool, but I think my favorite part of it is the wings. It's molded entirely in green vinyl with red and silver spray, along with gold paint for the eyes. It's not the best vinyl Megalon out there, but it will hold me over until I find one that really appeals to me.

I never had any desire for the removable mask style of hero vinyls. But you know how it is, once you get one....

This is one of those toys that makes me really glad I don't actually live in Japan. I picked this up at one of the consignment shops at Nakana Broadway for about 2,000 yen. If I had treasures like this at prices like that available to me everyday, I'd be completely destitute in a matter of days. It's particularly frustrating since until buying this, I never had any desire for the removable mask style of hero vinyls. But you know how it is, once you get one......

This character is Hayata (ハヤタ隊) from the classic show "Ultraman" (1966-1967, 39 episodes). The essence of Ultraman was merged with Hayata and is released to fight evil whenever it threatens. Though Hayata and Ultraman are two different beings, Hayata is kind of like Clark Kent in a way.

This vinyl was released by M1-go in 2001 and while it's somewhat plain, it has an undeniable charm. It's simple colors, unthreatening stance and clean cut looks harken back to a more innocent age. Most toys these days, good guys and bad, look like they wanna rip your face off. Hayata looks like he'd offer to carry your groceries home. But he is in the business of fighting monsters so he does carry a weapon, a small pistol on his waist. But he doesn't actually use it since it is molded in place.

As I mentioned before, Hayata has a removable helmet. It seems made out of a very flexible rubber and has a slit running up the back to allow it to be more easily put on and taken off.

This vinyl figure stands just a hair shy of 10" tall and is articulated at the neck, shoulders and hips. The vinyl feels solid and the paint job is sparkling. Hayata came sold in a bag with a header card and also features an M1 card fastened to his left wrist via an elastic. I don't foresee at time in the near future when I'll be going out of my way to collect this kind of toy. But this one looks really nice and should I stumble across any more at a reasonable price, you can bet I'll not hesitate to expand my collection!

Ishirô Honda's "Matango" is one of the most popular Toho monster movies and this M1 vinyl is a great tribute to it.

Matango (マタンゴ) is from the Ishirô Honda-directed Toho film of the same name ("Attack of the Mushroom People" in the US) and is one of my favorite vinyls. I first saw it on eBay at a very fair price and thought it was ok, but not worth my money. But as is often that case, I found myself being drawn to it more and more as the weeks went on, until finally another appeared and I decided I had to have it. Naturally, I ended up paying about twice what the previous auction ended at. Sigh...

Still, no complaints from me. The sculpt of this toy, while not accurate to the movie(there were no visible eyes in the movie), is very appealing and the shiny, metallic blue paint really stands out. A solid yellow spray covers the shoulders and upper torso, with red eyes and black pupils rounding out the color scheme. Naturally, like all vinyls these days, Matango was released in a varitey of different colors. Though I shamefully admit to not yet having seen the movie, I've been informed that there were in fact lots of different "mushroom people" in the movie, like a horde of zombies, so these variations actually make some sense this time. This is also the reason I didn't mind picking up a couple extras when I had the opportunity to at the December, 2006 World Character Convention.

Matango is 8" tall with five points of articulation (hips, shoulders and neck). The regular version reviewed here comes with an M1 tag on an elastic around the neck, as well as a a piece of paper with a drawing included in the bag. It looks like this was meant to be colored in. Neither of the other two I bought have either of these features.

I want to briefly make note of one version of Matango that I found particularly striking. It appeared on Yahoo!Japan auctions last summer and I think it was a sample given to one of the famous Mandarake stores in Japan. I tried hard to get it, but came in second in the bidding. I'm pretty sure it's a one of a kind paint scheme so I doubt I'll ever get the chance again.

Boring in and of itself, but even bland can add variety to another-wise colorful kaiju shelf!

When JoshB and I hit Tokyo back in February of last year, we couldn't have gone about things more differently. Each day we would head out to a different toy shop or three and each day he would return with a pile of new goodies, while I barely bought anything at all. But on the last day of the trip, after having failed to find a nice enough jumbo to entice me to buy, we hit Nakano Broadway for one last spree. It was here that I did the vast majority of my shopping for the trip. The Nakano Broadway mall is famous for having so many stores and consignment shops, but the one thing I found out was that the main Mandarake store there carried a bunch of VERY cheap vinyls. Fortunately I'm not too discriminating when it comes to vinyl kaiju so I basically just starting grabbing whatever was cheap and looked halfway decent. I scored this M1 Keronia-Seijin(ケロニア星人) for about 1,000 yen.

I'd always seen these peach vinyls on eBay and the like, but always thought they were too boring to bother with. But they actually don't look half bad mixed in with many other more colorful kaiju. And this one in particular is probably my favorite of the three that I bought. Something about the goofy smile on his face makes me laugh. And besides, who can resist such a well dressed kaiju?

Keronia-Seijin techincally has five points of articulation (hips, shoulders and neck), but the legs can barely move at all. It is approximately 9.5" tall and was a lucky bag exclusive.

Should you run out and buy this guy? Probably not. Should you buy it if you are in Japan and see it for about 1,000 yen? Of course!

My very first glowie...the start of a wonderful obsession.

Folks, this movie is BAD. I mean, it's awful!! It stinks out loud...and I love every damn minute of it!!

"Reptilicus" is another Sid Pink classic cheesefest featuring his studio, Cinemagic--this time, shot entirely in Denmark. Danish actors, horrific English voice-overs, the whole nine! ...All the way down to a little musical interlude touting the lovely sites and night life of Tivoli, Copenhagen...almost randomly inserted, while the threat of apocalyptic monster rampages looms over Europe!! Way to go, Denmark Bureau of Tourism!! Now THAT'S product placement!

Anyhow, I've always had a soft spot for this movie. I mean, it's just SO bad. He's like a rejected concept b-movie monster. Ya gotta have a soft spot for him. From a film perspective, the special effects sure are...special...all right. *AHEM*

Yeah, this movie really needs to be seen to be believed! So, CLEARLY, I desperately needed some sort of toy-rendition of this monster...like Tom Cruise desperately needing a grip on reality! So, anyway, before the glowie obession began--even before I ever got any sort of vinyl kaiju--I hunted this Wonderfest 2000 (annual Japanese toy show) exclusive down [and be sure to check out ClubTokyo.org for more info on other variants]. After all, given the choice, why wouldn't I go with the glow in the dark one!?

Was I pleased with my purchase? ...Do The Simpsons need new writers!? (ouch!)

M1 and Club Daikaiju did a fantastic job on this figure. The sculpt is outstanding! The head really captures the terrific visage of the prehistoric, unkillable beastie!

(I think I dated that once...)

The figure's stance is worthy of note, too. Toho's popular supporting-kaiju, Manda, is a long, serpentine monster as well, and in his(her?) M1 rendition, the creature simply sits flat on its belly in a winding, wavy posture. On the other hand, with Reptilicus, the sculptors decided to try something new: they posed him rearing up defiantly...as he is often seen in the film. His wings are swept back and sort of blend the vertical part of his trunk with the rest of his body still flat on the ground:

Even with the smart design of the wings to distribute his weight more evenly, he's still a bit top-heavy with that melon of his. In order to pull off a figure a little more resistant to shelf-diving, the makers actually filled the tip of his tail with pachinko balls to weigh it down! If you hold him up to a light source, you can see the shadow they create in his tail:

Another interesting note is that the figure did not come bagged; instead, it came with a very nice tag attached with a silver elastic cord. The outside features some great artwork (movie poster art?), and the inside features some cool info about the movie, as well as lyrics to the aforementioned musical interlude, "Tivoli-Night". ...Oof...now, there's a tune you don't want stuck in your head...

And, now, we finally come to the glow! Again, he wasn't purchased *because* he glowed in the dark...but he certainly helped kick-start my obsession! The start of something beautiful...

check out the glow-drool!

The terrifying creature from Sid Pink's "Angry Red Planet" comes to eerie life in glow form!

"Spectacular Adventure Beyond Time and Space", indeed! That was the tagline for 1960's Sid Pink classic, "Angry Red Planet"! Well...it was certainly a spectacle, that's for sure!

I'm a big fan of classic cheese, and this film certainly ranks up there with the best of them. And I was only too delighted to hear that M-1, in conjunction with Club Daikaiju, had made a vinyl of the coolest monster in the film, the (somewhat) terrifying Rat Bat Spider! Now, imagine my reaction when I heard that, not only did they make a vinyl of the character, but they'd released a glow version!!

I was lucky enough to pick up a limited release of this figure via eBay. It featured a very nice box with great graphics. Inside, the standard figure was bagged (unstapled) and came with a tag.

Nice write-up of the movie.

Excellent image (actually used in the film) of the creepy Martian!

The tag, attached to the figure with a silver elastic string, is very well-done, too. It features great graphics on the outside and fun info (including an excerpt from the actual screenplay!) on the inside. Surprisingly, of all the vinyl kaiju toys I have, this is one of only two that I own to have an actual tag. All my others came in clear plastic bags stapled shut with a header card.

The figure, itself, is really amazing. It's only around 5 inches tall, but it more than makes up for its height in girth. This thing's definitely a shelf-dominator! But more importantly, the sculpt is what really makes this figure stand out. It is simply sharp and well-detailed.

Even the articulation is excellent--for a retro-style vinyl kaiju, of course! The two aft legs on either side are actually static, but there are still a total of ten points of articulation on this figure...six of them just in the forward legs/claws.

There are several paint/vinyl color variants of this figure (if you have time, be sure to check out ClubTokyo's fantastic database). I selected the pink glowie over the more plausible (?) black/green Neighborhood variant just to throw an interesting splash of color into the glowie shelves (after all...if you watch the film, you can't actually tell what color the monster is!).

Now, of course, the most important part of a glowie is its GLOW. So, without further ado, I give you glowie Rat Bat Spider!

Remember: it's in CINEMAGIC!!