Destroy All Podcasts DX Special Report - The Last Days of Kimono My House
Hosts: Jeremy, Mike
Special Guests: Nekrodave, Sanjeev, Jerilock, Brian from Super 7, Corey
This is a special podcast about the farewall party for Kimono My House, a vintage Japanese toy store in Emeryville, California (near Oakland). There was a special closing out party where many, many people ventured out to the roof of a building in the shipping district where the store was located.
A wave of people picked over the piles and piles of vintage toy goodness and then we convened for a special dinner at Ton Kiang, a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco.
Special thanks to everyone at Kimono My House, the staff at Ton Kiang for tolerating us, Erik Sjoen and Alen Yen for the shindig and food!
Click [HERE] to join in on the remembrances!
Many, many pictures Mike took follow the break.
A mammoth Ultraman and a sentai robot larger than your children greet visitors. A Kamen Rider lurks in the background.
Alen's laptop kept the Kimono My House party in touch with the two Josh party in Warren Schwartz's secret fortified toy lair. (KingboyD and Brian Flynn)
Out front was a big box full of slightly soiled shirts for free.
There were many interesting artifacts stashed around the roof including a T-Rex fighting a lobster...
Darth Vader fighting a snake buried up to his waist in a planter box...
And Gabera, lurking in the bushes!
And here it is, the inside of Kimono My House!
Walls and walls of toys!
More toys!
Hey, wait a minute! A new toy snuck in!
A couple of spinners from Blade Runner!
More toys!
Godzilla has a posse!
This store is packed to the rafters!
Toys always bring a smile! (Ken-A and H-Man)
The after party at Ton Kiang commences!
This is very rare, folks, Alen Yen's reproduction of the Jumbo Machinder villain Garada K7 created by Tom Franck. Click [HERE] and [HERE] and [HERE] and for more information on Garada K7 and Tom Franck's blog [HERE]...
...or [HERE]...
...or [HERE].
Pawing over the trade pile! (From left to right, KingboyD, Wayne H, Ed, H-Man, mcfitch, and Ken-A)
Inflatable Gakeen goes for a ride with granny?
ToyboxDX founder Alen Yen poses with the rare Mighty Orbots toy!
Closer up on the Mighty Orbots.
Here's Jerilock with the stupendous Jeeg bling! (with Sanjeev onlooking)
Even more toys in the trade pile!
Strike a pose! "Do I really look like Syd Barret?" Yeah, my hair is curly. (From left to right, Alen, Mike Parisi, mcfitch, me, and Ed from Robot-Japan)
The shape of things to come...from the mind of Alen Yen, this 3D color print is a prototype toy of TBDX's mascot, Nekosaur! It serves as a form model and thus features no gimmicks, but stay tuned in the coming months for more info on this project...
And here's Erik's rousing closing speech. (Erik, cae, Nekrodave, and Jerilock seated)
Let's not forget that toys are all about kids and kids at heart as these amazing young artists remind us! (Uh, I don't want to make anyone feel old, but one of those drawings is of Biollante, from Godzilla vs. Biollante, which came out in 1989.)
| Posted 2 February, 2009 - 02:00 by Destroy All Pod... |
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Comments
16 comments postedShame I never ordered from them at all. :-(
Gah! Right in the first closeup of the toys is the Gridman DX figure I'm missing and what looks like the big Gridman vinyls... bah. Now that the brick and mortar storefront is gone, is KMH going to put more work into their website? They seem to be missing alot of inventory, and even more item images right now. It's a shame this place closed down... looks like a real haven for toy collectors. What else is out there that can match KMH?
Oh.My.God.
I'd KILL for a chance to be there. I would've loved to have gotten those Gridman Figures(Still have no idea what happened to my Super Human Samurai Cyber Squad figures, from when I was a kid)
The vintage Sentai and Kamen Rider stuff too.
Damn, that right there is like, toy heaven.
Jeremy was going absolutely nuts about the thing..."dude Matt brought the Garada ohmigod that's so rare that's sooooo rare dude it's making me nervous do you realize this is the only one that's SO RARE DUUUDE!"
He actually started worrying about it, like he was worried that someone would blunder into the thing and destroy it in a drunken rage...he kept fretting about it through the entire meal(*) and wouldn't calm down until Matt put it away!
(*) PS we had approximately one metric ton of food per person. One of the dishes was fried chicken served with the head still attached.
And by Matt you mean Alen. What he is leaving out is that the Garada's body parts were not connected, its pieces were just laid on top of each other like robot Jenga. The entire thing was on a lazy susan, in a totally crowded restaurant full of drunk, high crazies dressed like aged strippers reliving the glory days. And people kept bumping into the table and the thing kept swaying ominously. Also don't forget that my nerves were totally frayed from this whole weird situation of being crammed in with a bunch of freaks and we were all starving. So, no, I did not relax until the Garada was put away, but that also coincided with me actually getting food. Ya jerk!
-Jeremy
I'm with ya! First thing I said to Alen when I got there was "I sure hope that's been glued together since last night!" and he assured me it wasn't. And for the record, that's actually the third one that Tom has made, fourth if you count the one he made for himself in the original prototype colors..
Anyway, thanks for letting me sit in on the podcast and editing out my gaffs! LOL. Never done it before and it was fun. I cannot for the life of me remember saying that thing about being glad it was audio only and don't remember why. Must've been something so horrible I've blacked it out....
"This must be settled the way nature intended....with a vicious, bloody fight!"
Onyx Blackman
Principal, Flatpoint High
That actually was a great time, Jeremy. It served as a sort of island of sanity in a maelstrom of toy nerdery. The respite was appreciated! :P
Thanks for having us on!
--
Sanjeev
Yeah, it was a lot of fun and I definitely needed that break. The whole day was kind of overwhemling. I'd love to do more podcasting with you!
-Jeremy
Yeah...thanks a lot for sharing your special moments with us DAP-DX. Sanjeev's dynamite and excellent, so I was really keeping my fingers crossed to hear Sanjeev on the show so that was a pleasant surprise so cheers for that.
Oh and Jeremy?....thanks a whole lot for letting us see what you look like. Come to think of it, yes...you do favor Syd Barrett and that's not a bad thing at all...you're still Jeremy and that's what counts.
One more thing Jeremy....thanks for being a free man over a number.
Be seeing you...Dude
-R78
Thanks for the comments, guys! More podcasting from me in the future? Who knows...!
--
Sanjeev
Jeremy has an e-boyfriend!
Geez Robo B....You make it sound like Zuey's an old lemon! Way to go to sour the DAP girls' pride dude. You're very naughty, naughty B.O.Y.Z.Z.!
-R78
WOOAAHH!! TOYGASM!!!
I want that Lionbot! I want that Lionbot! I want that Lionbot!
I'd give my Masterpiece Voltron anytime for a good set of Lionbot!
..although I'd be happier if I have both of 'em.
Cyclone Blue
"No Gnu is Good Gnu like Gary Gnu"
Yeah thanks again for letting me in on this thing guys, I'd also thank you for editing out my insane non-sensicle ramblings, but if that was the case I doubt very much that any of my comments would have made it in. One thing though..does my voice REALLY sound like that?
It was fun! And yes, your voice totally sounds like that.
-Jeremy
I invariably think the same thing when I listen to the podcast.