My friend Rin recently went on a trip to Disney World, and while at the Epcot Center she took a few pictures of an awesome display of classic Japanese tin toys found in the Japan pavilion. Click the images for a larger look at them.
This sign introduces the collection.
Here's Astro Boy in all his tin plated glory! Ha ha, he's kinda chubby here. Behind him you can see the super hero Mirrorman. 
What Japanese toy collection would be complete without Ultraman? The skull-headed guy is an interesting character called "Ogon Bat", also known as Phantoman. Ogon Bat was created in Japan in 1930, making him the very first superhero ever. There was a manga version created by Osamu Tezuka, as well as an anime version that was translated into several languages.
Astro rides a motorcycle! What purpose does that serve when he has rockets in his feet? The purpose of being a cool toy, I guess. Looks like there's some kind of vehicle behind it based on Big X, another Tezuka character.
And of course, we have Godzilla. Being made primarily out of metal and paint rather than plastic gives this toy of The Big G an interesting look here.
Such awesome pieces of Japanese toy history. I love looking at this stuff. There's a certain unique charm about how these famous characters were rendered into stylized toys in Japan back in the day. Big time thanks to Rin for taking these pictures for me!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Tin Toys
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Wow. That stuff is impressive. Plus a cool introduction to Ogon Bat. Thanks.
Yeah, Ogon Bat is quite cool! I had seen the character before many times, but didn't really know much about him.
You'd think that the first ever super hero would be someone more clean cut like Superman, but as it turns out he's got more in common with characters like Spawn and Ghost Rider who came much later.
Sayonara.
Cool. I think a lot of Japanese stories/characters (including Astro) are fairly unique and original when compared to American comics.
Post a Comment