More Vintage Menko Cards (part two)

 

And now, the conclusion of the treasure trove of vintage menko cards that I recently acquired.  This first group has the same manufacturer (and backing style) that our entire last post had, except these cards are super-thick, which you'd expect from menko cards. Right off the bat, we see Gamera, Godzilla, and Gappa...although I have to admit I am stumped on the bird-headed hero in a couple of the cards, and I haven't been able to discern his identity, so please leave a comment and let me know! Oh, don't miss GOLDAR from SPACE GIANTS sneaking into the bottom row! This is an all-star group for sure.

And here are the card backs!

This next group is super cool, beginning with King Ghidorah, and moving on to Bemular and Antlar from the first year of ULTRAMAN, and finally, a very cool Mechagodzilla, who apparently has sunk the Titanic.  The lizard at the end of the top row would make an awesome album cover.

All of these cards are super thick, too, but apparently have different manufacturers.  All menko cards seem to incorporate Rock/Paper/Scissors, but some even feature playing cards on their backs.  The ones at bottom left seem to want you to draw your own artwork in the space provided--which seems like a missed opportunity--while the last group actually features SPECTREMAN of all things!

Lastly, we return to some old friends, and even the "umbrella yokai," which was a surprise.  The "Godzilla vs. UFOs" card is awesome, and the Ghidorah card at bottom left is not a repeat, because this time the art is overprinted with metallic gold ink, which unfortunately doesn't show up in the scan very well.  The back is completely different, too.  I was going to say something about Ultraman fighting Godzilla again, when I finally realized the other monster was Daigoro from DAIGORO vs. GOLIATH! Holy crap! Next we have an awesome, almost tribal Ghidorah image, then a card obviously based on ULTRA Q, and finally, our bird-headed friend again.

Here are the backs, which are much more varied than earlier styles we have seen.  The "TV" ones are pretty funny (note Zorro in the upper-left....Zorro?) Also note the military hardware--early menko cards were heavy on this sort of thing, before tokusatsu and kaiju films gave them a higher calling and true purpose for their artwork.  

I hope you have enjoyed looking at these awesome cards. As you can tell, I love these things.  The kaiju-based ones don't come up very often anymore, so you have to wait for a good deal.  But, they are out there.

More Vintage Menko Cards (part one)

We have looked at cool vintage menko cards on this site in the past, which were Godzilla-themed ones that used photographs, but now here is a large lot of vintage kaiju-related ones featuring paintings!

Just in case you don't know, menko is a very old game played in Japan (with variants all over the world), where the objective is to flip over your opponent's cards by skillfully throwing yours at them (then you get to keep your winnings)! 

These cards are all from the 60's and 70's, and many are most likely unauthorized, and can therefore be a little dodgy in their depictions of characters. As you can see in this first group, it's heavy on ULTRA Q and the first ULTRAMAN (and maybe AGON THE ATOMIC DRAGON there in the lower left corner?).

Here are the backs of this first group.  I've tried to group all of the cards together with similar reverse artwork, since I have no way of telling you anything about their manufacturers.  I can tell you that all of these we will see in this first part are thinner than the normal menko cards, these being about as thick as the backing cardboard on a note pad.  Also, it seems to be a tradition for nearly all menko cards to include "Paper/Rock/Scissors" on their backs...I always figured it was the way that kids determined who took the first turn!

What I can't figure out, or find information about anywhere, is the significance of the string of numbers on the backs of most cards.  If anyone knows, please leave a comment!

This second group is interesting.  It starts off with a pseudo-MARINE BOY, then goes back to Ultra-kaiju (by the way, the Gomora in the bottom left is the same artwork from the first group, but has a completely different back as we will see), then gives us GAPPA, and for some reason,...IT CONQUERED THE WORLD!

And here are the backs. To say these are crudely cut is almost an understatement!

And here is the last of this group.  Once again the duplicate cards have completely different backs.   

Next time we will look at another great batch of menko cards, by a variety of manufacturers, featuring even more guest stars, from Gamera to Goldar!