Super-Articulated Ultraman Figures (Banpresto, 2000)

Today we continue our look at my long quest to find the "ultimate" Ultraman figure.  One thing I didn't mention was that there had been vinyls for years; in the late 90's, the standard Bandais were fine for play, but usually only had articulation at the arms.  They were inexpensive, and had a certain charm to them, but I wanted more...

The front of the box (identical for all three in the series)

Enter Banpresto, who has made tons of great Ultraman stuff over the years, including video games.  Around 2000 or so, I got wind of these "super-articulated" figures, and every description at the time couldn't help from using word "Mego," because the closest comparison with an American product was the old Mego dolls from the 1970's.  This is actually a pretty good comparison, although these figures are smaller in scale, at around 6" tall, but they do have bodies with cloth costumes, just like the old Megos.  There were three in the series:  Ultraman, Ultraseven, and Tiga, who was still the Elmo of the series at the time...wait, not that I mean he was molesting children; rather that he was overused in marketing!

The back of the boxes, with "action poses"

The problem is, they are much more frail in comparison than their American counterparts.  Even a bit emaciated (the calves and forearms are super-thin).  The joints tend to get loose very quickly, and they refuse to stand normally.  While they are uniquely designed, and look good, you would need doll stands to display them. The joints are pretty fragile as well, and the plastic used in the pins of the joints is very cheap.  I don't much like how Ultraman's wrists (and ankles) show as if he is wearing his little brother's costume. 

Here is Ultraman and Seven facing a 1994 Bandai Baltan.  It took several minutes to get them to stand, and even then, Ultraman is still looking downward. Oh well.

Here's a closer look at my two favorites from the line:

Because of Seven's gloves, he doesn't have the wrist gap that Ultraman suffers from (the costume tucks under).  However, he just won't stand up straight, and has to be sort of hunched over to get him to stand.

But, it's Ultraseven, so it's instantly cool.

Also, his fin (or Eye Slugger, for you obsessive types) is removable.  A nightmare for kids, but a really cool addition for collectors.  Not that he can actually HOLD it, though...

Overall, I love the uniqueness of these figures, and the original concept, and would buy them again.  Wait until we look at the Ultra Act figures, though; they are ground-breakingly amazing.

Ultraman action figure (Yutaka, 1997)

It's hard to believe it's been as long as it has, but in the early days of Ebay (which is probably where I got this), I was desperate to track down an actual action figure of Ultraman.  I found this one, which was new at the time.  It's made by Yutaka and came out in 1997.

I was pretty thrilled at the time, and as you can see, it's a very good-looking figure.  The problem is, like a supermodel, it doesn't do much, other than stand there and look good.  Both the sculpt and the paint are very nicely done, but the figure is only about 5" high, and the articulation leaves a lot to be desired.  The legs swivel--not bend--so you can't do much other than point his toes, which by the way are a bit too curled for me, and reminds me more of the "evil Ultraman" from the first series.  The arms move, but since he is already in his "fighting stance," you are somewhat limited there as well. His head doesn't even turn.  Action figure technology has come a long way in my lifetime, and especially since 1997..in the next few days, we will see exactly how much.

As if to make up for the limited playability, if that is a word, of this figure, the manufacturers include a Science Patrol badge, and a tiny trading card that is about half the size of a standard trading card.  And unlike a lot of American action figures, he can easily be repackaged because the backing card slides off of the bubble, so points for that.

And speaking of the card, it is good for a snicker with its pseudo-Engrish slogan.  I do think that somehow it is meant to evoke the catch-phrase that was used on the ULTRAMAN 80 show, "He came to us from the sky," but it's still funny.

The back of the card doesn't give us English speakers very much to go on.  There are instructions on how to move the four articulated parts, as if you need them.

Also, if you disobey the instructions, you make Pac-Man cry.

Today we have things like Bandai's "S.H. Monsterarts" and "Ultra Act," which offer amazing sculpts and 1,000 (or so) points of articulation, and only cost as much as the average human kidney.  We will be looking at some of these shortly (the figures, not kidneys, because that would be gross).  As a spoiler, look at how the 1997 Ultraman is dwarfed by the Ultra Act one:

And now, a moment from GODZILLA vs MECHAGODZILLA...

I was iced in a couple weeks back, and I treated myself to a marathon of GODZILLA vs GIGAN, GODZILLA vs MECHAGODZILLA, and TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA...I was keeping the subtitles on, so I could compare the International dubs to the translated Japanese soundtrack, when I saw this odd moment.

The professor explains his pipe is made of a (most likely made-up) mystery metal.  It's pretty bad when the translators on the official DVD have no idea what is going on.

SW Topps Trading Cards (series 5, 1978)!

Topps' SW card set concluded with the fifth series, also called the "Orange" one.  Not only is a great deal of the set made up of "behind-the-scenes" photos at last, but for the first time, Cantina aliens are finally shown...even Topps was aware of the omission up to this point, as you can see from the front of the wrapper.

I went into this in the book I wrote on the Cantina scene, but it's my belief that Lucas was a little less than satisfied with the completed scene, and, despite bolstering the scene with further shots and masks before the film was released, remained a bit "shy" when it came to the sequence.  As a result, there was an "embargo" on much of anything pertaining to the Cantina over the first year of the film's existence.  This is strange to me, because I was one of an entire generation of kids that was completely mystified by the scene, and left the theater with it firmly in my mind for all time.

We do exist! We do exist!

"Okay, in this next scene, you are going to shoot first...no, Han is going to!  No, on second thought, a random shot comes through the window...no, I've got it..."

SW Topps Trading Cards (series 4, 1978)! An Obscene Mystery?!

Continuing our examination of the Topps SW set, we now move into some interesting territory with the "Green" series...that of the first Star Wars scandal.  But more on that in a moment--let's look at some other highlights first!

This series began to get very heavy in its use of Lucasfilm reference shots.  Understandably, they were running out of what stills were available, and overall this is a good thing, really.  Where else could you see stuff like that back then? At this point, Topps was still trying to avoid "behind-the-scenes" shots, perhaps insisted on by Lucasfilm, but this would all change with the fifth and last series.

I've always thought this card's title was strangely prophetic...there was an early Marvel SW comic with the same title, too.

The problem comes when they start to "phone it in," when images are chopped up to make new cards.  Case in point:

I mean, that was three CONSECUTIVE cards, there...at least mix it up a little, Topps!  Overall, a nice set, though.  Having more non-movie photos really gives it more of a harder core, collector focus.

And now, we move on to darker waters...the card nobody wanted to admit existed.  The first real Star Wars scandal.

YOU know the one.

I remember, somewhere around the age of five, my parents coming into my room and insisting on going through the shoeboxes of Star Wars trading cards that I had amassed.  I also remember it was a weird situation--they were looking for something, but not exactly sure what they were looking for.  In the end, they never told me what was going on, but I could pick up on the serious vibe...but I don't think anything was taken. 

If somehow you have no idea what I am talking about, word got out that somebody had hidden something DIRTY on a Star Wars card, and the youth of America was in dire peril. I guess the missing piece of information here is, exactly how the word got out.  That's one part I haven't researched.  Was it an urban myth being passed around? Did it make the nightly news? Was it just whispered about in PTA meetings? Try to think back to the 1970's.  Today, it would be flashed across the world in an instant, blow up, and be over with.  Back then, telephones had rotary dials.  If I had to guess, I would say that the information was very non-specific...sort of like the song "Louie, Louie."  For years, it got passed around that there was SOMETHING dirty in that song, but as nobody could understand the words, nobody knew what it was, so the legend continued. (By the way, there IS something there, just not where people thought it would be...but this isn't the time or the place to go into that.)

Back to the subject:  it wasn't until years later that I was able to buy the "X-rated" version of the card, and it really is bizarre.  The vintage story going around at the time was that it was a "disgruntled Topps employee" who altered the card.  The "official" story that has emerged in recent years was that the C-3PO costume was coming apart, and that's merely what happened during the moment the photo was taken.

Now, let's think about this.  It IS well-documented that the original C-3PO costume was problematic, and that it often had to be patched and wired together during filming.  This is evident in the documentaries.  But why haven't we seen any other similar photos come out after all these years? I guess the next logical question would be: did the costume have strips like that at the hips that were likely to pop out? That part is strange to me. 

So far, I don't see how any strips would be popping out...but then again, there is probably a big difference from a test-fitting costume, to a film-used one, to one made for promotional appearances, and who knows which we are looking at in the above shots.  So let's press on...

A while back, a roll of on-set reference shots were sold on Ebay, and they were exactly from the filming of the oil-bath scene.  Let's muddy the waters (or the oil) a bit more:

Here's our droid, emerging from his oil bath.

Huh, that's weird...why is the hip flaring out like that? Could it be the suit had a "codpiece" of some sort that was an extra layer? Or a part that wanted to come loose?

So what have we learned? Well, if a disgruntled Topps employee hid extraneous droid anatomy, first of all, he didn't do a very good job "hiding" it...while it is more fun to believe that adults are hiding little in-jokes for themselves (see THE RESCUERS, or for that matter, WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? for just two real examples), I think in this case, it's just not true.  It doesn't say much for Quality Control, but it was a far less complicated time.  Keep in mind also that altering the card, while completely possible, would have taken a bit of effort in the pre-Photoshop era.

One more thing: both versions of card #207 are included here, just for completeness of course.  I guess at the end of the day, the real question is how anybody ever let it get printed...and I'm not saying it in the silly way that Americans find obscenity in the strangest places, but just as an obvious, glaring error.  Wasn't anybody proofing these things?

SW Topps Trading Cards (series 3, 1977)!

I have a lot of things I want to post, suddenly, but we can't get too far off track before we finish our coverage of this great series...I hate it when blogs or websites make grandiose promises and never fulfill them...now where were we? Oh yes, Series 3, the famous "yellow" series, which is probably the most common, along with the "red" series we looked at last time.  

It's a more straightforward set of images, almost totally comprised of movie stills and promotional or reference shots of characters.  There are a couple of items of interest, though:

Note this--until the fifth series, the last ("Orange"), only cursory mentions were made of the Cantina scene at all, and only involved main characters.  In other words, no aliens, and even then in the last series there are only like five cards.  I went into detail on this in my book on the Cantina, but I point it out here as a matter of interest.

A rare off-camera moment for the Yellow series. 

And another one.  I imagine this as two people in really painfully uncomfortable costumes looking at each other in complete empathy.

SW Trading Cards (series 2, 1977) !

The "Red series" is the first one I remember from childhood, and I think it is because these cards were widespread and plentiful by the time the second series came out.  Also, I think they began to sell the larger multipacks of leftovers during the second and third series, which made them plentiful.  I even could work the Tusken Raider puzzle, which gave me a huge feeling of accomplishment!

This second series covers cards #67 to #132, and does have a few notable moments, which really expanded the film for fans.  Besides a few alternate-looking shots, and reference or publicity photos, fans also got to see these:

People probably wondered where THIS shot was in the movie, but if you read the Marvel comic, etc., you knew that Luke was supposed to be watching a space battle, which he later ran and told his friends about...which was also cut.

Not exactly "behind the scenes," but more like "between the takes," as Vader has no cape at all.

Topps SW Trading Cards (series 1, 1977) !

This is just about the most popular trading card series of all time.  Heck, Topps introduced most of us to what trading cards even were through this series.  I had shoeboxes of these as a kid, and finishing the set was one of my first goals when I started to really collect stuff as an adult.  In fact, my very first E-bay purchase in 1996 was a Star Wars card!

But enough reminiscing.  You would think there was an easy way to find a digital set of these cards online, but there isn't.  At least not that I can find.  Therefore, I've assembled my own over time, scouring sites, auctions, and occasionally supplying my own scans.  I've resized and cropped everything as I went along.

Included in these downloads will be wrappers, photos of what the completed puzzles looked like, as well as the full set of each series of cards, including a few card backs where available. 

The set numbers 330 cards, and had five series.  Serieses.  The first series was the "blue" one, and there are 66 cards.  By the fifth series, several behind-the-scenes photos were appearing, and I should mention that you do get the occasional error that creeps in:

Oops! Somebody's lightsabers aren't colored! (And even the comic was using the British spelling of "sabre" at the time.)

And I haven't even shared any of my fond memories of the stick of gum that came in each pack! (It was pretty bad.)

BONUS: An original order form introducing the cards!

A Field Guide to Bird Songs (H-M, 1959)

When you woke up this morning, was your first thought something like "if I could only find four sides of non-stop recordings of nearly every bird in the world, singing, squawking, and screeching away, my life would be complete"???

Well, if you are that person (and notice I use the singular term, "person"), then you are exactly in the right place.  And let me be the first to congratulate you on completing your life! You must feel so lucky.

Also, just know that I am as confused as you must be as to why I would buy this, convert it, and post it.  I  have no good answers.

Only questions...like, why is the poor puffin beheaded?? There's even strings hanging down. Eww!

This 2-record set could be the soundtrack to an Audobon Society convention of some sort, but I prefer to think of it as an audio book...only in this case, the book looks more like this:

Also, if you own a parrot or parakeet, you can burn a disc, set it to repeat, and leave for the day.  It's like Rosetta Stone for birds! Just wait for the fun to ensue!