[Grumble Toy] Custom Manmorah

Today I have something shameful to admit: I have been remiss in my collecting duties. Long a fan of the original character offerings of Grumble Toy, I have not purchased a Manmorah toy until quite recently despite its availability for nearly 2 years.

What is a Manmorah? In the words of creator, Chris (of Grumble Toy), Manmorah answers the question of, “What if my pet lizard Baxter was a woolly mammoth?” Well Chris, I suspect you’d need a bigger tank. Thankfully, artist (and co-creator) Ainsley came up with a better response, and the resulting toy was sculpted and produced by Amapro [アマプロ] of Japan. At roughly 9 inches in length and 5 inches at its highest point, Manmorah is Grumble Toy’s largest toy to date. As an interesting feature, Manmorah can be posed both on all fours or rearing up on its hind legs. This may be a nod to vintage vinyls that were sculpted in a standing pose, even where the original character typically appeared on all fours. Manmorah was first cast in milky white vinyl, the first version of which was painted by Grumble Toy and sold via their online store in October 2009. Since then, Manmorah has been produced in both clear pink and black vinyl, and made available by Grumble Toy primarily as an exclusive item at art and toy shows. Amapro has also offered several Japan-exclusive versions of Manmorah on milky white and clear pink vinyl at various toy shows.

I was lucky enough to find this dazzling version of Manmorah on sale at a store in Japan. It is a one-off custom painted by Chris as a display piece for a comic convention in Winnipeg (the base is milky white vinyl). A collector in Japan purchased the custom, but it later came up for sale again when said collector sold off a large part of their collection. Having now landed in this collection, I can tell you that it is here to stay. While Wormrah and Chou-cho tend to garner the most attention from soft vinyl fans, Manmorah is an overlooked gem in the Grumble Toy stable. Beefy and fun, I highly recommend it for standard-size vinyl enthusiasts. Wouldn’t you like to bring one home today?

[Amapro] New Wave Vinyl Begins.

Way, way before new wave J-vinyl was given its own showcase in Mandarake, there was a quirky toy company called Amapro [アマプロ] and its original tokusatsu hero, Armor Jack [アーマージャック]. This hero's debut came in a 1996 2 minute 40 second promotional film, in which Armor Jack (imagine a blend of Godman and Megaloman) is pitted against (and kills) two monsters. Although there was concern over the viability of the Armor Jack concept, Core Magazine picked up on the two-sworded hero and sponsored production of VCD episodes. From 1997 through 2001, 13 episodes were released in total.



Showing perhaps incredible foresight, Amapro released a set of bagged vinyl figures in connection with the short movies. Armor Jack and his opponents, Rarigonika [ラリゴニカ] and Naruton [凶悪怪獣ナルトン], were featured in the lineup. Each came bagged with a cardboard backing and attached bromide (4 types in total). A Medicom RAH-style Armor Jack toy would eventually be released as well. I would guess that these first figures were released in the late 90s or early 2000s at latest- probably making them contemporaries of the legendary Fink Shit fight figure. Unfortunately, they have become quite difficult to find, and it was only through a stroke of luck that I found these for sale.

This video, found on Youtube from user 3bainoakaihito, is probably some or all of the original 2' 40" footage from Armor Jack's debut. Totsugeki! Armor Jack!

[Review] Vinyl Aid

I am normally not prone to heating and disassembling expensive vinyl toys, but a recent purchase arrived in a bit of an odd condition. Upon being unpacked, I was a little disappointed to find that this Dengu toy from Amapro had a warped leg, which kept it from standing level. In hindsight, this may have been the reason that it was sold in the first place, because it looked more like production deformation, rather than shipping damage.

So, how to fix it?

To be honest, I have never worked with vinyl in the past, although I have done some work with soft PVC plastic toys. I do know that heat will soften vinyl, while cold will re-set the vinyl. So first, I put a large pot of water on the stove at low heat, and filled a pan with tap water and ice cubes. Once the water reached around 90 degrees or so, I popped the toy in a Ziploc bag and dunked it in the water for around a minute. The vinyl is pretty soft and malleable, but not enough so to create a significant risk of unintentional reshaping. I pull the leg out and adjust the arm, and then pop the right half of the body in the ice water bath to set the warm vinyl.


Unfortunately, I was careless and let water infiltrate the body of the toy. But fortunately, the back hatch was soft enough to slip off the main body and drain the water out. This also had a second benefit of revealing that part of the problem was the area around the leg, which had puckered due to the original damage. So I then reheated the vinyl and repeated the process, pushing out the belly and leg area before cooling the vinyl again. After letting all of the water evaporate, all that was left to do is to heat the bit of extra vinyl (by dipping it in the hot water) around the 'back hatch' piece, so that it could slip back into the main body. And then, good as new!


So what did I learn? Well, turns out, vinyl, and the airbrushed paint, is pretty hardy. Nothing was really damaged far as I can tell, and the toy emerged from its hot water and ice water baths none the worse for wear.


Amapro - Dengu (Monstock color ver.).

This Dengu is a store exclusive by Amapro that was sold earlier this year at Monstock, in celebration of the store's 1 year anniversary. There were at least two versions for sale: this normal color version, and a secret color version with gold eyes and pink spray on the back. Another unpainted clear green version was shown, but I am not sure if it was for sale. Another exclusive released at the anniversary celebration was a black 'prototype' version of Touma's new sculpt, Destodon. These have been fairly hard to find on the secondary market, because Monstock sells most toys through walk-in only. Thanks to the person that gave me a heads-up on this one.


Dengu is a patchi-kaiju toy produced by Amapro, and based on a design by Karasawa Naoki that was originally shown in Figure Ou (Figure King) magazine. Amapro's website identifies it as 'Rampaging Space Beast Dengu.' There have been quite a few versions produced of Dengu in a variety of colors, including a green GID vinyl "1 billion volt" version. This particular Dengu is pulled in bottle-green vinyl, with metallic gold spray on its back and matte pink on its eyes. Amapro has only recently begun using clear vinyl, and I believe this is only its second toy to make use of it (the first was a Kaiju-Taro exclusive, standard-size Naruton).

As one of the neo-vintage style toy makers, Amapro is somewhat the antithesis of Dream Rocket. Where Dream Rocket creates toys with clean lines, intricate detail and flawlessly executed paint, Amapro is roughly sculpted, textured and colored with a few choice passes of the airbrush. Much as with certain traditional Japanese pottery, the beauty is in imperfection.

More photos below (and larger versions available here):

RAWR.

There's no kaiju like gently-used kaiju. Unless it's a Deathquid.

Dengu still has that weird Japan-smell- not a smoky smell, but the smell that old manga develops in second-hand stores.

Aaaand, crazy super glow!

So there's a bunch of killer new stuff coming out pretty soon. Gargamel has its 2-pack of the mini-Dragamel and Killer in clear bubble-gum pink being released at Thrash-out in Nippon this month. Clear pink! My weakness. Bwana and Biskup both have additional collaborative items to be trotted out at the store. Mori of the R to the H has also announced something neat-o to be released soon, in a delicious colorway that I desire. Yes. Man, I just got done with finding those freakin' Pumkin Headz from Wonderfest...

And finally, has anyone seen that stupid commercial with that weight-lifter guy listening to Fall Out Boy on his V-cast someshitorother mobile phone? They play it like 200 times daily on the stations I watch, and I can't stand it. "IT ... GETS ...ME ..PUMPED!" Ugh. Hey buddy, see that wrench? Yeah, that's what you are.

I think I need to have a beer. It's not good to have commercials upset you.

More to come later today after I edit down some photos.

[Amapro] King Grandpas

Who is this?:

Kingranpas is a character from one of the lesser-known companies of the Japanese vinyl world, Amapro. Amapro, for reference, is the company responsible for the Christmas Narutons and sexual-harassment Wanigon. Their products are quite varied and range from the very stylized kaiju (like Denguu) to the 'realistic' kaiju.

Kingranpas, the website notes, is not King Ranpas, but Kin (gold) Glampas. He comes in both walky and sea-and-air versions. This is the legless sea-and-air version.

Forgive my ignorance of any origin- I'm certain this guy is from some obscure kaiju novel or other. I just bought it because it was cool.

Design/Sculpt:

Kingranpas really pops as a sculpt, simply because it's so different from the other kaiju out there. While a lot of the more popular figures- Cronic, SB, RxH, to name a few- rely on smooth lines, this guy is so angular, it almost looks as if he were hewn from stone or made of folded paper. The rough texture of the vinyl is also unique here, again giving it that feel of papercraft.

For anyone familiar with pre-dinosaurian creatures, Kingranpas really reminds me of the giant shrimp, Anomalocaris, no?

Materials/Color/Paint:

Kingranpas is made of a harder, light-weight vinyl. Again, it's fairly textured, which gives it an interesting look and feel.

The paintwork is not the cleanest that I've seen. There's some slop, and a blob of yellow (??) paint made its way on to his back-plates.

Price Point:

Kingranpas is on the low end of expensive designer vinyl- it should only run you about $25 as of this post. He's not very difficult to find- both KT and Mandarake have specimens available.

There is, however, a glowie version of Kingranpas that I have yet to see for sale.

Why I Like It:

The semi-sloppy paintwork aside, I think Kingranpas makes a neat addition to my collection because of his differences from some of the more popularized sculpts. The imprecise painting is actually fitting, because the character as a whole reminds me of something from a children's book. Maybe something from a Roald Dahl story or a Maurice Sendak storybook.