In case you're wondering about that number 5 in the title of this posting, it's actually referring to an old topic series with the first four postings released in the very old days on my previous blog: ^^
Childhood Nostalgia 1 - Vico transformer toys
Childhood Nostalgia 2 - White Tiger Megazord
Childhood Nostalgia 3 - Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs
Childhood Nostalgia 4 - Power Rangers Trading Card
It's definitely new on this blog, but I don't want to recreate a whole new series for related items, nor do I want to completely forget about it. ^^; Just to make everything simple (for myself), I'll just keep to the same topic title and add new postings to it, very much like the review series for my Gunplas. ^^
This "Childhood Nostalgia" series is all about items I collected or pretty much anything that was part of my childhood days. ^^ Those days are obviously long gone for me, but that doesn't mean I have to completely forget about that stage in my life. There are tons of responsibilities that I have to assume now, challenges to face and problems to worry about (^^;), but I don't have to go through all those forgetting the simple old days that weren't this stressful. ^^ I see nothing wrong with not severing that link to one's childhood, as long as the person doesn't refuse to "grow up". I still love robots and related model kits and collectibles as I do back in the old days, but I can separate that from my work and life as an adult. For that, I see absolutely nothing wrong with occasional "time travels" back to one's childhood days.
As C. S. Lewis put it beautifully, "When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."
The particular item to be featured in this "reboot" (XD) of my "Childhood Nostalgia" series is very much the Holy Grail of the the subject topic. ^^
A moon cake box... ^^
... storing quite a lot of things, except moon cakes. ^^
This posting will be the introduction of a number of items from the box and perhaps how I got them if I can remember the story. ^^ Figuring out how I managed to keep them in my collection for this long and maybe even the exact reason why I kept them in the first place would be pretty interesting as well. XD
Local snack wrappers featuring Dennou Keisatsu Cybercop (電脳警察サイバーコップ) and Gosei Sentai Dairanger (五星戦隊ダイレンジャー) are among the two I managed to salvage back in the old days. Until it was completely sold out, I always ate the snack and threw away the packages, as any kids would normally do I suppose, and then regretted that I forgot to keep one for the cover pictures. ^^; I remembering washing all the grease and crumbs off the interior of that Cybercop wrapper using dish washing detergent. That wasn't necessary for the Dairanger wrapper because the snack was in a separate smaller pack inside the wrapper. That's why the former is full of wrinkles but the latter is all smooth after all these years. XD
By the way, anybody still remember Cybercop and Dairanger?
A clip from "Cybercop" - the good stuff starts at 0:50 ^^
Video clip is from Youtube. Follow this link to the website if you can't see anything.
The opening of "Dairanger".
Video clip is from Youtube. Follow this link to the website if you can't see anything.
I watched a great deal of the local dubbed version of "Cybercop" which aired on local TV station back in 1993 I think. I have no idea about "Dairanger" until I discovered the difference between Power Ranger and Super Sentai. ^^ Fans of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" would recognize that the main robot used by "Dairanger", called Dairen'oh (大連王) was actually the second generation Megazord. ^^
Anyway, a special gift is included with the Dairanger snack:
Trust me, after so many years, I still have no idea what it's supposed to be. ^^; It's a long plastic package (about one meter) with multiple images of Dairanger printed on the surface. There's an opening on one end of the package, which allows you to treat it like a balloon. However, it totally lacks the elasticity of a balloon, and the risk of actually blowing it up is very higher, which was exactly what happened in the old days. XD I destroyed Dairanger more times than I could count. XD The reason why this particular plastic package of unknown purpose survived the massacre was probably due my lost in interest in it as a balloon. ^^;
A small poster from another local snack featuring a bunch of totally unrelated characters. ^^ It took me almost forever to know that the anime character shown in the top left corner of the poster is Tekkaman from "Tekkaman: The Space Knight" (宇宙の騎士テッカマン). ^^;
The opening of "Tekkaman: The Space Knight".
Video clip is from Youtube. Follow this link to the website if you can't see anything.
Another snack poster that "introduced" me to the world of Gundam is this one: ^^
Those ugly fold marks indicate how old the poster is. ^^;
The poster didn't really introduce me to Gundam since the title is no where to be found on it. ^^; It's actually a huge mix-match of collection cards from various robot shows in the 80s, including "MS Gundam Zeta" obviously. I have no problem recognizing that it's Gundam Mk. II in the middle of the picture, but when I was still very little, I would imagine it to be just another unknown Transformers character, and wondered what object it was supposed to transform into.
As a matter of fact, I think I only knew Gundam Mk. II back in 1999 when I bought the first Master Grade release of that Gundam, which happened to be my first MG kit as well. When I saw the cardboard cover showing the completed model in a plain standing form, I could recognize its face and large legs and relate them to the poster I kept in my collection all this time. ^^ Besides a slight disappointment that it can't transform (XD), I was really glad at that point to finally "meet" that robot in person - in the form of a 1/100 scale model kit that is.
I used to trace the picture using carbon paper as well, so that I could used the traced image for coloring. ^^ Some parts of the Gundam were hidden behind some "Dragon Ball" items, ^^; so I just added my own lines to complete the picture. The beam rifle's muzzle turned out to be all wrong because of that. XD
Another thing I used to do was trying to identify the robots shown in the entire picture.
It was a fun experience, but a futile effort at best. ^^; Most of the robots in the picture weren't from any of the cartoon series aired by local TV stations at that time, and without those shows, which happened to be my best (and only) source of information on mecha and robots, I couldn't recognize more than one from that poster. ^^;
Many many years later, with the Internet, I managed to track down every single one of the robots shown on the poster despite how little some of them were revealed. ^^ As it turned out, all the supposed collection card images shown in the poster are actually illustration for model kit boxes. ^^
WM Xabungle from "Combat Mecha Xabungle" (戦闘メカ ザブングル), Psyco Gundam Mk. II (I used to think the mecha shown behind it was a "Airwolf" type helicopter, until the ultimate realization that it was actually NRX-055 Baund Doc) and Dijeh.
G.Roon from "Heavy Metal L-Gaim" (重戦機エルガイム), Tropical Test Type Dom from "MSV", Johnny Ridden's Customized High Mobility Type Zaku II and D.Sserd from "L-Gaim".
Clockwise from left to right: Gundam Mk. II, Johnny Ridden's Customized Gelgoog from "MSV", Johnny Ridden's Customized High Mobility Type Zaku II, Dairugger-XV from "Armored Fleet Dairugger XV" (機甲艦隊 ダイラガーXV), Billvine from "Aura Battler Dunbine" (聖戦士ダンバイン), Palace-Athene and Zeta Gundam.
Alpha-Azieru and Guncannon II.
Promeus from "Xabungle".
The only robot I could recognize as a kid was Dairugger-XV, or Voltron Vehicle Force. ^^
The poster still gives me chuckles every time I look at it now. Gundam and some of the other Japanese mecha shows were so close to me when I was a kid, but I only get to know them in details just a couple of years ago. Some of them are from shows I haven't get the chance to watch yet, like "Heavy Metal L-Gaim", "Aura Battler Dunbine" and "Combat Mecha Xabungle". It would be very interesting to see those mecha in action and knowing that I've seen pictures of them as a little kid. ^^
Another old stuff from the treasure box: ^^
That's no Robot King, it's Victory Saber from "Transformers: Victory". XD
This is the paper box of snack bundled with a toy, which I salvaged from roadside I think. Somebody's trash is another's treasure indeed. ^^ I could recognize Victory Saber as its cartoon series was aired on TV. I couldn't recognize the other three shown on the back on the box though. The title "Zoids" was shown in its image, but I have no idea what it was about back then. ^^; Years and years after having this paper box, I could recognize the other two being "Mado King Granzort" (魔動王グランゾート) and "Beast God Liger" (獣神ライガー). ^^
A clip from "Mado King Granzort"
Video clip is from Youtube. Follow this link to the website if you can't see anything.
The opening of "Beast God Liger"
Video clip is from Youtube. Follow this link to the website if you can't see anything.
Like all the anime series mentioned before this, I never watched "Mado King Granzort" and "Beast God Liger" before as well. ^^;
More old stuff from the treasure box:
Primary school artwork: a photo frame ^^
Honestly, I think I got an "A" for it because of the nice cartoon-ish gift paper I chose for the frame's pattern. ^^
Wrapper for one of oldest KFC toys. ^^
Ironically, I lost the toy itself, but for that, I'll always have its wrapper to remind myself that I once owned the toy XD
Quite a long posting this has become. ^^; I'll continue with some of the other stuff from the box in another posting in the future. ^^
Model kit box art images shown are from Hobby Search:
* 1/144 scale WM Xabungle,
* 1/300 scale Psyco Gundam Mk. II,
* 1/144 scale Dijeh,
* 1/100 scale Tropical Test Type Dom,
* 1/60 scale Johnny Ridden's Customized High Mobility Type Zaku II,
* 1/144 scale D.Sserd,
* 1/144 scale Johnny Ridden's Customized High Mobility Type Zaku II,
* 1/300 scale Dairugger-XV,
* 1/144 scale Palace-Athene,
* 1/100 scale Zeta Gundam,
* 1/550 Alpha-Azieru,
* 1/144 scale Guncannon II,
* 1/144 scale Promeus,
Hobby Link Japan:
* 1/144 scale G.Roon,
* 1/144 scale Gundam Mk. II,
* 1/72 scale Billvine,
and Amazon Japan:
* 1/144 Johnny Ridden's Customized Gelgoog
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1 comment:
I love this post. these are stuff that mark some of my growing up years too.
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