Karinto Kaiju part one

First named “Sticky Kaiju”

Finding toys in Japan, not even for a good price… just finding them can be a bit tricky these days. Most stuff has been totally fished out. When visiting Mandarake I often find myself happy to see anything interesting, rather than ooogling over all the vintage choices and trying to decide. There was once a time in the not too distant past when the cases were just crammed with all types of standards, finger puppets, pendants, and minis. Many at pretty decent prices. Back in 2019 or 18??? I was a vendor at one of the early Mandarake Sofubi rally, and I remember taking a break to head over to the junk section to pick up about a dozen cheapo vintage vinyls all with a warped leg or kids name permenantly scrawled on it’s back. Now even some of those kinds of figures with writing or broken horns will go to special auctions.

So…. when I was riding my bike last week to a friend’s place in Tokyo and spotted a house with a bit of old sun faded character vinyls, mixed in with piles of boxes with old dusty glass and magazines, I stopped to take a closer look. There was a an old cat curled up on an old box of electronic equiptment, and through some very dirty windows I could see rows of old mascot vinyls…. maybe an old shop? just a collection? It had a bit of a horder vibe. I took some photos and moved on, already feelign a bit invasive peeking around tooo much.

But when I showed photos of the front… my friend said. Oh we know that person. Do you want to go knock on his door? Yes. We did, but no answer. Oh well. But when we got back to my friend’s place. Oh… I have his number. I can call him. Hello, oh yes I’m home. You can come over… Stoked!

It was an old shop, but the ower was hit by an uber some years ago, and had some serious mobility issues, and just couldn’t manage the shop. Inside was wall to wall antiques and some toys, but mostly cute mascot vinyls. No prices on anything, and stuff stacked so high, there was no space to walk or get in front of any of the cases without avalanche action. So I asked about a few mascots I like. An NHK bear that I dig, and an old Q Chan … that ghosty sperm guy that some of us love so much. Prices were pretty high. Which seems like toe case with most any place with interesting things on the shelf.

I didn’t even notice this glossy wet looking King Godras right in front of me, until the owner asked what I thought of it. He asked me what it was worth. I touched it and it was totally sticky… sitting on a few layers of paper towels. Brown goo was on my fingers. Want to buy it? No not really. It’s totally sticky…. Well, what’s it worth to you? we went back and forth… until finally, We both agreed I’d pay a “sticky price” which would also include my favorite NHK bear ( I should really remember his name by now). So I bought what was maaaybe a vintage Giant size Marusan guy coated in Karinto goop, which my friends have shipped to me.

You never know what will happen if you look through some dusty windows.