Heroic's Hunt - day 01 - Osaka, Shinsaibashi, Umeda

[edit 7 July 2012 - photos added!]

So this is day #1 in Osaka for me. Flew in last night and woke up early this morning to get going.

When I arrived I thought that Entertainment Jungle has closed shop, bankrupted, gone, but was happy to find this morning that is not the case.

I started off the day have ramen at 四天王, then proceeded to Mandarake Chaos at Shindaibashi. Not very much here I gotta admit. Did buy an art book and saw other art books that Ginrai might want. Waiting for his reply.

Lunch

Shinsaibashi - one of E's favourite places

G1 1987 Japanese exclusive Headmasters - Kirk, Rodney, Loafer, Lione, Trizor and Shuffler

[I'm actually already in Osaka on TF hunting; this post was scheduled]

Altogether now, the 1987 Japanese exclusive Headmasters!

This is about as near to a 'catalogue shot' that I can get. Obviously, I don't have a repeat of Shuffler (the guy is rare enough to get one of, to have 2 would risk me getting murdered by other collectors).

Not very much I can say about these, except, enjoy the photos!

The money shot, I guess.

Related posts:

G1 1987 Japanese exclusive Headmasters - Kirk, Rodney and Loafer

G1 1987 Japanese exclusive Headmasters - Lione, Trizor and Shuffler

G1 1987 Japanese exclusive Headmasters - Lione, Trizor and Shuffler

Previous post - G1 1987 Japanese exclusive Headmasters - Loafer, Kaku and Rodney

While the previous post focused on the humanoid trio of the 6 exclusive Headmasters, this one focuses on what to me is the more interesting trio - the heads that transform into animals!

Here is the first out of three animals...

LIONE (リオーネ Riōne) - transforms from head to lion and back.

G1 1987 Japanese exclusive Headmasters - Kirk, Rodney and Loafer

In a few days I will be in Osaka once more.

The last time I was there, I did not have the 1987 Japanese exclusive Headmaster heads, these were still eluding more. I did see a bunch of KO ones, but did not manage to nab the real deal. Almost a year on, I have acquired not just 1 set, but 2 sets of the heretofore ultra rare and hard to find Headmaster heads.

This part features the humanoid trio of the 1987 exclusive Headmasters.

The first out of three is...

KIRK / KAKU (カーク Kāku) - transforms from head to humanoid (Nebulan?)

Out of these 3, I like Kaku's colour scheme the most. Grey for G1 just goes down very well.

Vintage Japanese Transformers biscuit tin with Convoy, Megatron, Broadblast and Blitzwing box art

Admittedly, this is something kind of odd.

A little out left-field in fact.

I picked this up a few weeks ago during one of my toy hunt forays from a shop that I didn't previously buy something from.

It's a vintage biscuit tin. A vintage Transformers biscuit tin. Like I said, how quaint.

It has a square cross section, has four sides and looks rectangular. It even comes with a carry handle in case kids can't handle the biscuits.

This is the the Convoy (Optimus Prime) side of the tin. Has the words: "It is the world of the  Transformers... a world of Cybertron and Destron..." Don't make a lot of sense, but good enough I guess. Copyrighted "Takara . NTV".

This is the Megatron side. Has much the same words as the Convoy side of the tin.

1986, Series 3, Springer with metal chest (assortment 2, non-poster box)

I have always been fond of Springer since I was a kid. There's just something about his colour scheme that I really liked - the combination of light green, grey and yellow with the baby blue window. Such pastel coloured harmony.

Of course, his benign colours do mask the fact that he is one of the most fearsome Autobots out there and the leader of the Autobot army's crack commando squad - The Wreckers. Wow, such a guy. And he transforms into 3 modes too. And he carries a sword. 

Oh, his box art (below) is awesome too.

I've for some time had Springer MIB. However, since I started my quest for "assortment 1" variations like the blue eared Cyclonus, there was one version of Springer I had to get - the metal chest Springer. Just a little more common than the metal toes Sandstorm (which I also have), the metal chest Springer is also not easy to come by.

One of the difficulties in obtaining this piece is perhaps how one just cannot tell from the sale or auction photos whether the piece has a metal chest or not. The metal and plastic chest versions look 99% identical in photos.

The second difficulty was of course getting a metal chest Springer that does not have paint chipped off the metal chest. With most that I have come across, each corner of the chest inevitably has paint chips and are therefore unacceptable for my collection.

After a few months of looking, I finally found one on eBay that looked just perfect.

Here he is...

HD was away having coffee and running-a-muck...

Have not updated here in a week or two.

Contrary to the title, I have not been away having coffee or running amuck, although I wish I were!

There will be fresh new posts in a day or two, I promise.

Cheers,

~ HD