My First Furious Five

It was 1984. The Japanese toy boom is in full swing as Nippon toy companies produce a smorgasbord of toy lines month after month. The tsunami of diecast and plastic nouveau toy designs have just hit the North American west coast with small mom and pop Asian stores importing Poppy, Takatoku, Imai, and Arii toys and model kits. Factories in Taiwan and China have already started bootlegging these cool gems in their native regions. The American big box toy retail chains start taking notice of Japanese toys as the Transformers children's cartoon series hits the afternoon TV block like a megaton nuclear explosion. Takara's designs become the most sought after toyline for the holiday season as Hasbro toys makes meteoric financial rise to dominate the western toy market.

Mikado Kid's Corner - Image Courtesy of Bottle Cap N. 

For me, it all started in 1984. My first exposure to Japanese toys started with Machine Robo No. 09 Dump Robo. My mom's best friend took her children to visit Japan town center mall in San Francisco. Each child got a Machine Robo from Mikado Kid's Corner as a reward for good behavior during the trip. Thinking I would be sad to be left out, they bought me Dump Robo as a gift since I didn't get to go on their family trip. 

Mikado Kid's Corner was a legendary children's toy shop in San Francisco's Japan town. This place carried Japanese stationary, pens, Sanrio items, Tamiya model kits, and a bounty of Japanese mecha toys. Later on the store became a focal point for Japanese import videogames in the 1990's. Sadly, Mikado Kid's Corner closed in 2008 after 25+ years of business. I will always remember the friendly owner's smile.

Anyways, I remember opening the plain style Machine Robo box with the image of the truck on it. It looked like any other diecast vehicle from the outside of the box, but inside was a whole new experience. I recall standing in our living room sliding the styrofoam out of the box, removing the foam bar that secured the toy in place, and pulling out the diecast plastic toy.  I could already see this was something alien and different. As I folded the legs, arms, and head out a new level of awesome entered my life. The robot toy was simplistic and had minimal articulation but the cold diecast cab and the slick design represented by the details in the arms and the foil sticker decal blew my little prepubescent mind away. Dump Robo was awesome!

My first furious five.

Hasbro'sTransformers hit the shelves over the next few months and I was able to beg and plead for a small cast of Japanese robot gifts over the 1984 holiday season. Since the series was the hit toyline of the holiday season, these toys were extremely hard to come by although I distinctly remember an entire end cap at Toys R Us of the Rumble Ravage cassette combo pack warming the shelves that year.  Soon Windcharger, Mirage, Rumble and Ravage would join my growing legion of awesome. The card backing for Windcharger actually became the image on my birthday cake that year. This was my first furious five and the initial wave of toys that spawned an undying compulsion to collect them all.

And so it begins ... again.

Growing up in North Beach and Chinatown in San Francisco, California shaped me as an adult. I was close to my ethnic Chinese roots, raised by my paternal grandparents, but also a product of my cultural generation and time being a second generation ethnic Chinese American. One of the most influential forces in my life has always been my love for children’s toys. Not any toys, Japanese robot and super hero toys. 

Suppa Robo Imagination GOOOO!

Chinatown allowed me free access to a plethora of Japanese toys during the early 80’s. Being the first born son's only son had it's advantages. I was extremely fawned over by my grandparents who admittedly spoiled me at the time. I remember making maps of all the shops that offered cool toys at the age of eight. I knew which shops had the Popy Machine Robos, Takatoku 1/44 Destroids, and even the random stuff you could find that was totally disassociated from the consumer outlets offer them (the wedding dress shop on Stockton Street that sold Takatoku Valkyries, the jewelry shop four blocks north that sold Four Star Diaclone Bootlegs, and the newsstand on the corner of Jackson Street and Grant Ave that sold Taiwanese bootleg Macross Valkyrie figures (the ones that ended up as Convertors years later).

This is probably one of the most powerful influences in my life and has shaped my professional path as an adult. While I was a late bloomer academically, I went from Videogame Journalism, to Videogame Public Relations and eventually ended up in the Business Development in the adult collectible (toys) field. Now I'm actively involved in production, sales, distribution, and manufacturing aspects of toys. Who knew this love would turn into my career when I was eight years old.

Me, Grand Pa, Grand Ma.

In fact, I can recall very strong memories associated to particular toy pieces I had as a child. From the Voltron (ST Godaikin Go Lion) I took with me on my first airplane flight at the age of nine to the first toy (Takatoku Macross 1/55 Armor Set) I saved up my allowance to purchase (which tragically I missed out on as it was purchased by a friend the day before. A very traumatic story that taught me not to trust people so easily).

Currently, I still collect Japanese robot toys and my collection is nearing the 1000 piece mark. I collect everything from vintage Godaikin and Chogokin pieces to recently released Transformers series and third-party Transformers toys.

This blog is dedicated to these stories from my childhood and anecdotes relating to my current collection and toy purchasing habits. As my late grand pa used to repeatedly tell me in Cantonese, "All Law Lop Sop." (It's all garbage).

In reality, this is a vein attempt to distract me from my habitual rampant consumerism, ha. Enjoy.