Check out this cool article in WIRED Online.
SAN FRANCISCO — Brian Flynn is on a mission from the toy gods to create the ultimate collectible: a giant-size plastic mashup of Star Wars cool and retro Japanese cachet.
His creation, a 2-foot-tall wonder called the Stormtrooper Super Shogun, is based on the Jumbo Machinder toys that were sold in Japan for a decade or so starting in 1973. The vinyl head, the wheeled feet, the spring-loaded fist — all the nostalgic details that make the so-called Jumbos what Flynn, 38, calls “the ultimate collectible with the toy guys” — are lovingly baked into the DNA of the Stormtrooper Super Shogun.
“We’re trying to make it as authentic to the originals as we can,” said Flynn, pictured above in the window of his San Francisco toy store, Super7. “If we’re going to make it, we’re going to go ahead and be real, real nerdy about it.”
Flynn has been sweating the details of Super7’s Stormtrooper Super Shogun for nearly three years. Now he’s just hours from putting his $300 colossal collectible on sale. (Preorders start at noon PST Friday, with an expected release date of May 29.)
The goal was to tap into a particularly sweet spot in geek culture by creating, essentially, a perfect replica of a dream toy that never existed.
Super7 set out to manufacture the Stormtrooper Super Shogun utilizing the same technology used to create ’70s Japanese toy imports that were known as Shogun Warriors in the United States. From the beginning, the idea was to make the Stormtrooper using blow molding rather than more current technology.
It would have been 10 times easier to make the Stormtrooper Super Shogun using injection molding, Flynn said, “but then it wouldn’t be a Jumbo.”
Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com
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The guys on Skullbrain are a funny bunch and couldn't help but to poke fun at Brian's picture. Seriously fucking hilarious.
I did these three. No...we don't have anything better to do.
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