4.23.2008

Gara-project: The coloring of mystery mini-Garys

There are very few plastic incarnations of Garamon and Pygmon that I haven't seen...so when these cool brown minis popped up on eBay a few weeks back, I was very pleasantly surprised. A Hong Kong seller had two of them, and I grabbed both. They are just a whisker taller than a quarter turned on its edge...these guys are tiny, but wonderfully detailed.
They come uncut, fresh outta the mold (well, 1985 fresh...unless, perhaps, these were recently repopped by someone in HK who got a hold of the mold...entirely possible), with hands attached to a sprue that juts off the leg:

My plan for these guys is to clean 'em up (cut and trim the arms, and deal with the fair amount of seam flash through trimming and sanding), ship 'em off to a certain (most excellent) painter of customs who has kindly agreed to give them a nice, even "primer" coat of V-Color white, then paint 'em up. Actually, I'll probably use little paint- most of their coloring will come from finely ground chalk pastels, applied with a soft drybrush. Then they'll be sealed, and I'll add some washes of acrylic to deepen the recessed areas.
Here's another pic, with the already-X-acto'd-and-sanded twin bro:

If anyone has historical info on this piece, I'd love to hear it!
Stay tuned!

12 comments:

vinylparadise said...

OH... nice
Finally a garamon blog in english!!
I am expecting to see many of your great collection including xplus, ustoys... m1... etc

Anonymous said...

awesome blog ! look forward to seeing Garamon , I enjoy the pictures your taking ! I'd like to see an explaination of Ultra Q version versus Ultraman versions...

Nerdstrom. said...

Thanks for stopping by, guys!

Mark, I do want to do a post here on the difference between Garamon and Pigmon, but I'm not sure what form it will take...I'm still waiting to hear back regarding publication of an article I wrote which goes into some depth on that very subject...hopefully soon!

Paulkaiju said...

I have that one painted.

It's by Bandai! 90's ish

Killer Blog! Yay!

Start a Garamon community on Flickr!

Anonymous said...

Hi Sir,
I am Yoshiki and a big happy man, loving your blog of Garamon! I have created this song for celebration in your new blog!

GA GA GA....
GA GA GA ga-GARAMON!

Put Put Put....
Put Put Your helmet on!

Paint Paint Paint...
The toys and the colors now

GA GA GA...
Sing now for GARAMON!!!!!!!!

Nerdstrom. said...

Hey, thanks, Yoshiki!
Very, very moving.
I always sing for Garamon!

Nerdstrom. said...

BAH!
Yoshiki is indeed the guitarist of my old band, Deep Soda!
I suspected as much!
He's incorrigible...

aleX wald said...

At last! I thought I was the only one collecting every scrap of Gara-imagery!

Nerdstrom. said...

Hey ultralex!

Ha- yeah, I think you and I have crossed paths in Gara-commerce before- I'm pretty sure that we have both sold each other gara-toys over the years, and we have definitely bid on some of the same stuff, too!

I'm so glad you checked in; if you have anything at all that you think may be post-worthy here, send it on over, by all means! I really look forward to this being a place where Gara-fans from all over can share their interesting stuff.

Oh, and I just checked out your blog- you're the colorist for Shaolin Cowboy!! Hot damn, I know your work! Good stuff, man, good stuff. Congrats on the Eisner nom- truly well-deserved!

aleX wald said...

Thanks for the congrats. We've crossed paths before? Hmmm...I guessed as much...I have pics I'd be happy to share with you...contact me here:

astromonster(at)sbcglobal.net

I like Paul Kaiju's idea of a Garamon community!

Anonymous said...

I had that one!
Paulkaiju is correct, though if memory serves me right, I got mine in the late 80's. The one I had was cast in a dark green rubber.
I used to get alot of kaiju gashopon from the Yaohan plaza in Fort Lee( more recently known as Mitsuwa )when the supermarket's candy section carried a jaw-dropping variety of Ultraman related merch.
Besides the Garamon, I had a Gyeron and a Neronga from that specific line, and would be interested to know what other figures were included.
I salute you for creating an excellent blog on one of my favorite monsters!

Nerdstrom. said...

Thanks for the compliment, komoda (wouldn't happen to be Paul, would it?), and welcome!

Ah, Ft.Lee, former bastion of Garden State kaijudom!