Robo-Gary! ROBO-GARY!!!

SEE the fabulous step-by-step build-up of this classic Marusan model/toy!!!
READ the Japanese text (or be CONFUSED by a web-based translation)!!!
THRILL to the sight of Robo-Gary locked in battery-powered combat with Gojira and Gamera!!!



And please don’t forget to patronize our snack bar during intermission.

UPDATE: The venerable Alex Wald has checked in with a very thorough, informative skrying of the site's text- thank you, Alex!

"The translation really kicks my head--or does it kick my head's ass? The long strings of letters are occasionally intelligible: f'rinstance "NOSUTARUJIKKUHIROZU" is the toymaker "Nostalgic Heroes." "GIZAGIZAGOMURORA" believe it or not refers to the little rubber wheels; "Gizagiza" is a notched wheel like a mill and "gomurora" is "gum roller," --- "gum" being the colloquial term for any rubbery substance. And "RESUTOA" is simply "restore" meaning a restoration.

As for the "painting" section, I compared it to the Japanese and think I can come up with something less mysterious:

"Naturally it was in monochrome ( the real thing ) so not knowing the color is OK. There was a special issue of Terebi-kun with a color still and moreover in Uchusen, Mr. Ryosaku Takayama said of a newly built model "this is the way I felt it should be painted." He said the body was more like an orange (color) feeling but "that's the way it is."

Of course Terebi-kun and Uchusen are magazines your readers should be familiar with. So the deal is that Ultra Q was in B&W as we all know --"The real thing" is rendered parenthetically (hommono) which means "genuine" --- in this case the actual costume from Ultra Q. The auto-translation device rendered the name of the suit-maker "takayama, " which means "high mountain" as "alpine!" "This is the way I felt it should be painted" is a quote from Takayama. The wrap up is I believe a paraphrase and basically goes "ma --- kore wa kore de," which is "but--as for this--it's this."

I explored a little further in the original site--it's the "Karakuri Plamo Chushin," (karakuri is an ancient word for "mechanism, " plamo is "plastic model," chushin is "center," but also significant is that Chushin is a homonym for "one's true heart." So this guy--his name might be "mizuyon"--really LOVES wind up models (zenmai plamo) and the entire site is devoted to them.

As for me, I wanted to find any kaiju lurking about and was not too disappointed. There turns out to be one other kaiju-centric page I could find and that's here.

Here's the funky truth about auto-translations---they just don't have the capacity to get what's being written about! The translated header for this page is:
Mallon and monster moths Corps
--which turns out to be: GAMARON to Kaiju Gundan (Gamaron and the Monster Corps). The translation app don't know shit about model-maker Nitto Kagaku's 1970s Gamera-wannabe kaiju GAMARON so we get "monster moth Mallon," --- "moth" being "ga" in Japanese. In fact our Gamaron is a Behemoth Bufo--a frog monster--as "gama" is the frog word that indicates his lineage.

Then, still continuing in English, I came across the phrase "gimmick debauchery" which popped up in the GARAMON feature as well. Phrases like this fill me with conflict-- a battle between the desire for truth versus the preservation of a beautiful mystery; should I try for a more accurate rendering of the Japanese I run the risk of turning something sensationally weird into something merely mundane. The Japanese text shows "gimmick" written in katakana so it's clearly a loan-word. Gimmick means gimmick and that's that. The "debauchery" part turns out to be "douraku" which consists of the kanji for "street" and "pleasure." Cross-referencing one of my Japanese dictionaries I found that translations for douraku do in fact include "debauchery," also "dissipation." Reading on I found "passion," "hobby," and finally "mania." "Gimmick Mania!" Alright! Makes sense to me...

Original Japanese:
静岡ホビーショーのモデラーズクラブ合同作品展に参加する『ギミック道楽 』
さんでゼンマイ怪獣を展示するので、ガマロンも是非参加を！

Translation app:
"Tokyo Game Show MODERAZUKURABU participate in a joint exhibition of debauchery, gimmick Springs to display his monster, dark moth welcome to participate!"

Alex’s version:
"(I participated in)Tokyo Game Show MODELLER'S CLUB Joint Exhibition of Goods. "Mr. Gimmick Mania" springs to display his monster, GAMARON is also welcome to join."

So now it turns out that "Gimmick Douraku" is the nome-de-plamo of the modeler! Still not sure if Mr. Gimmick Mania is the correspondent or some other attendee."