Two Unfinished Gaikings

For the uninitiated, Gaiking was a Japanese robot featured in the Shogun Warriors toy line, but not in the comic book.Probably referenced from some imported "Presto-Magix"-style rub-down transfers I got at a toy store in Wilmington, NC that I always visited when in town to see my grandfather. I used most of them on some cheap styrene plastic shoe-boxes I bought to store small toy parts (missiles, guns, etc.). Regrettably, they broke almost immediately, but I kept the cracked, useless lids for several years thereafter, purely because of the chipped, flaking images of Dangard Ace and friends still clinging to them.

ROM, Spaceknight

Based more on the comic than the actual appearance of the toy itself. I was so pleased with this colored pencil rendering that it's one of a handful of drawings that I bound together in a screw-fastened binder (originally a military operational manual) that I...er...kind of looted from a storage closet aboard the U.S.S. Yorktown on a class field trip (Please don't tell the authorities-- I'm not sure what the statute of limitations is for that sort of thing.). I'll be posting more of the stuff from that binder in the near future during Shogun Warriors Week, coming soon to this website!

Talcum-Powder Cowboy

My grandmother has a small desk that is off limits to all, crammed to the gills with papers and photos and mementos. I'm actually going to have to pack all of its content into boxes and put it in storage, as her house has fallen into disrepair with her not in residence any longer, and it's too moist and moldy for it to safely remain. Among those items are several toys of my father's that she would let me handle on occasion. One of them is a red plastic talcum powder bottle shaped like a stylized cowboy, with a white cowboy hat as a cap. While I've neglected to draw that hat, I'm pretty certain that this drawing is based on that bottle.

Walking Letters

These are (I believe) inspired by my Sesame Street Walking Letters set, of which this is the only image I could find that wasn't an eBay listing (though this will probably find something to show you). The actual toys didn't have faces, but I claim artistic license. Don't know what I was attempting to spell with that "GABO" business.

Gremlin

I once had a tiny (maybe 2" tall) figure of a gremlin... one of those oily rubber jiggler figures that they stopped making in the early '70s. He seemed to be based on the AMC Gremlin's mascot (or, at least, I made that association in my mind), and he was a pearlescent yellow color. While the feet are kind of small, I think that this is a drawing of that toy.

Death Star Droid

Drawn the same week in '79 as last Monday's entry, and unquestionably referenced from the action figure.

Mouse with Bat-Balloon

And we return from the unannounced summer vacation with... well... whatever this is. I mean, it's obvious that it's a mouse and a balloon shaped like Batman's head. But why? Good question. Are they supposed to be part of the same image, or just two drawings sharing a sheet of paper? Dunno. It seems that the mouse is reacting to the balloon (he seems pleased to see it, if startled), so I guess it all relates...but, as with so much of this stuff, the rationale is lost in the past.

Christmas List (?)

Maybe a Christmas list, or possibly just writing down stuff that I liked (I think that I already would have gotten the farm by this point). From the window after I'd developed the ability to write (sort of), but still was shaky on the whole spelling thing. I was reading very early, but my motor skills were a little slow catching up.

INSECTON!

I think that this may be in some way related to these drawings, in that it seems to be a design for a toy, and the lettering is not my own. On the other hand, it's executed in different media, and it's a different sort of figure, so maybe not.Our friend here is very much in the mold of the Micronaut Aliens, particularly Kronos, but I gave him magnetic joints, like these guys. I actually think this would make an okay toy.