Part Tres in our “3 Aisles tour!” (get it?…yeah that was bad)
How about a 190 Imai Orguss M.Lover kits? Yep…190!The Betty from Alien 4 always reminded me of those kits….the arms and all you see. I’m sure everyone who grew up on early 80’s Anime had a thought like that when you saw the movie (I can’t be the only crazy one here)Just a handful of these…I suspect they were from Ron’s personal collection just to round out the collection. Get some Nikicks!Approximately 70 NOS Imai 1/40 Variable Olson Specials on the rack. Keeping with Imai’s awesome Variable kit theme on the bottom rack, we roll into the Imai 1/72 Variable VF-1J. These kits really are worthy to get just because of the incredible box art from Takani. Just dig it!This one is in my top 3 of box art pics. We chased these kits on Yahoo Japan for ages, and now we have a shelf full, all NOS and not partially built or painted with parts off the runners. Mint-o!The Imai 1/72 Fixed Pose Orguss series. Don’t worry if you want all 4 versions…Victor found another 20+ of the Fliers! (after this pic was taken). Imai 1/72 Fixed mode Legioss fighters, with the awesome Suzuki box art. I’ll be honest, for the first 10 years I thought the box art was by Takani. Suzuki could really crank out the good stuff too!Sealed and ready for purchase! You cannot tell me this box art is not freaking awesome. Imai 1/72 Legioss Zeta and Eta …that the Gakken 1/48 Eta (Fixed Pose). Some Armo-Divers (Gerwalks…come on we all KNOW what it really is). And we have a couple of the Megaro Zamack Gerwalk Phantoms! These are super hard to find.I remember in the later 90s I ran across some MPC Laser Warriors in the store…these are the same Imai Megaro Zamack Gerwalk Phantom kits as above. They were available at drug and small stores (smaller than K-Mart) in So-Cal for a bit. I remember spending and afternoon and hitting a few and finding the series. They were originally release in the 85 (rough) I think…someone must have found some cases in a warehouse and re-distributed them.Imai’s 1/72 VF-1D kitTakani’s in action pose…VF-1A on the left and VF-1S on the right.Megaro Zamack line-upHow IMAI went out of business but Arii hung around I’ll never know, but it probably has to do with the complexity and upper-scale pricing of their kits. 1500 yen was a lot back then..vs 300-500 as the average for Arii. These variable Legioss and VF-1 kits were the closest thing to the much more expensive Gakken and Takatokus toys many of us could get.After the big 84 collapse, Bandai picked up the pieces from Imai and Arii, and repackaged their kits. These 1/100 variable kits are from the Arii HEWAT lineup. The VF-1S in the upper right (#5) is the Imai 1/100 Strike Battroid, repackaged. For the Bandai 1985 release they had a variety of guest box-artists. They are very well done (and released again in 1990) It got REAL dark here, so the flash had to engage on the cameraRon got in on some of the 1997 15th Anniversary releases tooAdditional 1/100 variables on the rackDon’t forget about the small-fry kits! Colorful green pink and blue side colors. Arii still made these kits up until 1997…I can’t remember seeing them after that thoughThe equivalent Imai variants. These Imai kits were my bread and butter when a kid-I could save my lunch money and pop over to Sprouse-Reitz in 1984/1985 and grab one a day….I had my priorities straight even back then!Imai Iron Type 1/72 VF-1S Super Battroid Fighter kits.It comes with its own diorama base too! This kit holds up on its own even today-I love the contrast of the chrome and the red Macross logos. This is one sharp looking kit!Iron Type continued…SDF-1 (back), Tomahawk, Regult..and 1/100 Glaugs!a LOT of Glaugs…my god. Buy in Bulk and pass them out to all your family members at Christmas or Hanukkah! Tell them they are valuable Japanese collectibles, and they should hold onto them in this sealed box condition! They will never forget the year they got Glauged!Bandai’s re-release of the Imai 1/72 Battroid and VF-1S Super Fighter (the same Iron Type as seen above, bit without the chrome and diorama base)Max and VF-1A Soldier (aka Cannon Fodder) type Super Fighters
And for our Macross based Finale, Anthony and team invited me and Xstoys over to one of the extra warehouses they have storing all the kits. They consolidated some of the smaller ones into this larger one, and then Anthony’s personal garage. I could not get 5 feet into this warehouse back in March. Victor reported he made a small path and posted some pics in the GTC threadintheMWforums(click here to see)
But on this cold rainy day, there was no path..it was just case chaos, and it was awesome.
Boom-here we go!
They storage door was rolled up and we are greeted with a Tomahawk shipping case, Then Regult shipping, then the 1/72 Glaug case, and so many others we can’t even see yet. Anthony climbed up onto the boxes and grabbed a couple random boxes so we could have an impromptu discovery session . Oh here is an entire sealed case of 1/144 Imai VF-1J 4-types…and some 1/160 Monsters..and some 1/72 Glaugs…and 150 Nichimo Defenders and SDF-1 kits, and 1/100 Regult Scouts. Remember in March the update was ‘Approx 30% of the inventory has been inventoried’…I think that is about right! I can’t wait to see what else is uncovered in the upcoming months, but the Wise Guys need you to buy some of this inventory so they can clear off the shelves you’ve see so far with all this new inventory.
If you know any local hobby shops, or sellers are conventions, or want to start up your own model kit reselling business, please reach out to Anthony and strike up a conversation! Please spread the word!!
Greetings Program! As soon as the door was opened we were greeted with an Imai shipping caseThis is the Tomahawk, with #2 from the original Macross releases (#1 was the Arii 1/100 VF-1J Battroid), talk about historical!Underneath is a another Imai case, generic, this one B-1263, which is the Megaro Zamack 1/100 Gerwalk HarrierShipping case for the Arii 1/100 Small Missile RegultVotoms 1/35 SAK BersergaMoving a box, and what is in here under this dilapidated top…Oh, just an entire case of 1/144 4-Type valks NOS mint.Ron’s on-the-fly inventory system! The HBUE’s were the Nichimos, so this was probably his big box of loose Nichimos he would use to fulfill orders.it goes on and on an one. Top right is another Nichimo box. Left is the 1/100 Metalize SpartanThe big daddy of the boxes on top here…the Arii 1/72 Glaug kit! Would have had 30 of them inside.Another random box and we come across a mint Arii 1/160 Monster, and below 9 brand new 1/72 Glaugs hidden for decadesSide shotLeaning tower of Tamiya on the left, and a case of Dorvack Rook & Buffire on top. It is a little chaotic in the back theremore randomness, sometimes you never know what is inside the boxesTCI Twentieth Century Imports case. I would love to hear their stories from the pastAnother different case full of the Imai 4-Types. I might need to just get 5 of these kits…showing its 2 levels deep (for the Archives!)Nichimo shipping caseOne side was different on these, and that is what they could containNote the inventory list is different thanAnd another variant3 levels deep, each level has 50 kitsThat is a lot of defenders and sdf-1 kits!!!Case of the missile pods
The next update will be everything ELSE in the warehouse…Votoms, Dougram, L-Gaim, Gundam, Star Trek, Yamato etc etc etc
Here is the standard contact boilerplate! See you soon for the next update.
Please visit the Wise Guys Hobbies Ebay store below.
