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1978 Popy Toys Catalog


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Oh Japan, how i love thee. The Popy Toy Corporation is terribly well known to North Americans but their influence definitely had an impact on us. In 1978, they had a tremendouse amount of cool licenses such as Gatchaman (Known to us as Battle of the Planets), Starzinger (which we called Spaceketeers) and your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, who suddenly had a cool car and giant robot.

popy toys 1978

This cover would make a great poster even today kids would hang this in their bedroom.

popy toys 1978

Popinica is (I believe) a line of smaller matchbox sized vehicles Popy sold, they took many different licenes much like Hot Wheels does today. Some of these I recognize from various productions, others not so much....

popy toys 1978

I easily recognize Spider-Mans GP7, a trio of ships from the film "Message from Space" and the trusty "Bacchus 3" from the Fugitive Alien movies.

popy toys 1978

Starzinger was known to us as "Spaceketeers" and it was part of Force Five, a strangely dubbed show that was run at 6am when I was a teenager.

popy toys 1978

Popy seemed to do an impressive job of marketing the show.

popy toys 1978

Somebody please help me who this is, it's driving me crazy...

popy toys 1978

leopardon is Spider-Man's giant mecha in Japan, I actually bought a figure of him in a Toys R Us in the late 80s, still got him!

popy toys 1978

More Spaceketeers and a robot I don't recognize, is he from Gatchaman?

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<p> <font face=I wish I liked this show more! Sadly, it didn't appeal to my jaded 14 year old sensibilities.

popy toys 1978

Popy made some killer toys based on their Spider-Man, i find myself wanting this.

popy toys 1978

I recognize the God Phoenix from a later Gatchaman (Battle of the Planets) season in the bottom left corner, next to it, not so sure. Just in case anyone was wondering I can't read Japanese!

popy toys 1978

You can't be a Japanese toy catalog without rubber monsters and what better toy line than Ultraman? This appears to be Ultraman Jack but many of the villains are from earlier incarnations. Friends who visit Japan tell me Ultra-Man is an evergreen property there, it rightfully should be.

popy toys 1978

Hey it's Daimos! I got one!

Fisher Price Adventure People Catalog from 1980

Lupin III is a popular animated series about a master thief, it's had some stateside exposure so I'm sure folks are more familiar with it than i am.

Fisher Price Adventure People Catalog from 1980

This ten inch Spider-Man figure Popy made is amazing, this appears to be a rough prototype with a hand drawn outfit. I've included some pics of the Spidey below as a bonus feature..

I love this toy, you should too.


Other Japanese Influenced Toy Lines

I buy Lincoln and tomland monster figures