I just received this from Japan two weeks ago. For those who are not familiar, Gabora is a Kaiju (or weird beast) from the Original Ultraman series back in 60s. It loves to eat uranium and has the ability to fire radio-active “lazers” from its mouth. It is one of my favorite kaijus of all time because it looks so weird with its head covered with its protective shells!! This piece of over-priced vinyl made by CCP (Japan) is limited to 300pcs worldwide. This Gabora is huge compared to the Yamanaya or bandai toy of the same creature. And it is …MISB!!
If you were a Specialty Toy Dealer, you will call this item Junk. Kaiju toys (with the possible exception of the Ultra Kaiju Series produced by Bandai) just simply do not sell well in Singapore. There are just a hand-full of collectors here and sellers are better off spending their funds to bring in Transformers toys because they fly off the shelves faster. There is also a bigger base of Transformers toys addicts, some of whom are immune to insane prices of inter-galactic proportions.
There are even fewer (and I mean really few) vendors in Singapore dealing with these specialty Kaiju / Ultra toys. As such, Ultra / Kaiju Toy Collectors must evolve. After years of “happily” suffering from brutal price rises by these few vendors, I hear that many ultra collectors are finally banding together to find alternatives. Some are now forging alliances with Japanese Counterparts to by-pass local dealers who are charging insane prices (some items can cost more than double the yen price when sold in Singapore. Think of the shipping costs and the dealers’ need for a satisfying profit margin $$$).
If there’s a moral to this story, it can be summarized into 3 Letters: D.Y.I. If you think the prices are unreasonable. DO IT YOURSELF. Find out if it is indeed possible to get the items close to yen price (including shipping) by yourself. I understand a select few have actually succeeded, although I can’t confirm if this is true as I have never really bothered much about what others were doing. You must also have the time for all this extra work!
I love kaijus and no matter what others feel about their value, I am going to continue collecting them. Yes, I won’t be able to sell them for obscene amounts of money like others could with Transformers Toys. In fact, I won’t be able to sell them at all in Singapore. But who cares?? Check out other Retro Kaiju toy pictures below.
There are even fewer (and I mean really few) vendors in Singapore dealing with these specialty Kaiju / Ultra toys. As such, Ultra / Kaiju Toy Collectors must evolve. After years of “happily” suffering from brutal price rises by these few vendors, I hear that many ultra collectors are finally banding together to find alternatives. Some are now forging alliances with Japanese Counterparts to by-pass local dealers who are charging insane prices (some items can cost more than double the yen price when sold in Singapore. Think of the shipping costs and the dealers’ need for a satisfying profit margin $$$).
If there’s a moral to this story, it can be summarized into 3 Letters: D.Y.I. If you think the prices are unreasonable. DO IT YOURSELF. Find out if it is indeed possible to get the items close to yen price (including shipping) by yourself. I understand a select few have actually succeeded, although I can’t confirm if this is true as I have never really bothered much about what others were doing. You must also have the time for all this extra work!
I love kaijus and no matter what others feel about their value, I am going to continue collecting them. Yes, I won’t be able to sell them for obscene amounts of money like others could with Transformers Toys. In fact, I won’t be able to sell them at all in Singapore. But who cares?? Check out other Retro Kaiju toy pictures below.
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