Tim Brisko says, “Chronicle Books is publishing a book of my photographs — a coffee table/art book focused on on vintage Japanese robots. The book spans ten years of Japanese Robotica, including both robots and characters or vehicles inspired by robots.”
Link to Super Number 1 Robot.
Reader comment:
Tetsuya McCuddin says,
If you’re curious, the robot in the center of the “Super #1 Robot” page is King Joe, from Ultra Seven (1967). It’s oddly colored (it was gold in the show), and has odd claws instead of hands.
The ones in the sample photos are, left to right:
Mazinger Z (Mazinger Z AKA Tranzor Z), Armored Valkyrie (Chou Jikuu Yousai Macross AKA Robotech 1st season), Daikengo (Uchuu Majin Daikengo), some robot (probably not from any TV series), King Ghidorah (various Gojira movies AKA various God-ZI-lla movies), another odd robot (probably from an anime), yet another robot (again, probably just a toy), and a Round Fencer (Taiyou no Kiba Dougram).
Sean Bonner says,
More info for you.. It’s actually not king Joe, it’s King Kong. And it’s not only King Kong, it’s an Ark Diecast King Kong (sold in the US as “mecha-gorilla”). Ark Diecast was a very short lived Japanese toy company that was known for their absolutely insane “mecha” toy designs including wrong colors and “creative license.” The King Kong for example has spring loaded knife nipples – it’s nuts! It’s what sets Arks apart for other toys and also what probably put them out of business. My friends Matt Alt and Robert Duban put together this ‘datafile’ on Ark back in early 2000 when they and Tim Brisko, Alen Yen and I (and a few others) were non-stop documenting old japanese robot toys on toyboxdx.com: Link.
I was never a big diecast collector but the Arks are simply breathtaking so I had to hunt them all down back then. Here’s a photo I just snapped with my treo of my collection.
Link to full size image.