Friday, June 27, 2008

Matango by M1Go (Hawaii colorway)

I previously wrote about the Matango (マタンゴ) by M1Go (M1号) here about a year ago.

I just wanted to show off a new member of the fungal family I received from a boardmember on skullbrain!

I pulled my old category scores from the previous Matango entry and applied them here... then elaborated on the Hawaii paint.

I've also added a bit about the headers for these toys, since I did not do so the first time around.

And, just for shits and giggles, pictured here is a poster from the movie!


Header //4.5 out of 5//:
No complaints here. I really like the hand drawn monsters and typeface on here. It advertises for the relatively new
company (to the older companies like Bullmark or Marusan for instance) and other products while still feeling vintagey.

I would have liked it if it were slightly larger, and if it didn't seem as generic as it does. For someone like me (a non-Japanese reader!), this header would be a little better if it highlighted the fact it was for Matango. As it is now, it seems it could be for any of the pictured mon

Sculpt //4.5 out of 5//:

Paint //4.5 out of 5//:
The Hawaii colorway was a paint style used by some Japanese companies in the 70s when they expanded their vinyl toy sales to Hawaii. The theory was that the more garish, tropical colored paint would sell better on the islands. Many toys were painted in this scheme despite their "real-life" counterparts not being anywhere close to that color.

I think this paint scheme compliments this figure well. I assume the monsters in the movie were some brown or green earthy hue, but the pinks, blues, and yellows here are playful and have that great vintage toy feel. I can see why people start collections of similarly painted figures.

I was a little disappointed to see that this toy does not have the usual high-gloss coat that so many M1Go toys seem to have. I'm not sure which toys get the gloss treatment, but I would like to have seen it here.

Coolness //4 out of 5//:

Value //4 out of 5//:

Overall //4.5 out of 5//:
Still a great toy that has great value. The Hawaii colorway is awesome on a figure like this one.



No comments: