Toy collecting books and guides: what ya got?

[cjefferys]

Along with buying toys, I also really enjoy reading about toys and looking at pretty pictures of toys. So I'm always on the lookout for cool books on the subject and was hoping to get some ideas based on what books some of you guys may have. I'll also share what ones I have in case anyone else is curious about toy books as well:



Of course, I got the three main Mego books by Ben, John Bonavita and even Mr. Crouch (for completeness sake). Also:

-Batman Collected: Chip Kidd's great book on Batman collectibles. Not strictly toys only, but it does have great pics on a lot of rare Batman toys included

-Star Wars Database Vol 1 -amazing book from Japan covering almost all the vintage Star Wars toys. Sadly the text is almost entirely Japanese, but it's filled with big, color photos throughout

-Collecting Monsters of Film and TV; Collecting Japanese Movie Monsters -the prices in these books by Dana Cain are not really valid these days (but that's the case with most price guides) but these are still filled with great pics and info

-Unauthorized Guide to Godzilla Collectibles -Sean Linkenback's book is likewise not very accuate as a price guide these days but is the most comprehensive book out there on the subject (in English anyway). Tons of great pics and very informative

-Tomart's Action Figure Collectibles -man, I remember when I first bought this book back in 1991. I think I hardly put it down for the first couple weeks, I just constantly pored through that book. Kind of quaintly out of date now, but it was a big deal at the time

-I'm not sure of the exact translation of the title, but the book in the bottom left is a Japanese book that covers tons of Godzilla, Ultraman and Kamen Rider toys. Mostly vinyls and model kits, but some other stuff too. Only in Japanese of course, but tons of pics

-next to that is "Gashapon HG Series Complete Guide"-covering all the sets of little vending machine figures that Bandai produced from 1994-99 (Godzilla, Ultraman, Kamen Rider and tons more anime and sentai stuff). Very detailed.

-on top of that is "Super #1 Robot" -great English language book covering Japanese robot toys from 1972-82. Mostly pictures, but what great photos they are!

-finally two books in the "Kazunori Saito Collection". These are volumes 1 and 3, covering Chogokin diecast robots and Jumbo Machinders respectively. (volume two covers Popinika, basically the Japanese equivalent of character based Corgi/Matchbox vehicles). These books have fantastic full page photographs of the subject matter (volume three has photos of every single Jumbo Popy made except Garada K7) but the books are just too small. These babies should be full sized, hardcover coffee table books. And of course the minimal text in the backs of the books are Japanese only. But still, better than nothing.

So what else should I get?

[toys2cool]

I only buy the toy review magz but I do have some books for vintage dolls in case I find one

[generic]

I've got those three Mego books plus the other Mego book and an earlier edition of the Bonavita book.

[rche]

Kellerman book for vintage Star Wars is cool.
Hoping to get ahold of the new Captain Action book by the end of this year.

The Tomarts thing is great. I can still pour over that sucker for hours.

[cjefferys]

I'd like to get the Kellerman book, but that thing is out of print and used copies have a hefty price tag. I'm planning on picking up the new edition of the CA book too.

[Sowth]

I collect toy & pop culture collector guides and reference books as much as I do toys, it's rare that a week goes by without something new being added to the library :-) About 200 books last time I counted, I orignally had a nice little library of around 50 that were all lost in a fire in 1997, that spurred me on to get back all of those and add to it.

Hard to say what I refer to most, but Hake's Guide to Character Toys is up there. Benjamin's WGT is obviously the first stop when checking out eBay MEGO mysteries, it's amazing how much technical knowledge is in that thing. I have one for thumbing and a signed/numbered copy stashed away :-)

Chris I never picked up that Star Wars Database one, is that any good? I've got a copy of John K's Star Wars that does the job very well.

As for recommendations it depends what you're interested in, name a toy line and I'll give you my favourite

A couple of my heavy shelves...







Books picked up over the last few weeks...



Inspired by Chris's jumbo post above here are my favourite Jumbo / Chogokin / Shogun references, White cover is great for Vinyls, Blue Hyper Mook (for when a Super Mook is just not good enough!) which has everything including catalogues and advertising but not a word of English, and the Green one is a ripper for Chogokins.



That little Saito blue cover gets around doesn't it? (Bottom left), The 3rd Edition Playmobil Collector by my mate Axel which features a vintage Aussie section with your author's items, and finaly Super #1 Robot.

Cheers!

Will

PS - How about we start a Mego Museum Book Club and review a different collector's guide each week? Old or new releases, any toy related publication. Link to it to the Amazon selling page using the MM banner link and it might make us a few dollars too!

[palitoy]

I collect these too, have a lot of the ones pictured and a few not. They're so fun to breeze through on Sunday morning coffee time. Wish I had bought that Kellerman book but I worried it would make go "full blown" SW.

[cjefferys]

Wow, very nice book collection, Will. Looks like lots of interesting reading there.

Chris I never picked up that Star Wars Database one, is that any good?

As a pictorial guide, it's fantastic. The book seems to obsess on detail (the way only Japanese otaku can) and it's very comprehensive with big clear colour photos on every page. I just wish my Japanese reading skills were up to snuff. The best I can do is struggle through the hirigana and katakana characters to try and at least get a half arsed partial translation (which I do at the blindingly fast rate of roughly 5-10 minutes per paragraph). The later volumes cover the newer SW toys, so if you are just interested in vintage, Volume one is all you need.

Inspired by Chris's jumbo post above here are my favourite Jumbo / Chogokin / Shogun references, White cover is great for Vinyls, Blue Hyper Mook (for when a Super Mook is just not good enough!) which has everything including catalogues and advertising but not a word of English, and the Green one is a ripper for Chogokins.

That white covered sofubi book looks great, I'll have to keep an eye out for it. I've also been meaning to pick up that Chogokin book (the one with the green cover) for some time now.

That little Saito blue cover gets around doesn't it?

I love that little book.

PS - How about we start a Mego Museum Book Club and review a different collector's guide each week? Old or new releases, any toy related publication. Link to it to the Amazon selling page using the MM banner link and it might make us a few dollars too!

That sounds like a really cool idea.