About 4 years ago I posted about some 1985 Transformers menko I had picked up.  Gregory over at Nine Pockets recently asked if my checklist had grown any since he had picked up some doubles along the way and wanted to see if we could expand the checklist.  I had to go back and check since it has been a while since I browsed my collection and sure enough it looks like I have picked up a few since I last posted.  I've occasionally run across these on auction sites and I think there must be between 30-50 in the set.  Here are the ones I have along with the current checklist.  This set marked just about the end of the menko re-boom era that had restarted in the early 1970s and ended around 1985.  Before that the big menko boom happened from the 1930s to 1964 when it suddenly died off due to television.  Nostalgia kicked in and the re-boom era lasted about 12 or so years petering out in the mid 1980s when kids turned their attention to NES!





Cybertron:
- Alert

Fuji and I have a little dual-post action going on this Saturday where each of us is posting our Top-10 favorite unopened boxes we have in our collections.  Check out his here.  It was tough narrowing it down to ten, but I was able to break them down into different categories to help me decide.  From #10 to #1, here is what I came up with:

#10 (Also known as my favorite Vintage Japanese Sport Box) - 1991 BBM Baseball



#9 (Also known as my favorite Collector's Choice Box) - 2013 BBM P. League Bowling

....I've landed some Bass Fishing Lure Cards.  Yes, you've read that correctly.  Cards depicting bass fishing lures.  These aren't knock offs either....they are made by Takara which is a legitimate company.  This set is title "BassColle '97" or Bass Collection 1997.  How, you may ask, does one end up buying bass fishing lure cards?  When I browse the internet over in Japan it is a lot like Wikipedia.  For example, it is like when you start by reading about the history of Greenland, but you are soon learning about the mating habits of ostriches....all by the virtue of everything being linked.  When I stumbled upon these I knew I had to have them and landed a full sealed box and an opened box with just three of the packs missing.  Some of you know my affinity for unopened boxes so the sealed box is going to stay in my collection.  By now most of you are dying to know what these cards look like so I opened a pack from the open box with the contents show below.


These are pretty cool with a picture of the lure in a simulation of its natural environment on the front and on the back it talks about at what running depth the lure is used at as well as the name and some history of the lure and how to use it at the bottom.  Pretty neat.....

I started sleuthing around to figure out what is up with Japanese Bass Fishing Lures.  It soon became apparent that Japanese fishing tackle is hot stuff.  According to the Japan Lure Shop, "Japanese fishing tackles are high quality [and] your fishing becomes happier."  Bass Pro Shops has a nice article titled "The Japanese Bass Lure Invasion."  The gist of the article is that the Japanese kick bass when it is comes to designing and manufacturing bass lures.  After the short, but informative read, I was hooked and wanted start collecting bass lures....but several clicks later I decided that I would be poor in a matter of minutes as some of the really awesome lures get spendy really quick.



Why 1997 and why only one year...and why is company like Takara printing these cards?  We have Brad Pitt to thank for that....Say what ?!!  According to young cub reporter Steve Glain from the Wall Street Journal, the movie A River Runs Through It (a flyfishing hit), spread a huge Bass Fishing Boom around Japan in 1997, called a Bass Boom (I'm not making this stuff up) and Takara was likely there to capitalize on the boom....it really was All About the Bass in 1997 (cue music).  There is even a magazine called Basser to get your monthly fix when not out fishing.  I'm not lying...here is the cover from October 2011.  The magazine is still in print so the boom lives on.



So there you have it....through the power of clicking and the Japanese internet we are now all a little smarter on the Bass Boom immortalized by the Takara BassColle '97 set.

[Pack Give Away]

I have 7 wonderful kick-bass packs to give away.  I'll even pay for shipping and as an added bonus, I'll throw in 4 packs from the 2017 Japanese B.League Bassketball set (see what I did there?): two 1st-Half packs and two 2nd-Half packs.  Just comment below on the craziest, oddest, or funniest set you've ever purchased.  I'll chose a winner bassed on the best story and soon you will be well on your way to receiving some Japanese happiness.

Growing up in the 1980s offered a ton of new toy and electronic gaming options. I think most collectors today yearn for "the good ol days" of that entertainment bliss and I was one of the kids that caught the transformers craze and still have the original toys. Fortunately, my love for Japanese sumo cards has also afforded me the opportunity to collect other Menko Japanese, mini cards, and bromides from the 1970s and 1980s.  One of these menko sets is this 1985 Takara/NTV Transformers Menko Set. I have a feeling what I have here is only a partial set, but I couldn't pass up the artwork and nostalgia. They are printed on fairly thick cardboard and likely were distributed in boxes like most menko were.  This set is actually quite late for a menko set as the peak popularity was in the late 1970s.