A town in Japan thought it would be a good idea to make plastic kits of mythical creatures from folklore, and thus the Fukusaki Yokai Series was born. The Oni (demon) is the third kit, the first being a Kappa (a frog-turtle-human hybrid):
The second kit was a Tengu ( a flying humanoid with Pinocchio-like nose):
Okay, I admit not being fully aware why the Oni is in a sumo ring. And what is he telling us? “You must be THIS tall to wrestle me”? Or “Loser’s exit is over there”? Anyway, aside from the unusual subject matter, the kit is a conventional injection molded kit.
The assembly instructions and painting guide are to be found on the backside of the box:
And Woody points out the fine print which says the kanji on the loincloth is painted - no decal, drats:
An evening with some liquid cement, and the basic figure builds up nicely:
I haven’t done a figure in a while, so this should be fun. No scale is stated, but he looks to be about 1/20 ~ 1/24 or so.
Which is smaller than the kitty-kat hamburger vending machine, which is 1/12:
It would have been hillarious to have the Oni pointing to the machine, while the Tengu holds a burger up for all to see, while the Kappa enjoys one on the side.
For some reason, keep thinking if you put an oversize stovepipe hat on the Kappa and give him an electric guitar, he’d look like Slash from Guns N Roses!
You see, I’ve had a dream. Where everybody built 1/48 P-51Ds and Bf-109 G-6s. All the other subjects and scales were outlawed, and the Gundam kits got pulled, shelf by shelf. And it was so…boring. I don’t want modeling to be boring. In fact, if I don’t build a weird model, my creativity will die. Starting tonite. I’m a man of my worrrrrrrrrrd.
(It amuses me to imagine that generations of our citizens who may not know the actual words to our own national anthem, may know those to a 1890s Tin Pan Alley song because of…well…a dancing, singing frog. Is this a great country, or what?)
I am endlessly fascinated by the range of odd ‘niche’ kits produced by Japanese manufacturers chiefly for regional markets. Mythological figures, noodle cups, vending machines…and this one:
I just wish they were all more readily available to the US market!
BTW, your formidable Japanese demon looks a little like Hellboy after a long, pizza-and-french-fries weekend binge! Loving every bit of this build!
Love the Oni, frankly he reminds me of some managers I’ve had- though he’s not quite mean looking enough. I want to see him in a three-piece suit with an ugly necktie.
You know now I see the Oni with an ugly tie and some '70s Japanese car with lots of rust and ragged out seats and and one of my Japanese female figures:
‘Welcome to Baka Yoshi’s Used Car Sales! This little Datsun here, only seven owners, odometer has turned over only three or four times, she starts most of the time- well I’ll make you a deal on her so good it’s got to be supernatural!!!’
…and then there are the toilet model kits. No good can come of building one of those, not even for a funny diorama.
The singing frog episode was one of my favorites. I never learned the lyrics - but I do know the national anthem: “O say can you see, by the donzerly light… O’er grandpa we washed…” [:P]
Sorry Gamera, I have been zonked out the last couple of weeks. I have the model on my desk, but haven’t sat down to work on anything. I guess the mad dash at the Nats wore me out more than I thought.
