The issue the every toy collector wrestles with is not how to get started, nor when to stop (easy: when the bank account is empty / spouse threatens divorce / etc) but what to collect; where to draw the boundries? what will slake your toy lust? what is your Holy Grail? Personally I’ve tried to draw a few rough lines in the sand as to give some guidance to what I buy. Thanks in part to Michael Lau’s early monochrome editions of of some of the six inch gadrner figs, I some how got on to a tack of focussing on black & white toys. (Except for Kubricks but thats a seperate sickness.) Actually it works out pretty well because a shelves ful of all black and white toys look pretty dope.So here are a few recent manifestations of my monochromatic madness. First are the black & white versions of Futura’s Nosferatu. these are dop dope figures on a nice scale (note pointman kubrick for reference). Picked these up from Toy Tokyo.mail order.

Second up is this strange little figure I picked up at the Toy Festival last weekend. Originally boxed for use in UFO catcher machines, I assume the character is Hide the ex-singer of X Japan who accidently killed himself by autoerotic asphyxiation. There was a set of 3 colorways which they were trying to sell for 1000yen. I only wanted the black & white one (of course). The sales guy at first gave me a price of 1000 yen implying that even if I broke the set it would cost me the same price. He quickly went down to 500 yen and then asked me ‘How Many?’ I wanted. Obviously not a hot seller but I like the urban-esque look of the figure. Not to mention that he a has a tight choker necklace with a little skull on it and his T-shirt reads ‘Adios’. Creepy eh?