so, there was this goofy early-80's direct to DISNEY CHANNEL and Home Video Japanese made "Children's Documentary"
about how "Toys" were made, more specifically how 70's/80's TOMY wind-up toys were made,
that my parents had rented for me as a young child, and there elements that had somehow lodged themselves in my mind
and i never forgot.

vaguely recalling even the VHS box art of that rental, -and the fact that whatever the hell it was called,
it had featured "TOYS" prominently in it's title- i had learned more about it, including it's full name,
and found copies on the BAY on VHS, BETA and, amazingly enough, DVD.

it took me a little while to get around to it, but i finally completed the collection i intended
by procuring the original BETA release.

it's a silly but interesting little movie. clearly a Japanese made production, and probably fully dubbed over
for U.S. market. it does a decent job of showing the virtuosity of engineering that went into those
silly little cheapie wind-up TOMY toys, showing them being hand-assembled from start to finish.

the film even prominently features TOMY's terrific ZOIDS toys. it don't show them being made,
but i suppose since ZOIDS have always come out of the factory as assembled plastic model kits,
i suppose watching TOMY line employees injection molding and packaging elaborate model kits
wouldn't have been half as interesting as seeing those surprisingly elaborate wind ups being hand assembled.

in any case, being just about the earliest home video rental i recall my parents ever getting me,
and, being the A/V collector/enthusiast that i am, i decided to go ahead and obtain this goofy, forgotten little DISNEY anomaly
in as many formats as i could find it available in, so long as the price was reasonable.
fortunately it was, and i now hold every format edition made, AFAIK. if it ever was released on LD,
it must be rare as can be. feel free to let me know and drive me crazy in the process.

at any rate, it's a fun little personal trip back. a real bonus is the fun little song at the end, ( "Toys go ChaChaCha" )
by 70's/80's Japanese Jazz/Pop star Akiko Yano, that is sung rather delightfully goofy
and is essentially all but outright Engrish-y. Great Stuff.

i'm pretty certain that this production was one of the formative experiences
that led to my love affair with all things Japanese. as such, i felt this was the ideal way to pay homage;

This movie is actually on my "want" list.
I saw it as a teenager and couldn't remember what the title was originally until seeing it on ebay.
I seem to remember it being a little more "Cute" than most other "making of" videos from the time. (I saw most of them on PBS, though.)

it is. it's pretty typically 70's/80's Japanese. could have just as easily been a Children's Anime in many ways, for the most part.
really, about the only way it could really be any more Japanese would be to have had a J-pop star of the day in frilly dress
interacting with the TOMY wind-up toy characters.

actually, that would have been quite the improvement indeed, at least in the opinion of a weirdo such as myself...

♪The Toys they go ChaChaCha♪

Oh man. I need to see this. I'm a huge fan of the hand made toys from Japan from the 70s and early 80s.

This also might explain why there are Tomy windups in Pixar movies...maybe.

yeah, i'm pretty sure that the wind-up glasses guy on TOY STORY is a direct cameo of the one in this special...

very interessting movie, I want to watch that too

Think I may have seen the TOYS feature years & years ago, it appears familiar but not sure - would like to view that one.

Thanks for your posts tasuke & I do like the cut of your jib, more power to you .

How are you defining "weirdo" as I think we may all fall into the weirdo bracket one way or another .

Cheers for now & only three sleeps left till Christmas.

now i just need to procure myself a halfway decent Hi-Fi Stereo BETA VCR, probably a SUPER BETA model.

the SL-HF1000D would be right up my alley; too damned bad it was a JPN only model...




the SL-HF870D was released in the U.S. AFAIK, and one of the more attractive late-80's models i've seen, to my eye anyway.
probably the one i'd ultimately end up going with, barring a good deal on a complete, well cared for SL-HF750 or HF900,
or, even better, the rare SL-HF900 clone PIONEER VX-90;

I got lucky when I found a SL-HF750 for cheaps on Craigslist. Only downside was no remote, but my WEGA remote codes for Sony VCRs controls it well enough.

I've gotten so lucky with Craigslist over the last 5 years (Runco LJR-I and II, CLD-97, CLD-D703/4, D605, Panasonic LX-900/1000--all for less than $150 each), that I don't EVER buy hardware off of Ebay anymore!

But what pisses me off about pre-recorded Beta tapes is that even if a program is 1 hour or less, 9 times out of 10, the distributor releases the tape in B-II speed, even though it could fit on an L-500 at B-I speed!!!