Top 5 Toys - Paul Kaiju

Here's a great Top 5 List full of vintage wonders by San Diego's Paul Kaiju! Paul has been proactively involved in the indie toy scene for many years and is well known for his sublime toy designs. Check out his website here and some of his favourite pieces below..

5) Mobile Launch Platform by Multiple Toymakers

"1970. The space race right before the Moon was no longer exciting because there were no aliens. Half the toys I owned were by Multiple Toymakers. My favourite were these cheap space toys that included little Golden Astronaut figures that would get tangled in the space forest of the carpet. This set, with it's weird scales, chrome parts, and multiple colour combinations. I played with it until it crumbled into dust. I recently got this one off an online auction. Still as awesome as I remember."

4) Missile firing Zaboga by Bullmark

"I remember about 1975 and watching in horror as a childhood friend tearing his to bits in a matter of days. A very fragile toy. Funky shape, beautiful colours. Glad I found him."

3) OG MR REE

"Garage sale find early 2000 from another dimension. Long legs, weird panels, frowning face. Weird as hell. Still unidentified. Love him to bits."

2) Die Cast Kemular by Marushin

"Kemular from Ultraman. I remember at 12 years old seeing this toy at the Japan import shop i would save my money for trips to when I was behaved. However I opted for the Garuban diecast. It haunted me for years, so in the 80's I went about sending letters to all the collector toy stores from Magazine ads. Pre internet mind you, no replies. I wasn't even sure if it existed or just a mirage in my toy fever that day. Thanks to the internet I had landed two. Many of these didn't make it that far, the 'wings' on the back were extremely fragile and broke off easily. One was loose and missing missiles and disks and the tail tip.The other was in the box. I took the parts from the boxed one and resin cast duplicates for my loose one. So I can have one in the box, and one to play with. Look into those faux diamond eyes and tell me you don't hear "play with me!" whispered in your ear. Beautiful and heavy die cast beast."

1) Arctic Explorer Sled by Sears/Bandai

"From the days when toys were meant to last. I imagine a few good drops to the floor could have mangled many pretty good. Or even most had the batteries left in them to corrode the bottoms out. The catamaran type design is bizarre. I'm a fan of Russian Ekranoplans. (Plane plus boat hybrids) so naturally this was a must have. Rather big, Heavy Pressed Steel, light up and spinning propeller action. it's really quite a thing to behold. The zippy "Scout sled" jets via friction as the prop spins. The thing really jams.They are almost always missing the sled."