This blog is dedicated to one man's collection(and other people collections if they are willing) to show the world what anime was like, to show the way things were before the dark times, in this futuristic year of 2000!!!!
Here is one of the panels I was grateful to do for AWA online back in December of 2020 where I focused on bad anime dubs. This takes maybe, possible, totally direct inspiration homage to the old Corn Pone Flicks BAD videos Matt Murray, Dave Merrill and a handful of other Atlanta based anime fans did to mock what was considered bad back in those times (almost 30 years geez!) I plan on putting more on this site like I said in my last post which will happen in due time, but this will just have to suffice for now. Enjoy!
Hey everyone, hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy.
To put it bluntly, I've neglected this site for over two and a half years. I missed putting out a big 10th anniversary back in February, and even more so dropped the ball on putting anything up on here past the Fred Patton tribute post back in November of 2018. The honest truth is this blog isn't that important to me right now and other interest have reared up that have taken my attention.
So what have I been doing since that last post? Well going to conventions, doing panels for conventions, getting back into making AMV's again for convention competitions and doing very well by winning a few awards here and there in 2020. Other things in life have taken my attention towards them and well see how they go. Still doing podcasting but that's been something to put out once every other month at this point. I still enjoy doing them and see no reason to stop.
The thing with this blog is the fact that the time it takes me to invest in scanning images and doing my best to make them readable for the viewer I could be doing other things with my time, which is exactly what I've been doing lol. Granted, I got a few things that I can post up on here that I need to get around too. With COVID destroying going to in-person conventions, online conventions seemed to fill that void temporarily, which ive been fortunate to submit some content for these cons as video panels. I will be posting up what I've done on here in due time, I think its a pretty good idea.
I've also got planned to post up some anime ost's on vinyl and cassette. I've been collecting them for a while now between conventions and online sales and I'd like to share that with you guys. It's an easy thing to post up that I think most of the stuff you can't seem to find online or not as of yet. Once I get a few more things ripped i'll put them all together on a zip file and you guys can have at it!
I guess if I wanted this blog to really die then you wouldn't be seeing this post. As much as I'd like to post up more anime magazine and gaming magazine scans, its time and will I don't have on that for right now. I have a couple of interesting stuff ive picked up since the last post that hopefully i'll get around to doing. If this is still getting traffic after a decade then I guess I'm doing good regardless of having this site still stay up here for as long as possible.
Anyways thanks for reading this post and hope to get you guys some content shortly.
To a lot of people in fandom out there, November 12th, 2018 will be a day of remembrance for the biggest icon of nerd fandom, Stan Lee. But here at the Anime of Yesteryear, we will pay tribute to another great member of fandom who passed away the same day, notably in anime fandom. Fred Patten (or as i'd like to call Fred "Old Man" Patten) is one of the most influential figures of anime fandom, who has spent almost 50 years studying and writing about anime and has published numerous articles about anime over the years. A figure in one of the earliest anime publishing companies in the states, Streamline Pictures, where he had a part in getting known name anime in the states that has become almost mainstream to this day. Patten has written dozens of of material on anime, which his Watching Anime, Reading Manga: 25 Years of Essays and Reviews is an excellent source of information regarding how fandom for anime got started. Patten is also a very known figure in furry fandom throughout his years, which both anime and furry fandom's can both equally share the grief in his passing, despite not seeing eye to eye on anything else in each of their fandom's. So a heartfelt salute to you Fred, because Stan Lee can screw off for all I care!
Here's the real reason for this post. I've known a number of people that would like to see Fred's articles from Newtype USA to be published online, and I decided to dig out all the issues I own that Fred has written for and put them in one big zip file. Each folder will have the cover of the issue, and the scanned articles that are included in that issue. I have about 19 issues in total that has something from Fred in them, and they range on historical landmarks in anime fandom, Japanese releases, and of course his opinion on certain topics that give good backstory to what fandom was like in his time. I'm sure I have more articles written by him in Animerica issues, but those are in storage at the moment, and I only got time to go through these Newtype issues for right now. So if you want to see what he wrote for Newtype USA, have at it! That's what this blog is for!
Happy Halloween! It's been a few months since the Cowboy Bebop post, so forgive me on the delay. This was a post I've been thinking about doing for a long while, and it was time I just got whatever I owned of Giant Gorg and put it together. This is lacking the DVD collection from Discotek Media, and the reason for that is I don't own that yet, but maybe I will one day. It's been years since I saw the translated fansubs of the show thanks to Skaro Hunting Society, but they dropped that when the official release came out, so they maybe floating online (I still got mine on my HD).
So let me introduce you readers on what is in this .rar file. These consist of scans from a small art book that was included in the last laserdisc of the Giant Gorg series, an issue of Dual Magazine that features Giant Gorg material (No.8 Spring 1984), an Animage booklet that contains images and a large amount of info that i'm assuming was in an issue of Animage as a bonus, and a 45 single of two of the songs in the show, along with scans of the booklet that came with the 45. Talk about a bundle!
To give a quick lowdown on my fascination with Giant Gorg went back to about when Skaro was starting to fansub the series, and its a show that the likes of Dave Merrill and other online anime reviewers would talk about often that seemed to peak a little interest in the show. After a couple of episodes of seeing it online, I wanted to get my hands on whatever I could find that was Giant Gorg related. I got the laserdisc off ebay back in the fall of 2013 to start out with. After a while, I came across the poster you see above one year at Animazement from Anime Asylum booth. After some time passing, Tim Eldred Our Star Blazers fansite had a marketplace he briefly set up for a time, and he was selling the Dual Magazine, so I got that sucker off of him. Only recently, I came across the Animage booklet and the 45 single from Otaku Joes. The major grand piece i'd love to own but "can never afford nor find room for" would be that big Giant Gorg Soul of Chogokin figure that is roughly over $500 bucks online these days, which ive seen briefly one year at an Animazement con.
I don't see my Giang Gorg collection to just stay the way it is, as long as there's some cool Gorg to be found at cons. Getting the official DVD set is on the list that I just need to bite the bullet and get, but that'll come in due time (as long as Discotek has the license). So if your a Gorg fan or wanna know more about what's out there of Gorg, then have at it with what I have on the download link. So see you next time!
Happy 20th Birthday Cowboy Bebop! It's been 20 years since Bebop first aired on TV Tokyo, and has made a huge impact on anime fandom ever since then. This post makes up for the way belated 7th anniversary post I never did in February, which my bad on that.
This time we got a real showcase of several books by Tokyopop, which were like little B-Clubs in a way in throughout 2002. I remember picking these things up from Borders bookstores (you know, when those used to exist) throughout the year. My brother had half of these collected and I had the other. Eventually going through my family storage in cleaning their garage over the past couple of years, my brother was cool enough to give me his books not too long ago, so i've kept them in a box till just now for them to be scanned for people to see. As of this post, the later volumes go for $50 on up on ebay for those who really want to own these in their collection. As far as i'm aware, these only got a first printing and were never on shelves after that.
These contain brief synopsis of each episode with screen caps to help someone narrate the reader into knowing what happens without really watching the show if they are unable too (which thanks to current technology, anybody can watch Bebop on their phones through streaming sites). They remind me of the early ANIMAG issues with episode synopsis of Zeta Gundam and Dirty Pair since the editors working on that didn't think those shows would ever be released in the west. These Bebop books are interesting since the show was airing on Adult Swim in its second run by 2002, and the show was being put out on DVD around this time if not already fully put out. So this was for true Bebop fans who wanted to see concept art, what type of songs played in the episodes, and neat small wallpapers in the books if someone wanted to cut out and hang the cast on their walls somewhere next to their big boobed anime girl wallscrolls. I'm not using the term "waifu" because no one used that term in the early 2000's, you got today's current fandom to thank for that term.
So hope you guys enjoy the .pdf's provided for everyone to check these out, and See You Space Cowboy!
So it's the start of the Christmas season of 2017, and what better way to make a post about Gundam model kits that were sold in the early 2000's to us Gundam hungry anime nerds at the time.
To give a brief lowdown on what and how Gundam was like and marketed in America roughly two decades ago, it was a slow trinkling affect that took a couple of years to gain momentum. Before Gundam Wing got Gundam noticed and marketed in early 2000 at major retail chains, it's only existence before was Kazuhisa Kondo Mobile Suit Gundam manga published by VIZ in 1999, and before that any publication of Gundam was mentioned in either ANIMAG or Animerica off and on. The first step to officially publishing Gundam came in 1990 from translator Fredrick Schoot. Schoot translated the original Gundam novel that Tomino wrote after the television series, which to him was going to be the ultimate Gundam story that never got made. Through all of these hard efforts, Gundam finally got some recognition from the popularity of Gundam Wing, and what lead to that would be a large amount of Gundam models to be sold at major retailers.
Bandai best idea to help promote these model kits would be to make it competitive where the more kits you buy and build, the greater chance to get recognized by becoming the ultimate Gundam Master or something. In this case, you earn ranks by going to the Gundam Official Website in order to register yourself and get your desired rank based on the model kits you've built. For its time, it was probably the best thing that Bandai could come up with in order to make Gunpla appealing in America. From what I can gather, you just submit your work towards your skill level for Bandai to send you a pin to reward your accomplishments in Gunpla building. These of course were promoted by the most lamest BADASS COMMERCIALS to get kids to buy these model kits, because you wanted to be cool in getting one!
What I have to show today is some of these little promos in model kits they put out. I've kept most of my booklets from my older kits as far as I know, but I think a lot of kids just threw them away and thought nothing of them. This one in particular comes from my Gelgoog Marine High Grade I got from Target (chances are it came from there) that 15 or so years later, I still have in my model kit box.
It's funny how two (and soon to be three) of these retailers are out of business since this promotion event came out. My how the times have changed.
I have a few of these toys and model kits scattered around in boxes in my storage closet, which based on how much the figures go for new its best to hold onto them while you can. I also don't remember the Wing Zero Custom wings looking kinda reddish when I watched Endless Watlz so many years ago, but I guess when I do a rewatch of it, it should come back to me. Yes, you had the MS War card set, which I've got a few sets of those in a box with no one to play them with. My biggest regret is not getting that Zeon battleship set, which I saw that sucker complete at AWA 2017 for a whopping $100+!! Makes me wish I could've got all these figures from the discount bin of the already fading KB Toys at the time. Well, you live and learn I guess.
Although this is a small post it's at least something. To sum up life events since my last post, I'm going to be done with college in a couple of weeks in getting my BS in Communication, I ended my engagement to my fiancee for reasons, and I've become more involved in a local Gundam club in South Carolina (which helped in the break up). I plan on doing a magazine scan by the new year while on Christmas break and figuring out job opportunities. So have a Merry Christmas to all the viewers of this site!!
It's been like what, March since I uploaded something on this site? Yea that sounds about right. Things have been going on and I had a little time to upload another issue from my collection, something i've had for a number of years now.
This issue of Animerica includes information about Yamato/Star Blazers from Rob Fenelon, who is still around and is still a huge Yamato fan to date last I heard. This is another issue signed by Trish at some year at Animazement in the past couple of years, so I can't really remember when. This includes an interview with Noboru Ishiguro and talking about Yamato in great length (including info on Yamato that didn't make it to television, like naked Nova). Also included are some reviews of Gundam Wing when it was first airing on television in Japan, an official ballot to enter what you think the best anime is for 1995 for the Tezuka Awards, some fan art, the winner of the Fatal Fury "Make my Video" contest story, cool ads and much more. I'll try and get another issue out before the end of the year, as long as school and work don't get in the way too much. So that's all for now so enjoy, im off to enjoy the rest of the Toonami block on Saturday nights, later.
