ROBOTO.(Toy Tokyo, 121 Second Avenue, New York City)(Industry Overview)

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 10-FEB-03

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COPYRIGHT 2003 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

You're a collector looking at Hyper Hobby, the shiny Japanese magazine devoted to alluring vinyl toys and fantasy figures from Asia, tiny toys so desirable that you need tons of them. You probably can't read the Japanese text, but it's not necessary to, because there are so many photographs. You study the new Transformers--martial robots that convert into trucks and tanks and cars--and decide to pass. The Gundam figures, whose bodies are essentially frames for carrying science-fiction weapons? Also pass. Godzilla, pass. You examine the front-, rear-, and side-view photos of Gigantor, the Space Age Robot. Need Gigantor. Also the new Kubrick designs, the sturdy little vinyl Lego-man-like figures of...

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