Hey AKIRA fans, check this out!!
I first saw AKIRA way back in 1990 at a local art-house movie theater. I was in junior high at the time. I really loved the movie and wanted more merchandise...toys, t-shirts, anything.
At the time there wasn't much to choose from. The English version fo the comic was coming out from Marvel comics and that was about it. I had no idea the Bandai toy existed and back then without the internet, I wouldn't have been able to get one anyway.
The company that distrubuted AKIRA in the US was called Streamline Pictures, run by (the late) Carl Macek, who also brought us Robotech. Streamline sent out a newsletter every now and then and they offered the only "official" Akira merch available at the time. The US movie poster, the English dub on VHS, and a making of on VHS.
There was also a really crappy Tetsuo statue produced by Graphitti Designs, but it was way over-priced.
And sometime around 90, or 91, they offered what was basically the ONLY figures from AKIRA that I was ever aware of....two small, non-articulated PVCs. The pictures in the newsletter were so grainy I could barely make them out. One was supposed to be Kaneda and the other Tetsuo. I think they were only like 5 or 6 bucks each, but back in 1991 when you're in Junior High? That was a fortune...I never bought them. I believe they were also offered by American Entertainment, another mail-order comic book distributor.
I never got them, I never saw them in person, and I forgot about them. Eventually, we finally got GOOD Akira figures and toys.
And then last night I found nice big clear pics of them on the internet. Man, these things are awful!!
First of all, they are both Kaneda. One is supposed to be how he looked on the movie poster, and the other is how he looked late in the manga series, although he is sporting what looks like some kind of Buck Rogers ray gun. (This was the one mis-labeled as Tetsuo)
What a crazy oddity...these were sold by Streamline and American Entertainment as OFFICIAL Akira merchandise....but they look like such terrible Mexican bootlegs it's funny!! I wonder if they really were approved by MASHroom/Kodansha.
It's cool to finally see evidence of these things over 20 years later....and yes....as weird and crappy as they are....I still want them!!!
Anyone have these in their collection?