Left to Right: Gachamecha, Kiyoka Ikeda Handpainted Zagoran, Rokuron, Pocket Helper, Thrashman, Mini Walking Hedoran, Crouching Zagoran, Deathra

Dozens of parents’ basements across the world—already replete with the unmistakable aroma of outgassed vinyl poison—just had their odoriferous emanations upgraded: the scent of a particularly failure-laced mouth-froth, combined with—of course—profuse swearing and gnashing of teeth has helped usher in the latest release of Gargamel Lucky Bags. Boy are they a doozy.

For those of you who don’t spend your days (and money) desperately vying, typing, talking, and hoping for the privilege to buy uber-limited, highly-priced, hand-crafted Japanese vinyl toys, the Lucky Bag has become a sort of tradition for several “leading” kaiju companies. A tradition complete with intense speculation, super high hopes, blood-curdling disappointment (for some), and genuine excitement about the chance to score some truly unique and hard-to-get pieces. And yes, by pieces I mean toys.

It’s exactly how it sounds: You pay a set price, and in return, you are delivered a blind bag stuffed with several toys, most of which are reissued blanks (unpainted versions of previously released toys) of popular (or unpopular) sculpts, but some of which are hand-painted one-offs, selected ‘holy grail’ items, or whatever else. Sort of like a pack of baseball cards. But bigger, and more expensive. Lucky Bags can go either way: the issuing company can choose to fill the bags with so much good stuff that you (the obsessive, economics-minded kaiju fanboy) start to wonder how they can afford to be so awesome; OR, they fill it with the year’s stinkers that didn’t sell and you (the entitled, judgmental prick) go online and start bitching about it. Immediately, and without the aid of a spellcheck. Natch.

Gold-flake Gachamecha

Gargamel, one of the freshest-and-cleanest kaiju shops around these days, is definitely in the former category: they brought the heat. This year’s cast of characters includes: A fullsize (painted, unpainted, or handpainted) black Zagoran, a gold-flake/clear Gachamecha (an elusive fan-favorite…set your rarity-meter to ‘Jawas on Endor’), unpainted Deathra and Walking Hedoran, gold-flake Thrashman, and a beautifully-painted crouching mini-Zagoran.

But it doesn’t stop there. They also revealed two new sculpts…both of which are amazing. Pocket-sized Helper (of Tim Biskup descent), and a totally excellent wolf-monkey-thing called Rokuron.

Rokuron, Pocket Helper

So hats off to you, Gargamel. Lucky Bag indeed. Also a special thanks to Joe for the awesome (and immediate) photos of this year’s outing. Check out his collection to see what crossing the streams of taste and money opens the door on. Fucked up. In the good way.

- Hateball