(click through for variations)
Ah, Redking, foe of Ultraman and your brother and sister monsters alike. Oh, Redking: you of the wobbly head and snarky disposition. Yes, Redking – so called because of your utter lack of red coloring (at least in all the initial incarnations). Hey Redking, where you goin’ with that tower in your hand?
The irony is that, when I first became interested in Japanese monster toys (kaiju) the *last* ones I was interested in were the goofy dinosaur ones. I mean, Oboy: dinosaurs. What am I? Three years old? For the most part, this sense of disdain remains.
But somehow, you roll in this crap long enough, some of them grow on you. (hm. I might have worded that differently … )
Maybe it’s the picture of he and Ultraman, apparently hopped up on cheap wine and singing bawdy drinking songs together, that won me over but I eventually fell a little for ol’ Redking. ‘Shopped him into a picture along a picturesque waterfront, and started lusting after various vintage incarnations I would see while perusing YahooJP. I even have an instrumental composition that I’ve been playing around with since 2001 entitled “Redking”, named so in part because of this dippy dino-dork and partly because the piece is inspired by/refers to the band King Crimson. King Crimson – Redking … geddit? Hahn?
Consequently, when I discovered a more kindly-priced reissue of the giant size Redking, complete with Tokyo Tower, that I’ve been lusting after for four years or more … yoink.
Despite all these proclamations of obsessive love, I have less than 5 versions of this character in my collection and will likely keep it that way. It is just a goofy dinosaur, after all.
