Customer Reviews

Robots: Spaceships and Other Tin Toys

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Kitahara's world famous tin toy collection has been photographed many times, and featured in very small paperbacks and large coffee table spreads. This is probably the happy medium; a very inexpensive, large (nearly 350 pages) and visually inviting photoessay that lets the toys speak for themselves.

As many books as there are on tin toy robots, they nearly all feature the same collections, and so the photography and presentation become paramount. Taschen has often featured Kitahara's museum(s) but never to better effect than in this inexpensive volume. Kitahara's collection also includes non-space themed tin toys, but this book concentrates on the robots and space toys from the '50s and '60s when Japan brought unbridled creativity and unparalleled design to tin toys.

These are toys, the subject matter of a brilliant collection of the artifacts of Japanese ingenuity. Tin toys, produced by tin printing and punching machines, permit a peek into the Japan of the 1950's. Tin toys are mass produced but seem hand-crafted.

There are robots and space ships. A robot tractor and bull dozer have particular charm. There is a robot seesaw. Also there are moon scouts, astronauts, capsules, space stations, and rockets. There are gear robots.

Figures and scenarios are elaborate. Ball escalators are amusing. Skiers are pulled by a dog or turn on a sort of wheel. There is a ball kicker. A highly-wrought horse-race is presented, complete with painted spectators, seating, airplane, clubhouse, greenery. There is a Coney Island rocket ride.

Popeye figures roller-skate, ride a bike, a plane. The pipe is always present, (signifier). There is a girl with a hula hoop, and one with a sewing machine. A remarkable piece is a boy with a camera--highly realistic. Other characters created by comics artists are present, such as Mickey Mouse, Batman, and fantasy figures.

Finally, there are the cars. There is a TV crew bus and car. There is more than one Cadillac, Mercedes Benz, Lincoln, and Packard in the collection. This is magnificent.

Only a few pages of text and hundreds of color pictures! Its a great picture book full of robots of all decades, spaceships, and metal toys in general. They're all beautifully photographed and a great reference. If you love metal toys and collect then this is a book for your shelf.

This is mostly photographs, so it probably doesn't matter...but the introductory essay is in 3 languages.

A really beautiful presentation.

If you like pics of Japanese robots and other really cool vintage toys you'll love this. The photography is excellent and really brings out the best from the Kitahara collection.