Temple of the Blue Dragon has a ton of video game concept art, martial arts ephemera and high-kicking comic-book heroes: There’s always something good, genre-related or otherwise, at Tiger Roll: The Shinobi-Ya online store in Japan is now selling internationally … Continued
I roll my eyes as much as the rest of you when it comes to The Last Samurai, and the ninja scene is just as cheesy and unconcerned with history as the rest of the movie. However, when I had a … Continued
Top Flite crafted this 48″ plastic kite during the 80s craze, but you can actually still buy vintage stock through an Indiana-based website here! And at only two for $10, you can afford to be like me and wrap one … Continued
Made a trip out recently to a mainstay of martial retail in SoCal, Valley Martial Arts. They’ve always got something weird and exotic, with plenty of non-catalog-familiar merch. Plus you have a decent chance of running into a famous practitioner, … Continued
Posts might be a bit lean here right now compared to other periods of VN’s history, but for the best of reasons. I have migrated my original publishing venture – From Parts Unknown – to a brand new (and visually … Continued
This mid 90s, 8-inch plush rendition of Kage-Maru from Sega’s Virtua Fighter video game was likely a “UFO prize” (aka kids’ allowance bait in one of those coin-devouring claw machines). This is a character that when first introduced was a … Continued
Dear Cute Ninja Girl in the Honda Civic ad, Your adorable little action-oriented commercial has been around for what, SIX WEEKS or more now? I’ve been glued to my TV, watching for your Akakage-inspired red mask, contemporary urban take on … Continued
Despite the profusion of mail order ads and supply shops, the 1980s was actually a somewhat oppressed decade when it came to martial arts collectibles. And when you look at an ad like this, it’s kind of easy to see … Continued
A reader sent me some anime movie poster scans, for which I was grateful, but one of them just struck a nerve – a wrong nerve – and I have to vent. Some day job background first – I pay … Continued
This amazingness is on eBay right now: Ghana, West Africa – 1980s. Quasi-legal ‘mobile cinemas’ showed exploitation films on VHS around third-world villages, promoted by off-model movie posters painted by local artists. Luckily for the rest of the world, these … Continued