1982 – Hey, you… Kung-Fu Genre. Yeah you, the dominant force in martial arts exploitation in the 70’s. Y’know that flesh wound you got last year from that Golan-Globus ninja flick? Yeah, the one next the scar you got in … Continued
I’m of two minds about the classic Kaiketsu Lion Maru tokusatsu series. I basically love everything about it… except for the heroes. The character designs of the lead and his rival Tiger Joe sort of creep me out. Tiger I … Continued
This one is probably late 80’s, but you still see generic wind-up and battery-op toys like this, crudely shinobi-fied, at Southern California swap meets, Florida flea markets, dirt mall dealers and curbside vendors in NYC all the time.
I can’t even deal with how amazing these hand-crafted custom weapons are from Japan’s Jutte Master! This weaponsmith is affiliated with the Musashi Clan ninja re-enactment/performance group in Japan. Their activities range from serious martial arts study to festival performances … Continued
Damned if this isn’t the greatest drawing of a monster horny toad EVER! This is just one ‘plate’ from a 19th century scroll of yokai and human oddities featured over at the superb Pink Tentacle blog.
Check out this impressively thorough archive of martial arts magazine covers and topics going back 50 years: Vintage Martial Arts Magazines When the titles and decades are laid out like this, you can really see the trends and transitions of … Continued
Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know about the Godfrey Ho/Jeseph Lai/IFD/Richard Harrison category of ‘cut together’ or ‘mash-up’ ninja films can be found at Jesus Manuel‘s bi-lingual blog The Golden Ninja Warrior Chronicles. Jesus is a … Continued