Royal Museum of Science space miniatures
Kaiyodo Takara brought out three sets of Royal Museum of Science "Star Tales" painted miniatures, produced by Toshio Okada ("OTAKING").
The models produce an overview in compact model form of the history of the Russian and American space programmes during the Space Race of the 1960s, through to developments in the 1970s such as the MIR and Skylab space stations and solar systems probes, and an occasional forward-looking model depicting possible futures.
The Royal Museum of Science (?)
We are currently having trouble tracking down whether the Royal Museum of Science is a fictitious museum whose three galleries are represented by the three sets, or whether Takara co-branded the range with an existing museum.
If so, we think it might have been The National Museum of Nature and Science in Ueno Park, Tokyo, which is known to have undergone rather a large number of name changes during its history.
Toshio Okada
Toshio Okada (1958-) is a cult figures in Japan's manga community, and is associated with the championing of the Otaku movement, to the extent that he is known as "Otaking" (Otaku King).
After creating General Products to sell science-fiction-related merchandise, school dropout Okada founded anime studio Gainax, as well as Otaking Co., Ltd., and Cloud City Co., Ltd.. He is also a scriptwriter, and has lectured at the University of Tokyo and MIT.
Otaku is a subtle concept, combining elements of "geek" and "obsessive super-fan" with "other", and the concept of one's primary identity being that one belongs to a niche group, and perhaps elements of disassociation and escapism, coupled with implications of belonging to a counter-culture and perhaps being considered an outcast in normal society. While the term can be used perjoratively, some claim the word in order to "own" it (as with the word "nerd" in the West).
Related to "Otaku" is the phrase Ōkina otomodachi (adult friend), which can be seen as an assertive defence of an adult devoting their leisure time to a hobby that might otherwise be only associated with young people. This can be seen as parallelling the Western AFOL ("Adult Fan of Lego"), and adult cosplay and scifi convention communities. Of course, in the model railway community, it has always been a cliche that that most members are over retirement age, and that parents buying model railway sets are usually more interested in playing with them than their kids (becoming a parent is an excuse to buy they toys one never had oneself, and always wanted).
"Blind-box" collecting
The miniatures were supplied in packaging that identified the series, but did not identify the individual model. The buyer would buy a model "blind", and only get to find which member of a series they had bought when they opened the package (which were designed not to be easily re-sealable). Model packs were sometimes included with a heavy piece or a glass marble whose size was calculated to bring the total weight of a pack to a standard value, so that buyers could not identify which model was inside a pack by weighing it.
This popular concept of ""blind box" toys was borrowed from the bubble-gum "collectors card" phenomenon, where a collector would inevitably end up with duplicates, and would need to find other collectors (or encourage their friends to become collectors of the same ranges), in order to swap duplicated for items missing from their own collections - it is in the collectors' interest to also promote the ranges that they collect. The Japanese success of applying this model to collector-toys can be seen in the phenomena of Pokemon and Gashopon (the UK now has Gashopon shops in Camden and Brighton).
The collection
Series I: From the Earth to the Moon
- 01 – "The Sputnik Shock": Sputnik I
- 02 – "The Moon": Ranger 7 Shoots the Moon
- 03 – "In this Decade": Gemini VIII First Space Dock
- 04 – "The Red Robot": Lunokhod 1 on the Moon
- 05 – "Rocket Summer":
- 06 – "From the Earth to the Moon": Astronaut on the Moon
- 07 – "The Right Stuff": Apollo 13 Crisis
- 08 – "Science Fiction to Science Fact": Viking I on Mars
- 09 –
Series II (white box)
- 01 –
- 02 –
- 03 –
- 04 –
- 05 –
- 06 –
- 07 –
- 08 –
Series II (black box)
- 01 –
- 02 –
- 03 –
- 04 –
- 05 –
- 06 –
- 07 –
- 08 –
