JAPANESE
DINOSAUR
ODDITIES
Here in Japan, dinosaurs are every bit as popular as they are in the US. Unfortunately, the really cool older stuff is considered highly collectable and thus priced way out of my reach. All of the pics on this page come either from my friend Alex Wald (who was smart enough to buy them before the prices shot up) or stolen from Japanese web-pages (sorry). The cover on the left is from a picture book about monster movies. No author is listed, but the book is "supervised" by Eiji Tsuburaya, special effects man behind Godzilla and Ultraman. Most likely it was actually written by super-fan turned writer, Shoji Otomo. When you can find it the book always goes for upwards of $300. The art is by Shigeru Komatsuzaki, famous illustrator of model boxes. In fact, he may be responsible for the other two pieces on this page. The one at the left is from a kids' magazine while the other was on the box for a stegosaurus model.
