Today's Japanese figure review is going to be another trip into obscure territory. The brand
in question? None other than Mogura House again with four special two-packs some of
you might not be aware of.
Blog #218 causes an uproar with Mogura House's Konto 55 two-pack figure sets.
"Who were Konto 55?"
Konto 55 (Skit 55) were a comedy duo in Japan who rose to fame in the late 1960's. The pairing
of Konto 55 consisted of comedians Jiro Sakagami and Kinichi Hagimoto. In Japanese, Conto 55
is written as "コント55号".
As the story goes, the name Konto 55 was inspired by the maximum number of home runs in
Japanese Baseball at the time (55 in a game).
Let's take a look at the two-packs.
The first version has both comedians in matching grey suits, white dress shirts and red ties.
A loose example of both figures. The only articulation is at each figure's shoulders.
As a deluxe figure two-pack, both figures come with a deluxe-scale acrylic display base,
four attachable acrylic foot holders and an acrylic nameplate (that reads "Konto 55" that
can also be connected to the base.
The second Konto 55 figure variant. In this photograph, you can see the Mogura House
logo in the bottom right corner.
These particular versions feature the duo with black suits, blue dress shirts, beige
pants, brown shoes and bow ties with green, black, and yellow stripes.
You may also notice Hagimoto contains a different right arm pose with a pointing
finger sculpt.
The third variant.
This time around, the duo are in matching purple suits. The dress shirts and ties are the
exact same as the beige pants variant.
The backs of each figure contain the text "(C) ASAI KIKAKU" which is a Japanese talent
agency that worked with Konto 55 and served as the licensee for these figures.
As to my knowledge, there was a fourth and final variant released.
At first I thought the photos were simply darkened. Though, that doesn't seem the case with
two loose examples.
These figures contain the same coloured dress shirts and ties as the beige and purple suit
versions. The only difference seems to be darker suits and pants.
While running a search around the web for more pictures of the supposed black suit variants,
I came across this photo from Amazon. It looks like an official prototype photo with two
unreleased figure variants of Konto 55 in greyish suits with dark ties.
The back of the packaging lists both comedians stats and a brief description each.
Closing thoughts:
No Mogura House collection is complete without every figure set the company produced.
Four figure sets to choose from, For figure sets to collect.
Other than Mitsuharu Misawa's "Secret" figure from the third wave of Mini Big Head figures
(dressed in a suit), I can't think of any other figure released by Mogura House that comes
dressed in a suit.
Comedy in Japan is a big deal and Japanese toymakers are no strangers to creating figures
of Japan's most acclaimed entertainers. Character Product, for example, released figures
based on comedians Haru Ichiban and Ide Rakkyo (who both dressed like Wrestling legend
Antonio Inoki). Fans of Egashira 2:50 can find figures made in his likeness through Character
Product or HAO Collection. There's even figures based on Koriki Choshu (a popular parody
of legend Riki Choshu).
Will you be a completionist and all four figure variants to your collection?
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