Toy Story: King Brachion! [500th Video Special!]

Check out the video here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3kZROq64J0

Welcome to the fourth installment of my ongoing series where I tell the interesting stories behind some of the toys in my collection. 99.9% of the stuff I own is acquired through a basic transaction...but every once in awhile either something strange happens or I make an amazing score. Today's story falls under both, I'd say...

I've been in the market for another King Brachion for quite some time now. Since the 90s I have owned a King Brachion (loose, not working, worse for wear) and Titanus (loose-ish--box w/out styrofoam, working) as well as a Legacy Titanus (ebay bound, for sure). Neither one of those felt right for a video. I'd definitely want one as complete as possible to get the job done right. So with my 500th video on the horizon, I set out to get a worthy specimen for to mark the occasion.

If I may, I would like to backtrack a little bit on why I felt the need to at least try to make King Brachion my 500th video. My 100th, 200th, 300th, and 400th videos were all Zyuranger specials. It actually started further back than that, though. For my one year anniversary I reviewed an unopened Dragon Buckler. There was no reason other than it being one of the last Sentai Changers I had left to review and that it's very, very shiny. Later that year I did my very first Sentai Mecha video, Daizyujin, which coincidentally fell right into the 100th video slot (it was so much of a non-occasion that I later did a Part 2 with little fanfare).

Coincidence would strike again as I landed an incredibly clean Dragon Caeser just in time to not only be my 200th video, but to close out 2010. By the time my fifth anniversary had come around, I was pretty self-aware of what was going on. I dug deep into my collection and made a video of the screen-used prop Dragon Buckler (and Ranger Stick) that I own. I was able to not only bring another piece of Zyuranger forward, but I got to revisit my first anniversary video at the same time. Maybe my 300th video was a little underwhelming, but it definitely fit in. For that, I looked at Super Robot Chogokin Daizyujin. My 400th video landed at the end of 2014. I had been reviewing the Zyuranger SHFiguarts for the entire year leading up to that but never managed to put them all together for a video. I especially dig the Howling Cannon bit...that was a ton of fun to shoot and edit. Last year I made a video on the odd, but cool Nendora (which had a story of it's own) for my eighth anniversary and this year I reviewed the SDCC2014 Black Ranger SHFiguart.

As you can see, the history runs deep. It started as a random thing and kinda snowballed into a running joke. It's a good thing Zyuranger has some really neat toys.

I typically take January off from work every year, which gives me a great deal of time to not only get my life on track, but plan out the year ahead of me. I knew that my 500th video was going to be here before I knew it (back then I noticed it would fall in September, but thanks to weeks where I upload multiple videos it has moved up to August). I began my search for a solid King Brachion. Almost immediately I found a suitable one up for sale. Very clean, complete, and at a reasonable starting price. Toward the end bidding got kinda out of control and the thing went for over ¥70,000. Mind you, this was JUST King Brachion...no Daizyujin or Dragon Caesar included. I was stunned. When the hell did this toy get THAT expensive? Needless to say I kinda went "meh" and decided that another special Zyuranger toy I have would take the spot for #500. That was pretty much the end of the story...until two weeks ago...

I went to check out what was good for sale and found the usual slog of Ranger Keys and useless gimmick toys that clog up the internet. On a lark I decided to check out prices for King Brachion and found a very good one for a very reasonable sum for sale by a BOOK OFF branch. At first I kinda stuck with my "meh", but after really thinking about it for a day I decided to go for it. After some miscommunication and general slowness on their end, I managed to miraculously pull off the deal (the toy was also for sale in their store and on YJ Auctions...which someone actually won...whoops). The long wait for them to ship it began.

By now I was slowly changing my mind on the previous videos I made for #500 and #501. Maybe I would have King Brachion on time to make a video? Should I skip a week? Maybe re-upload some deleted videos? I was kinda stressin' the whole situation. This is my final year, I don't want to miss a week. I would rather save the re-uploads for later, too.

I am writing this article on the 13th of August in the afternoon. King Brachion arrived at my house on the afternoon of the 11th and I did the entire photo shoot over five very, very hot hours in the sun on the 12th. Then I got all of the editing (including the painful music selection--Zyuranger is a tough series for music) done by this afternoon. Way to get it done under the wire...

So...I made it! A goal I planned at the beginning of the year actually worked out after I abandoned it pretty early on. The video turned out great in my opinion, and I even have enough left over for a Part two, which is coming up next. Despite the fast turnaround, I did spend much longer than I usually do on the photo shoot, so I did end up with some quality photos. I can only spot one teeny mistake. Did you catch it? It's so small that I didn't warrant a re-shoot of the particular photo.

With that I finally have a worthy King Brachion and my 500th video down in the history books.

Thank you so much for reading and watching all of my videos to this point. I think I can FINALLY put the Zyuranger inside joke to rest as King Brachion it the ultimate punchline!

-CC

Previous: CD Collection Megaranger & Gingaman 8cm CDs

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