It's something endearing seeing a 60-year-old's eyes still light up in the presence of a toy. Suhaimi Subandie, grandfather of the local punk scene, co-founder of the May The 4th SG and proprietor of Pop Culture Punch Collectibles, still speaks about toys with the same sort of reverence as a zealot.

With an impressive collection of over 3,000 toys, made between the 60s to the 90s, they offer a fascinating window into Suhaimi's past. There are the likes of Master of the Universe figurines; Kenner Star Wars action figures, still in their pristine packaging; still-sealed boxes of MASK vehicles fill a shelf in a display cabinet.

Then, there is Suhaimi's Japanese toy collection.

After the Second World War, Japan saw the embodiment of wakon yōsai, which applied Western learning to Japanese traditional spirituality. It was a period where science fiction became a way to explore postwar Japan through a creative medium. Companies saw a way to capitalise on the nation's fascination with sci-fi, anime and manga industries by producing lithographed tin toys.

Godzilla was popular, borne out of the fallout of nuclear devastation; mechas came about from Japan's rapid industrialisation. Kaijus; Super Robots; Super Sentais, these and more would find their way into the hands and imaginations of children in the 60s.

1. MARMIT Limited Edition 1995 DesuGoji Glitter Gold version (2019)

“MINT Toy Museum had a Godzilla exhibition and displayed 500 Godzilla sofubi from a private collector. Kazumitsu Akamatsu, the president of MARMIT (an independent Japanese sofubi manufacturer) was a special guest at the event but the best part of this was a chance to buy one out of 10 limited edition Godzilla. I was lucky enough to be one of those who won and I got Akamatsu to sign the [header] card as well.”

2. Aoshin Tin Lithographed Battery Operated Batmobile (1972)\

"Anything done by the Japanese, you can be sure that the quality is top-notch. I don't have the box for the batmobile but the car is still operational. My uncle bought it for me with his first paycheck. Even though it was for me, he wanted to play with it as well. In the 70s, electronic toys were still a wonder to many."

Suhaimi's first exposure were the anime and tokusatsu (Japanese for live-action shows with practical special effects). Mesmerised by the flashing colours and derring-dos of the heroes, his focus shifted to the toys from these Japanese shows. Suhaimi recounts that shopping malls like the defunct People's Emporium, carried "a lot of toys from Japan".

As a follower of all things UFO and cryptid, it was a time when the first instance of UFO sightings occurred around the world that further piqued Suhaimi's interest in anime.

"I love everything that's robots and monsters," Suhaimi enthused. "I was a fan of Mazinger and when they decided to do a spin-off called [UFO Robot] Grendizer, I became a fan of that as well."

Grendizer had equal spades of monsters and mecha and the anime had a hold on a young Suhaimi. "I remembered that the cartoons were either dubbed in Malay or Chinese but the visuals and sound were so good that you don't need to speak a certain language to understand the story."

The premise of Grendizer is Prince Fleed leaves his destroyed world in the UFO Robot Grendizer, a powerful war machine. He lands on Earth and fights alongside his new human friends against the enemies who were behind Prince Fleed's ruined home planet.

Watching Prince Fleed interact and attach to Spazer (the flying saucer-like support vehicle for the Grendizer), to Suhaimi it was the coolest thing he'd witnessed.

He would gather a few Grendizer toys. There's a miniature die-cast Spazer that Grendizer can fit in, a still mint 15-inch vinyl figurine from Marmit and there's even the odd 12-inch watering can. He remembered how high-quality the toys were at that time. "Their quality is unbeatable, unparalleled," Suhaimi says. "They do very detailed work; you hold the toy in your hand and you know it is quality from the weight or how it feels. This makes the play value of the toys more [enticing]."

Over time, Suhaimi would lament about the drop in quality as Japanese toy houses moved its productions out of the country. "Made in Japan toys are more expensive, yes. But that's because of the quality packaging, quality toys, quality design. How the toys are made goes beyond what normal toys are produced."

His first Japanese toy was a bootleg Ultraman blow-up doll that his grandmother bought for him when he was two. "I think I threw a tantrum when she wouldn't get it for me," Suhaimi recalls with amusement. "I was rolling about on the floor. Then, she finally gave in." Back then, that 16" high knockoff was worth SGD2, "But we were from the kampong," Suhaimi adds, "so that was quite expensive."

Plastic was a new material at the time. Prior to that, toys were made out of tin or wood but with plastic, production became affordable. A subgenre would emerge from the plastic boom: sofubi, which are vinyl toys usually handcrafted by independent toy makers or artists. Usually based on superheroes, Japanese folklore and other Japanese pop culture icons, companies like Marusan, Bullmark and MARMIT were producing sofubis in large numbers. Some of the companies were family businesses, operated by family members.

"They'd have a workshop in their homes where, maybe, the brother-in-law makes the mould, the wife is doing the packing and the mother is spray painting. That's why those companies can't produce too many in a year."

3. Nostalgic Heroes Retro Software Series: Susumu Kurobe Glow in the Dark Edition

“I've a friend, who is into sofubi and I asked him if he has any based on Susumu Kurobe, the actor who played Shin Hayata, the alter-ego of Ultraman. He brought over a few toys and one of them has his signature on the [header] card. He told me that it was part of the bunch of toys he bought from another collector. Susumu is quite old now. From what I heard, the company sent the [header] cards to his house for him to sign at his own pace.”

4. Haruo Nakajima (Navy Blue Edition) by M1号 (2004)

“Haruo is very [integral] in Godzilla's history. He's a stuntman, who wears the Godzilla costume and that wasn't easy for him. If he ever takes a smoke break, he'd only remove the top-half of the Godzilla suit because it's too leceh to remove the whole thing. This toy isn't vintage but it became quite popular in the last few years that they have to make different colour variants to fulfil demands.”

Suhaimi has a soft spot for these independent toy makers, often supporting their businesses. After all, he hailed from the punk DIY culture. He created his own t-shirts using wax paper, he built his own skate ramp from scratch.

His backing for the underdogs also extends to the shows he watches. The main programme is exciting but the inner workings of the show... ah, to Suhaimi, that is far more interesting. "You'd want to know about the unsung heroes, the people behind the scene. It's like appreciating a meal; you'd want to know who the cook is. You taste his food and then you think, this guy is such a genius; who is this guy?

"I like Godzilla," Suhaimi says. "I especially like the actors, the stuntman and the director, especially Eiji Tsuburaya [co-creator of Godzilla]. He practically started the whole monster genre even way before Ray Harryhausen." He gestures to a loose figurine of Tsuburaya, which was part of a set from Tsuburaya Productions to promote the director's 100th Birthday.

You might be surprised to know that even with such care given to his collection, Suhaimi understands that he can't take it with him when he passes on.

"A few years ago, I was sick and when you're sick, there's only one thing on your mind: to get better. So, I told my wife to sell off whatever toy I have—those that can be sold easily; the faster, the better—in order to pay for the medical expenses."

Suhaimi became better but the incident brought clarity to his attitude towards materialism. He declared that when he dies, the collection will go to his wife; his family. They have carte blanche; they can sell it, keep it, give it away. "But," Suhaimi adds, "I want half of the money to be donated.

He cites Sadaqah Jariyah, the act of ongoing benefits for future generations. You plant a seed and that seed grows into a tree and it provides shade, food and a home to animals and people. It's a gift that keeps on giving. At the end of the day, these toys are just... things. They may cost a pretty penny but it's Suhaimi's approach to giving back that is priceless.

Photography: Jaya Khidir