Reading – Zoids Official Fan Book 2

I know we’ve taken more and more looks at the Zoids series lately, but I hope everyone will forgive me for this short “Reading” post about the Zoids Official Fan Book #2, a 118-page full-color softcover packed with photos of toys. I can’t read a single word in the book — it’s all in Japanese — but that doesn’t keep me from flipping through the pages and enjoying the toy pics.

There really isn’t much I can say about a book that I cannot read — and about a series that I don’t know — but I’m hoping you guys will enjoy the Flickr set. The photos range from static shots to the toys to artistic — and digitally-enhanced — scenes, and the more I flip through the book the more I think I should go ahead and track down a Zoids toy or two.

Wow, either I’m really tired or I’m just not inspired this morning because I find that I just don’t have a lot to say. And that’s not like me at all, since I tend to have something useless to say about anything. Sorry, guys, but I’m just not “on” today.

One thing I will say is that there are a hell of a lot more toy photography books coming out of Japan than there are in the US. I wish we could get toy photography and art books published here in the US that had as much love and attention to detail sunk into them as some of the Japanese books in my collection, but that just doesn’t seem likely. I guess if I really believed in these types of books I’d create some myself; I created a Glyos book, titled P*V*C, and I could always create more. But time is a major issue.

For now, though, it looks like the best we can do is order books from Japan and stare at the pretty pictures. Hobby Link Japan has a book section that’s a lot of fun to scroll through, and I also find decent deals on eBay, but those are about the only two sources I have any experience with.

And obviously your other choice is to just wait and see which books I grab and post here at battlegrip.com. I hope these posts are at least kinda enjoyable; I know they’re not as useful as the toy reviews, but I find snapping and sharing photos of books a nice break from work so you can expect to see these “Reading” posts to pop up now and again for a long time to come.