These were all die cut from the same sheet and were intended to be cut out into their final shapes, like the guy in the lower left corner is. The lot I bought actualy had a few doubles in it, but there were five overall patterns as shown in the above picture. The backs of each have the same image as the front, only in black and white and with a number in a box:
I've never seen copies of these cards before so they are "new" to the hobby, though perhaps of limited interest since they feature generic rather than identifiable players. I do love the artwork on them though and not just the extremely smiley faces, the whole "chubby body" forms are quite charming in their simplicity too.
Neat! These look to be from the 1930s.
ReplyDeleteThat was my thought too! There were also some sumo wrestler ones in the lot.
DeleteAwesome. I have a handful of them as well...if they are the same ones.
DeleteAs a guy who personally has a chubby body... I definitely can appreciate these pre-war Menko chubby bodies ;)
ReplyDeleteThey definitely have the chubby body look perfect :)
DeleteHi Sean, I discovered your blog after reading a post on Sumo menko cards, and I’m a menko enthusiast too. I’m oriented on military themed menkos (before WW II), but due to the fact that I live outside Japan and I don’t speak a single word of Japanese is quite hard retrieving informations. Do you have any suggestions on catalogues/blogs/sites on that specific kind of menkos?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. Surprisingly I don't actually know of any menko themed blogs out there, in English or Japanese! SumoMenkoMan and I had a little back and forth last year about maybe starting one (non-sports themed) to fill that gap in information but we haven't followed up on it, though somebody really should because there is so much stuff out there to post about!
DeleteI’m up for giving it a shot in 2020. Lots on non-sports menko and cards out there to write about.
DeleteThank you for both the replies, and sorry for the delay in mine. I have a small doubt, how do you store safely your menko? I'm quite sure I can use a high end binder for Magic or Pokemon cards, the only issue is that usually you can't see the back of the menko, because the plastic is only on one side of the pages. Do you think, any binder is good? Do I have to be careful with the pages materials in order to not damage my menko while storing them, like buying acid free ones?
DeleteMost of mine I keep in boxes. For the smaller ones I use 12 pocket pages in a regular album, but since a lot of menko don't fit into pages I just keep them in boxes right now. Its not ideal but at least they are safe until I think of a better way!!
DeleteDefinitely the easiest way to store them. Thank you!
ReplyDelete