AstroBoy Online Forums

Hello all, I am a card collector current in Japan and found these in an antiques store today. Does anyone know anything about them - who made them, how old they are, how much they're worth?

I appreciate your knowledge/advice/expertise!

Thank you.

http://s1124.photobucket.com/albums/l574/spondee70/Album/

Well they werent made by Tezuka because Astro's clothing is off. I have heard that little companies in Japan (other then Tezuka) made Astro trading cards back in the day (1950-60) but never which company. I hope this helps

Thanks for the reply and advice, much appreciated. I didn't know the clothing was an important part of determining whether Astroboy items were originals or bootlegs/copies, so that's interesting. They certainly do seem to be post-WW11 items as the backs of the cards have a variety of images - eg spaceships, Disney characters, American soldiers with helmet, baseball bat and gloves. They're about the size of cigarette cards - real curios.

Thanks again.

No problem

They are old school menko cards - just google menko - most likely from the late 50's early 60's. Not very valuable, maybe 200-300 yens each, as they are quite abundant in Japan. You can pick up a pile of them at yahoo Japan for a few thousand yens. I wouldn't describe them as bootlegs, as the whole market at the time was quite unregulated and this is how the early toys and games looked, a bit naive.

Thanks for that. That's exactly what I paid for them so glad to know I wasn't ripped off!

I saw cards like those at Anime Boston. Sadly none of them were Astro Boy though