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The Fortress Of Necross

July 21, 2025

Rewind back to a typical day in the life of other me in Japan in 1987. I’d been playing Famicom Dragon Quest all day long and was heading to the game center near the station to play the new game Rastan that I’d read about in the latest issue of Comptiq. On the way I stopped at the konbini to grab a snack and saw this:

It’s called ‘Fortress Of Necross‘ and if the name alone didn’t win me over the art and words ‘Role Playing’ certainly did. I immediately bought it and found a little bag of chocolates inside as well as a smaller inner box containing cards and a plastic toy.

I quickly realized this was a heavily RPG-inspired toy series, and it reminded me of many of my other interests such as the Famicom games I was playing (Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and Zelda) or especially my beloved TRPGs including Fighting Fantasy and Sword World. I quickly bought more boxes and built up a collection, learned more about the lore of the evil necromancer Necross and the heroes trying to defeat him, and even played the game utilizing the cards that came with the figures.

I was absolutely hooked! These toys seemed like they were made just for me.

Of course back in 1987 I knew nothing about what was being sold 7500 kilometers away and my snack choices never came with any sort of toy. I didn’t learn of the existence of these toys until almost three decades later.

The figures are about an inch tall, and include the good-aligned hero characters (about 8 per series) and many evil guys including Necross and his generals. The figures were packed randomly, and with 40 different ones available collecting them all would have been quite a challenge! They were massively successful, and over the next decade Lotte released 8 series – 320 figures in total.

As the line continued it began to include characters not restricted to standard sword and sorcery fantasy, including robots and gods, and the last set was even based around the Cthulhu mythos:

These are beautifully designed and sculpted little figures, and had these been available to 15-year-old me I would have gone mad for them. A few years ago I decided to get a few for myself as nostalgia for the other me that never existed.

This turned out to be easier said than done since these little guys are very collectible and prices can be eye-opening. Finally, during this past trip to Japan I found a few for cheap and finally began my ‘collection’:

Let’s look at each of these in order:

First we have Wood King (from the third series) who seems like a strong guy since his stats are high and his bio says he is a Demon King. The game involved drawing enemies randomly from a bag and getting progressively stronger as you defeat them, but I think this guy would be one you wouldn’t want to draw early! Each monster also came with an item that can be used to help defeat other monsters.

The Numelian (second series) is a weak monster that is apparently a ‘friend of the octopus’. He comes with a compass that helps defeat a Tengu monster. His figure is fairly small (about 2cm) and wonderful detailed for its size.

And lastly we have the Worm (third series) which is a giant worm that helps fertilize the magical woods. It seems to be of average strength.

As this toy line continued, various special features were introduced. This included some figures also being available in transparent plastic (such as my Wood King and Worm), to colour-changing plastic and eventually figures with removable plastic ‘gems’. It seems some of these fancier versions are especially rare and collectible, and I’ve seen examples well over $100 (for a single figure) in Japanese shops.

Necross toys are an example of keshi, or miniature plastic/rubber figurines. Many lines exist, and three are shown above: Kinnukiman (‘Ultimate MUSCLE’ in the west), Villgust and Monster In My Pocket. I actually recall one of the latter at Charlestown Square newsagent sometime in the early 1990s. I believe it was a dinosaur and I liked it, but I have no memory of what I did with it.

While these sorts of toys had their heyday in the 1990s, they’re far from dead. These days they have been returning in Japanese gacha machines – I’ve got some Ultraman versions – and there are blind-boxed Godzilla ones as well. Lots of indie creators make and sell them, and there’s even been some revivals in the west. Nostalgia for the old ones seems to be picking up as well, and here’s a (1 inch high) metal anniversary version of a Kinnukiman figure that I also obtained from a gacha machine:

I very much doubt I’ll ever buy any more Necross figures, but I’m happy to now own the three I do. They’re a glimpse into the memories of the other me that paradoxically seems to become closer the further away those years become.

Now excuse me; I’m going back to my other childhood, during summer 1987 in Japan. I’m home from the game center, my pocket full of Necross toys, and it’s time to watch the latest episode of Kamen Rider Black… long, long ago in the 20th Century…

The 2500th Post!

June 9, 2025

This is the 2500th blog post! The first one was posted almost 19 years ago, on June 22 2006. It was about World of Warcraft!

To celebrate this momentous occasion, here’s a handsome selfie I just took:

Here’s to another 2500 posts!

Postcrossing Update

April 26, 2025

Through Postcrossing, I’ve now sent 1624 postcards and received 1604. These are increases of about 200 cards since my last update five months ago, which means my average of 40 cards a month remains unchanged.

As far as countries, there have been no changes since the last update, with the top ranks (sent and received from) the same and no new countries added. About a third of my cards are sent to and received from Germany.

It’s always fun to remove the cards from my P.O. Box, since I never know what to expect. Unlike some users, I don’t have a large list of preferred types – and no restricted cards – so what I receive tends to run the gamut.

I do mention that I like vintage tourist cards, so I get a decent amount of them. A lot of Postcrossers don’t like such cards, so I hope users are happy to find someone that does!

If you’re wondering, other card types that people usually say they don’t like are ad cards, homemade cards, animal cards and religious cards.

I seem to have gotten a lot of celebrity cards these past five months, and I’m actually considering adding a line to my bio asking for postcards of very obscure or forgotten celebrities just to see who I get!

I have added ‘fantasy’ to my short preferred list, but so far very few in that category have arrived. I tell people if they have any particularly strange or unusual card to send it my way, but so far I’ve not seen anything that has greatly surprised me 🙂

Three of the cards I received since the last update are ‘maxicards’. These are postcards featuring a stamp affixed to the art side that is identical or thematically similar to the card art. These are usually sold by postal services, although independently produced versions exist. I’ve got a lot of these from Postcrossers over the years, and maybe I’ll do a post on them one day.

Maxicards have been produced by Australia post for decades, and Adam seems to have gotten his hands on a bunch of older ones which he has been sending me periodically. I wonder where he got them from?

I continue to get a lot of unusually shaped stamps, and the one from Finland at top right is particular interesting. The ‘missing’ part of the stamp is also a stamp, and I’d actually received it from a different sender some time ago. The USA should do a stamp set where each state is its own stamp!

Most postal services are struggling with a drop in people sending mail, and one popular method to raise revenue continues to be issuing licensed stamps. Very often these are sold as collectibles and therefore people rarely use them for postage, but when I travel I always try to buy and use such stamps.

The UK issues a lot of these sorts of stamps, and I seem to be getting more and more on recent cards (possibly since the QR codes on the ‘normal’ stamps are ugly). The podracing stamp above is quite large and one of my favourite stamps I’ve received so far!

I received two very special things these past five months. The first was the above acrylic painting of a cute duck! This is my second piece of original painted art received through Postcrossing, and as you can see it’s incredibly good. I messaged the artist and she said she painted it and liked it so much she and hung on her wall for a year before she mailed it. She was nervous the recipient wouldn’t appreciate it but I assured her we did. Now we’ll frame this and hang it on our wall.

The second amazing delivery came from a Japanese user. When I read her bio she mentioned she really loved stamps, so I used a large card and filled it with about 20 different stamps. This made her super happy, and she messaged me saying she wanted to send me something in return. I agreed, and a month or so later found an envelope in my PO Box that contained a packet of older Japanese stamps! She mentioned I can use this on my next trip to Japan, which I absolutely will.

But that wasn’t all she sent: the envelope also contained eight Ultraseven postcards! These are beautiful, featuring classic art from one of the most important Ultra series of all time. I’ll be sending these all to myself from Japan over the years. I was so happy with what she sent me I will be sending her another card loaded with stamps, this time from Australia 🙂

Right now I can send 41 cards at a time, and usually ‘do postcards’ weekly so I’ve always got the maximum amount in transit to users around the world. I send/receive about 10 a week, which is a lot but not too many, and I’m happy to continue at this rate for the time being.