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on May 9, 2020 5:09:35 GMT
Posted: May 9, 2020 5:09:35 GMT
Hi, I've came across a Yashica I literally cannot find even one single piece of information for. It's a "Yashica Mini King Kong", which is basically a J-Mini but with a different front plate and top plate (see photos). Google has like absolutely nothing on this camera, not even one single hit or image. I'd appreciate if you guys have any ideas how I can get more information about this camera. I compared it to the J-Mini I have and it's almost identical.      |
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on May 9, 2020 9:24:04 GMT
Last Edit: May 9, 2020 9:43:33 GMT by lumiworx
Hello absente ... Thanks for posting the interesting photos, and welcome to the forum. The only details I can offer are pretty general, and relate to the basic models. Other members might chime in with more info. Of the lists I have, there were 3 different versions in the "J-Mini" series... Yashica J-Mini (1990/05), the Yashica J-Mini D, (w/ Databack, 1990/05), and the Yashica J-Mini Super, (1993) The 'Super' version ( 1, currently on ebay) looks to be a bit more 'rounded' in it's visual design and seems like an upgrade model, but I don't have access to any manuals for any versions to know what differences there might be. There's a ' technical page' on the J-Mini from the French collector's site ( collection-appareils.fr) that note the original version is listed in Mc Keown's 12th Edition price guide. I don't have a copy to refer to, but I suspect that there won't be a lot of details, as this is considered a lower-end budget model, and may not warrant more than a simple listing. I have no details at all on the "King Kong" model designation, but my guess would be that there might have been either a regional tie-in for a retailer/distributor -OR- there was a promotional tie-in to an event, or even to the King Kong movie franchise. Kyocera seemed to be much more amenable to goofy marketing opportunities than Yashica ever was, so it wouldn't surprise me that they'd go for any profit-generating scheme brought to them. These models were mostly made in the Hong Kong factory. A quick search turned up a Japanese pinball game, also released in 1990, that was based on the King Kong theme, but there's no reference to a camera promotion on it's page, and there were only 9 machines produced, so it's unlikely it was related... but interesting, and coincidental time-wise, just the same. EDIT TO ADD: There might be another possibility on the King Kong tie-in to an event... Universal Studios in Florida opened up a new ride in June of 1990 - " Kongfrontation". The camera may have been sold in the gift shop to advertise the ride, and the wider angle lens would have made photographing a 40 foot monkey a lot easier! |
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on May 9, 2020 17:02:19 GMT
Posted: May 9, 2020 17:02:19 GMT
Hello absente ... Thanks for posting the interesting photos, and welcome to the forum. The only details I can offer are pretty general, and relate to the basic models. Other members might chime in with more info. Of the lists I have, there were 3 different versions in the "J-Mini" series... Yashica J-Mini (1990/05), the Yashica J-Mini D, (w/ Databack, 1990/05), and the Yashica J-Mini Super, (1993) The 'Super' version ( 1, currently on ebay) looks to be a bit more 'rounded' in it's visual design and seems like an upgrade model, but I don't have access to any manuals for any versions to know what differences there might be. There's a ' technical page' on the J-Mini from the French collector's site ( collection-appareils.fr) that note the original version is listed in Mc Keown's 12th Edition price guide. I don't have a copy to refer to, but I suspect that there won't be a lot of details, as this is considered a lower-end budget model, and may not warrant more than a simple listing. I have no details at all on the "King Kong" model designation, but my guess would be that there might have been either a regional tie-in for a retailer/distributor -OR- there was a promotional tie-in to an event, or even to the King Kong movie franchise. Kyocera seemed to be much more amenable to goofy marketing opportunities than Yashica ever was, so it wouldn't surprise me that they'd go for any profit-generating scheme brought to them. These models were mostly made in the Hong Kong factory. A quick search turned up a Japanese pinball game, also released in 1990, that was based on the King Kong theme, but there's no reference to a camera promotion on it's page, and there were only 9 machines produced, so it's unlikely it was related... but interesting, and coincidental time-wise, just the same. EDIT TO ADD: There might be another possibility on the King Kong tie-in to an event... Universal Studios in Florida opened up a new ride in June of 1990 - " Kongfrontation". The camera may have been sold in the gift shop to advertise the ride, and the wider angle lens would have made photographing a 40 foot monkey a lot easier! Wow - thank you so much for this detailed reply! I was also assuming that it has to have to do something with the King Kong movie franchise. I continued my research during the whole day - the only thing I could come up with were two sellers (both also in China) who are selling this version in a mint condition and want a few hundred dollars for it. Other than that, still no official answers either from Kyocera or Yashica but that was a longshot anyway. But I am starting to believe that this camera was sold probably just on the Asian market, or even just in Hong Kong like you already mentioned. That would explain why the only copies I can find are in China. I'll update the thread as more information comes in - and now Google has at least one hit on that topic  Cheers |
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on May 9, 2020 17:40:23 GMT
Last Edit: May 9, 2020 17:40:37 GMT by bobblehat
Absente … you have a pm
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on May 9, 2020 19:09:08 GMT
Last Edit: May 9, 2020 19:12:22 GMT by xkaes
Those HONG KONGERS (Chinese: 香港人) are known to be great practical jokers! Around 1997, the Mainland ordered several special cameras to be made noting the return of Hong Kong from the British, and these were different in several ways, such as being gold-plated, boxed sets, special colors, extra markings such as "Commemorating Return of Hong Kong" scribed on the back in Chinese, etc. -- so maybe this was supposed to be "HONG KONG" and they made it "KING KONG" instead, to rub it in the Mainland's nose.
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on May 9, 2020 19:23:17 GMT
Posted: May 9, 2020 19:23:17 GMT
Ha! Ha! I did have a thought along similar lines when I first saw this topic ……. but think the Hong Kong'ers would have chosen a model that was more current than a 1990 J-mini. But who knows!
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on May 10, 2020 3:40:06 GMT
Posted: May 10, 2020 3:40:06 GMT
A couple of things come to mind...
I had an IT client and friend who manufactured a series of beauty products, and he would - for an extra fee - silk-screen his client's logos/slogans on some of the products he made, and do the same on some companion products he bought for resale. These were sold or given away by his customers to promote their brand. If you consider the far larger marketing companies these days that do the same type of printing on products they don't even manufacture (i.e., your sports team's T-Shirt that you bought at the stadium), it's pretty clear that someone like Universal Studios wouldn't need to have Kyocera make a custom camera run just for their new ride promotion. Someone buys a few cases or a truck load of cameras, and prints some promotional graphics or text on it under contract, and they're sold in a gift shop without Kyocera's or Yashica's involvement.
There's also the left-field idea that these might be something totally different than they appear to be. I took a silk-screen class as an arts elective in college, and part of the coursework was to create a set of printed samples that fit into a choice of categories. One of those was to make a branded item to be used by a company for packaging or promotion. I took large 3 ring-binders, and printed a 1 color graphical cover with my own logo as an archival folder for contact negative proof sheets, or client photo selection presentations. I made 3 of them and used them for years after the class was done. I have no idea where they are now, but I doubt their rarity has any collector searching for more after the garage sale was over, where they probably went for 50 cents each.
These King Kong cameras could just as easily be the results of 'personal projects', or test runs, or samples.
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on May 10, 2020 9:29:35 GMT
Posted: May 10, 2020 9:29:35 GMT
Here is another example of a possible promotion run ….   A Kyocera Zoomate 120SE Toyota Logo circa year 2000 The source is here but no real extra in the translation. |
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on May 10, 2020 10:25:42 GMT
Posted: May 10, 2020 10:25:42 GMT
I've started a new topic in Brochures, Advertising, Novelties about other "Promotional" cameras so as not to clog up OP's topic |
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on May 10, 2020 17:29:05 GMT
Posted: May 10, 2020 17:29:05 GMT
That was a great find bobblehat ... At the very least, Kyocera didn't have any issues with their products turning into promo items. It's unfortunate the article doesn't offer an answer on who did the work. One oddity is that CeBIT is a yearly industry exibition for computers, yet the article doesn't even mention, or show, Kyocera's mobile phones... which is what brought them to CeBIT to begin with. |
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on May 10, 2020 18:23:16 GMT
Posted: May 10, 2020 18:23:16 GMT
I've started a new topic in Brochures, Advertising, Novelties about other "Promotional" cameras so as not to clog up OP's topic Interesting, seems like Kodak is going the same route .. in 2020 - by selling their logo to the highest bidder  But thats really a great find - so now we have two rebranded Kyocera's. I ordered two more in the meantime, so I can take the one i posted apart and see if the inside is really the same like in the regular version. That would more or less confirm a promotion. Every time i take apart a camera I hope somewhere a drug dealer hid a diamond in it, got arrested, and his camera was sold at an auction by the authorities before getting to me. Dreams, eh.. ; ) |
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on May 11, 2020 3:36:40 GMT
Posted: May 11, 2020 3:36:40 GMT
I've started a new topic in Brochures, Advertising, Novelties about other "Promotional" cameras so as not to clog up OP's topic Interesting, seems like Kodak is going the same route .. in 2020 - by selling their logo to the highest bidder But thats really a great find - so now we have two rebranded Kyocera's. I ordered two more in the meantime, so I can take the one i posted apart and see if the inside is really the same like in the regular version. That would more or less confirm a promotion. Every time i take apart a camera I hope somewhere a drug dealer hid a diamond in it, got arrested, and his camera was sold at an auction by the authorities before getting to me. Dreams, eh.. ; ) I can guarantee the inside of your "King Kong" will be the same as your normal J-mini, so it's a waste of time taking it apart. Add in the possibility of breaking something while doing so, and you'll ruin any value it has as a collectable. Not that they go for much anyway, as a mint J-mini is worth $10-$20 according to Collectiblend. But being a promotional model that may have been marketed in a limited area could raise that value fourfold. I've bought many P&S cameras over the years for a dollar or two that on the New York City used market are selling for $75 to $199, so you never know. The "jewel" is the camera itself.
PF
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on May 12, 2020 5:01:53 GMT
Posted: May 12, 2020 5:01:53 GMT
Today I finally received an official answer from Yashica --- Sorry. We don't have a database of old cameras.
Thank You
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on May 12, 2020 9:16:01 GMT
Posted: May 12, 2020 9:16:01 GMT
Today I finally received an official answer from Yashica --- Sorry. We don't have a database of old cameras.
Thank You
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(:))
That's not surprising at all. Kyocera sold off the Yashica name to a group of Hong Kong investors, and they have obliterated any mention of the name and history from their own website shortly after the 'official' closing of the company in 2005. The only hint of the company ever existing was one lingering press release about the discontinuation of service and support, effective in 2015. If you contacted the new company, they have absolutely no connection to the Japanese "Yashica" company that actually produced anything before they bought the name. They ended up with no documentation, no tooling, no parts, no old stock, no designs... absolutely nothing but the sole rights to use the Yashica name on newly created products. The only thing they've managed to do so far - IMHO - is to trash the name with garbage products that have nothing in common with the ethos and inovation of the manufacturer they try to pass themselves off to be. There's still a few bits of the old Yashica site available from the Web Archive's 'WayBack Machine' pages, but the details and info is very sparce and extremly limited in scope for what remains. web.archive.org/web/*/yashica.com |
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on May 12, 2020 12:38:42 GMT
Posted: May 12, 2020 12:38:42 GMT
The same exact thing has happened to Minolta -- and the "Minolta" name. There are probably others as well.
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But thats really a great find - so now we have two rebranded Kyocera's. I ordered two more in the meantime, so I can take the one i posted apart and see if the inside is really the same like in the regular version. That would more or less confirm a promotion. Every time i take apart a camera I hope somewhere a drug dealer hid a diamond in it, got arrested, and his camera was sold at an auction by the authorities before getting to me. Dreams, eh.. ; )
