A little over a year ago I stumbled upon some POGs from 1993 that depicted the famous Hawaiian sumo wrestlers Musashimaru, Akebono, and Konishiki. Their popularity coincided with the American POG craze of the mid-1990s and were subsequently captured on several sets. I was recently able to pick this POG set up from a friend that features then Ozeki Konishiki and then-Sekiwake Musashimaru with the latter going on to attain sumo's highest rank, Yokozuna. Scans don't do the images justice, but the pictures are a combination of blue and gold foil. For Musashimaru's POGs they say "Ring Champ" and "Fiamalu Penitani - Waianae's Pride Hawaii, 1993". For Konishiki's POGs they say "Ambassador of Sumo" and "Salevaa Atisanoe - Nana Kuli's Son Hawaii, 1993". Both Waianae and NanaKuli are areas in Hawaii. The backs say these POGs were printed in Hong Kong as well as lists a telephone number "955-7109" although I haven't been able to determine what business/person this phone number is associated with after doing a quick Google search.
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Nice flashback to the 90's. So what do you think... are POGs gonna be the next hot thing in collectibles? ;D
ReplyDeleteNot sure, I feel like if they would have made a comeback, now would have been the perfect time since all the kids that collected them are now adults with expendable income.
DeleteThey had a brief resurgence about two years ago, but it didn't last very long.
DeleteInteresting! I definitely missed it then. All the POG tournaments they had in the 1990s must have been insanely fun.
DeleteIt would have been cool if that phone number connected you to some sort of voice recording from the sumo wrestlers themselves! (Although being the 1990s, I'm sure it would have cost $10.00 per minute, heheh.)
ReplyDeleteI’m tempted to call it.
DeleteNeat. I wonder what the "short cut" referred to on the back is?
ReplyDeleteRight?!! I wonder as well.
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