Carol and I have been Yashica fanatics since the early 1970s and over the years we’ve collected some pretty silly stuff related to Yashica.

In 1962 the Yashica marketing guys and gals came up with a cute little fellow to act as a marketing mascot of sorts to promote Yashica’s extensive new line of SLRs and the next generation of 35mm rangefinder cameras. Yashica’s ‘Sailor Boy’ (never officially named) was born courtesy of a design executed by Modern Plastics of Japan.

The ‘Sailor Boy’ appeared in Yashica’s sales brochures and occasionally in a few instruction booklets. Here he’s pictured in an early flyer for the Minimatic-S (1963).

This is the larger dealer display ‘Sailor Boy’ – about 20cm tall.

Here’s the dealer display ‘Sailor Boy’ helping to promote the new (1962) J-3.

Anyway, here’s where the real silliness comes in. When you start to discover all of the different ways that Yashica employed their little mascot it’s a fun challenge to find him on some pretty unlikely things. Here he’s promoting the release of the Electro 35 – the world’s first electronic 35mm camera (1966).

Of course he’d be on a couple of beach bags – he’s Yashica’s ‘Sailor Boy’.

Whether riding a smiling dolphin or dancing in a grass skirt on a remote island, the ‘Sailor Boy’ was always there to remind you to take your non-waterproof Yashica Electro 35 along for the fun!

Thanks for stopping by! – Chris

BTW, there’s some neat new stuff (cameras and gear) over in our shop at http://www.ccstudio2380.com – there’s always a few classic cameras to pick from as well as a nice collection of lenses.

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