Toy Line: Dragon Ball Z
Sculpt Name: Goku (?)
Color: Yellow
Showing posts with label - Bandai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label - Bandai. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Kinkeshi Figure Foto
Toy Line: Kinnikuman Keshi Standard Series Part 25
Sculpt Name: Buffaloman
Color: Yellow
Collector's Note: Nano recently posted an unidentified mini figure whose style looked vaguely familiar to me. It took me a few days, but I finally realized that it reminded me of the style of Part 25 Kinkeshi.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
BEN 10: DNAnimators
Name of Toy Line: BEN 10 DNAnimators
Production Company: Bandai
Distributor: Bandai
Characters & Elements: Cartoon Network
Years of Production: 2010
Countries/Regions Available: USA
Size/Scale: 1"
Figure Trade Markings: None
Approximate # of Figures: 4
Details:
Premiering one year after where Ben 10: Alien Force leaves off, Ben 10: Ultimate Alien the cartoon follows the now sixteen-year-old Ben. The Omnitrix has been destroyed, and Ben must learn to master the secrets of the new Ultimatrix, a gauntlet-like version of the old Omnitrix that not only gives him access to all of his original powers and abilities, but also allows him to evolve his alien forms into even stronger and more powerful versions (called "ultimate forms"). (source: Wikipedia)
With the DNAnimators line, Bandai once again cleverly translates the alien creation and transformation theme of the BEN 10 cartoon into a toy line, much like it did in its BEN 10: Transforming Alien Rocks line. And although they seem to have put a good bit of time and energy into this line, I'll let you determine if it is a win.
The concept is certainly a winner, that's for sure. The line consists of 4 mini-figure molds into which a "compound" is to be pressed resulting in the creation of a mini-figure. In other words, you get to create your own alien mini-figures. It's a really fun idea. There are two sets with two molds per set/package.
The four molds are for the following four characters: Set One: Ultimate Humungousaur and Water Hazard, and Set Two: Ultimate Swampfire and Ultimate Echo Echo. Let's take a look at the molds! Each mold is made of two parts, a top and bottom. The two parts snap together nice and tight.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Ultimate Muscle Blanko Figure Foto
Toy Line: Ultimate Muscle
Sculpt Name: Tyrannoclaw
Collector's Note: This has always been one of my favorite mini-figure sculpts. I'm glad to have finally set it free from its pigmenty prison! In actuality, the paint apps on this figure were pretty good. They never bothered me. However, I do still prefer this guy blank; especially with the rich, red color of the PVC, which appears to be the exact same red they used for the standard blank figs. Interestingly, this line does have sculpts that came from the factory painted and blank; however, this Sunigator sculpt was not one of them.
As you can see, my camera struggled a bit picking up the details due to the saturation of the deep red color. Check below for some Photoshopped pics which reveal better detail.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
M.U.S.C.L.E.
Name of Toy Line: M.U.S.C.L.E. (Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere)
Production Company: Bandai
Distributor: Mattel
Characters and Elements: Yudetamago
Years of Production: 1985-1987
Countries/Regions Available: United States, Canada, and the UK.
Size/Scale: Approximately 2" tall
Figure Trade Markings: (c) Y/S . N. T
Approximate # of Figures: Hundreds
Details: There were approximately 230 M.U.S.C.L.E. sculpts available. M.U.S.C.L.E. figures were first produced and released in a Pink/Flesh color and then in 8 additional colors: Dark Blue, Red, Purple, Green, Light Blue, Magenta, Salmon, and Orange. (A few sculpts in an additional 9th color, Light Purple, were also available with a MUSCLE board game.)
Also of note, several unique Super Rare sculpts have been found that appear to be genuine M.U.S.C.L.E. figures -- not bootlegs -- but exist in extremely small numbers or are one-of-one.
Finally, M.U.S.C.L.E. has a unique history that includes roots in a Japanese keshi toy line called Kinnikuman.
They were released in 3 types of packaging: a 4-pack, a 10-pack, and a 28-pack. Pictured below is the 4-pack and the 10-pack garbage can. (You can see complete coverage of the 28-packs at Nathan's MUSCLE Blog! linked to below.)
Before you go, have a look at the three M.U.S.C.L.E. commercials that graced our television sets in the late 80's!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
FIGABULARY
Toy Line: Dragonball
Sculpt Name: Puar
Color: Green
Collector's Note: Sculpt belongs to Part One.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
FIGABULARY
Toy Line: M.U.S.C.L.E.
Sculpt Name: Muscleman
Color: Light Purple
Collector's Note: The light purple color was exclusive to the M.U.S.C.L.E. board game.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
FIGABULARY
Toy Line: Dragon Ball
Sculpt Name: Goku and Cloud
Color: Orange
Collector's Note: If you're willing to consider a cloud a "vehicle," then this is yet another great example of a vehicle-with-pilot keshi. :)
Sunday, May 24, 2009
FIGABULARY
Toy Line: Spiral Zone
Sculpt Name: unknown
Color: Light Blue
Collector's Note: We love the vehicle-with-pilot concept for keshi. It is definitely a Japanese convention as we can't recall any Western keshi (non-articulated, mono-colored mini figure) toy line that has figures, like the above, that consist of a pilot and vehicle.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
FIGABULARY
Toy Line: Kinkeshi [bootleg]
Sculpt Name: Sunigator Shotai
Color: Pink
Collector's Note: While there are legitimate pink Kinkeshi that were released with various play sets, the above figure is a bootleg. While it is of higher quality as far as bootlegs go, it has more flashing than normal and does not stand as straight as its genuine Kinkeshi counterparts. Even so the pink color is unique and vibrant, the material is soft yet firm like any quality keshi, and it retains nearly all the detail of a genuine kinkeshi. It's definitely one of our favorite figures here at Toypedia.
FIGABULARY
Toy Line: Ultimate Muscle
Sculpt Name: MEAT
Color: Red
Collector's Note: Kinkeshi and their Western counterpart, M.U.S.C.L.E., each had a handful of "little guy" sculpts. These sculpts were about half the size of the other sculpts. To our disappointment, this MEAT figure was the only little guy in the Ultimate Muscle line. Furthermore, it was only available in red. :(
Monday, May 4, 2009
Gegege No Kitarō
Name of Toy Line: Gegege No Kitarō
Production Companies: Bandai & Marukoshi
Distributor: Bandai
Years of Production: 1985-1986, 1996
Countries/Regions Available: Japan
Size/Scale: 1.5"
Figure Trade Markings: Japanese Kanji / © / Circled capital letter B
Approximate # of Figures: 100+
Details: Like many Japanese keshi toy lines, Gegege No Kitaro began as a manga. It told the story of a spirit (Japanese Yōkai) named Kitaro and his family. Unlike other Yōkai, Kitaro sought to befriend the nature-destroying humans in an effort to make peace. The pages are filled with a number of quirky and interesting characters that translate beautifully into keshigomu figures. Let's have a look!
Figures released by Bandai and Marukoshi in the 80's were available in a nice assortment of colors such as peach, pink, yellow, dark blue, light blue, green, grey and orange. In the 90's, Bandai released them in semi-translucent glow-in-the-dark material. These figures were available in yellow, pink, and aqua blue/green (and possibly more colors).
The plastic is pretty much standard keshi material: flexible and squishy yet solid and firm. Let's look at some more figures.
Gegege No Kitaro were available via capsules containing three figures and a pamphlet, boxes containing 20 figures, and carded bags. The glow-in-the-dark, 1996 release figures were also available in 25-pack boxes. Marukoshi also released special sets packaged in clear plastic cylinders.
Marukoshi
Marukoshi
Marukoshi
Here's a look at some highly sought after Gegege No Kitaro figures as seen in an issue of Comp-REX, a magazine published by Mandarake, a large vendor in Japan dealing in all things manga, anime, and keshigomu related!
First, the Yokai Daimakyo set released in 1986. (Click on the image to enlarge.)
Yokai Daimakyo
And some truly interesting, extremely expensive pieces: The Tomb, Yokai Castle, Yokai Gate (all $600+) and the House of Sunakakebabaa ($1200). Hwhat!?
The Morinaga candy company also released a multi-part, multi-color collection of figures in the 80's. They look pretty nice. Check 'em out:
We'll have to beg forgiveness as we don't know the characters names. However, if you read Kanji, a number of characters and their names appear to be listed on the following Gegege No Kitaro toy line packaging.
Click to enlarge
Famicom!
Be sure to check back from time-to-time as we will surely update this entry as we learn more.
Related Web sites:
Gegege No Kitaro @ Wikipedia
Anime
Special thanks to rubbersamurai for supplying information and images!
