Toy OTD: Bandai Dragonball Mecha Collection 1: Lunch On Cycle, Grandpa Son Gohan On Scargo Capsule Bike, Yamcha & Pu'ar In Auto (2004)

These mini-figures and vehicles are really terrific examples of the blind-boxed genre. The sculpts are wonderful, the paint work is quite tight for their size, and there's multiple types of plastic used to good effect! Even though the toys are packaged in pieces, they're fairly easy to build - some even come with simple stands for display purposes.

There's six vehicles in series 1, and since my blog header can only be so long, I'll review three of them here. All three are quite nice, for the reasons I've already stated - they really capture the spirit and fun of the original manga. It's also rarer to find merchandise from the first Dragonball series - the lion's share of DB toys seem to focus on the subsequent Dragonball Z books.

Fortunately, Toriyama-san's artwork is very dimensional, so to some degree sculpting is a bit less of a challenge here (though any stylization here is very well interpreted). The colors are lively, and the vehicle choices seem appropriate for each character. An extra bonus is that most of the 'drivers' are nicely posed - many domestic manufacturers tend to wind up with an unpainted, lifeless-looking driver when populating cartoon vehicles.

These toys are a good scale - not so small that they'll seem lost on a shelf, but not so big that they're too expensive and gobble up too much real estate. I'm not if there's more than one 'pure' Dragonball series or not - the only series 2 set that I can find has some Dragonball Z characters in it.

The packaging is sharp-looking, both on the individual boxes and the larger case. It's not particularly innovative, but the designs are simple and eye-catching. Bandai was also merciful by including a picture of all the series 1 toys on the back of each blind-box. That's increasingly rare there days!

Originally, each blind box cost about $8.00 each, but expect to pay more since they've been discontinued for five years. Of course, it'll be tougher to get specific characters/vehicles if they're still mint, so rarer items may cost even more. You can get all of series 1 on eBay right now, but it'll cost you $140.00!

Granted, trying to buy all of them piecemeal would probably cost more than $50.00 to begin with, but you may want to comparison shop, or narrow your focus to your favorite in the line. Series 2 will cost you $52.00 on eBay, so I guess they weren't as popular, or were produced in greater numbers.

Good luck!

Photos and text ©2009 Jeff Pidgeon.

Toy OTD: '90s Bandai (?) Shokupanman Vinyl Squeak Toy

I bought this toy fifteen years ago (easily), when I was still living in southern California. I can't remember where I picked it up down there - I bought it knowing nothing about the Anpanman manga or anime. I just thought it was funny to have a little superhero with a slice of bread for a head!

I still don't know much about the source material - I haven't been able to find any of the manga translated into English. It's mainly about the designs for me, anyway - they're very simple and super-cute!

The execution of this toy isn't spectacular, but it's just fine for what it needs to be: three points of articulation, a nice sculpt, and adequate paint work. I don't remember how much I paid for it - I think it was less than ten dollars, which makes the toy quality even better.

Since this is an older toy, you won't be able to go out and buy this exact item, but since Anpanman is still so popular, you'll probably be able to find a similar toy of this character cheaply and easily! Granted, I can't find anything online right now, but if you add favorite searches for "anpanman" and "shokupanman" to your eBay account, I'm sure something will turn up in short order... good luck!

UPDATE: Here's a set of figures on Amazon.jp that look very similar to the ones I own. You can buy them for ¥ 2,855 ($29.60 USD)+ tax and shipping. Thanks to my Flickr buddy HNishinomaru for the tip!