Toy OTD: Tomy Electronic Pokemon Toy: Bellossem (aka Kireihana)

Like almost everyone else on earth in the mid-nineties, I fell victim to the Pokemon craze. Fortunately, I limited my obsession to the more elaborate toys and a few of the PVC figures. This was NOT a good line for completists, for as far as I know, new characters are still being added to this day!

Tomy released a cute line of sound-activated, electronic toys that were eventually distributed domestically through Hasbro. Bellossem is one of my favorites, because it seems like such a iconic Japanese toy. When you make a sound, the flowers on its head spin, the body spins about, and it chirps happily (I don't know if it's a word, a phrase, or just a sound). Although I'm sure most parents wanted to smash it after about fifteen minutes on Christmas morning, everything other than the sound - the design, sculpt and paint job - are really appealing. The execution may not be as good as many Japanese toys, but it's solid and professional looking.

My version here got a little too much sun - the red flowers faded a bit, so I tweaked them in Photoshop.

This toy wasn't all that expensive originally - I think I paid twenty or thirty dollars for it (that was before they were distributed in the U.S.). Finding one of these would seem easy - one would think trillions of them were made - but I haven't found one online in well over a year. If there's still any Poko-nerds out there, feel free to drop me a line and let me know where one could get this toy! Otherwise, it's back to the eBay Favorite Search. Good luck!