Studio Ghibli merchandise is always charming and well-made - I'd buy it even if I'd never heard of the films. Of course, having such strong sources to work from is a plus!
The cat bus character is pretty stylized to begin with, but it's been simplified a little further in the sculpt. It looks great! Some of the paint passes are a little ragged (by Japanese painting standards, anyway), but it doesn't detract from the overall appeal of the piece.
There's no real features to speak of - just the coin slot and the plug underneath - but it's worth mentioning again that there's nothing unnecessary
added to the figure, either. No logos, slogans or branding, no clumped-on characters or landscaping. The design is very stable by nature, so there's no balance issues.
The sole weakness of this item is that it's made of vinyl - a material that isn't particularly good for banks. While I haven't tried filling this one in particular, I've had some trouble with sagging in other vinyl banks, once they're sufficiently filled with coins. If you're aiming for a display piece, (which is what most collectors do anyway) then that's not a problem.
The biggest problem is finding merchandise like this on the secondary market, once it's sold out. I missed out on some
Princess Mononoke nodders, and they
still haven't turned up! I can't find this anywhere online, so it's going to take some serious digging at toy shows, and on eBay. Japanese toy hunting services are another option - pricey, but effective. Good luck!
Labels: anime, catbus, hayao miyazaki, japanese animation, japanese toy, merchandise, merchandising, miyazaki, my neighbor totoro, studio ghibli, totoro, toy, toy of the day, toy OTD, vinyl bank
Someone went to a lot of trouble! Pretty awesome.
