Toy OTD: Banpresto Dragonball Vinyl Figures (2008)

I'm definitely a newcomer to the Dragonball mangas, having only read the pre-Z storyline within the last year or so. I've seen a fair amount of DB merchandise over the years, but these recently produced vinyl figures are some of the best swag I've encountered!

For whatever reason (an anniversary?), Banpresto decided to make a brand-new line of toys, and they're really terrific! The sculpts are spot-on model, super-appealing representations of the original artwork. Most of the posing is a bit symmetrical, but occasionally there's an arm or leg that's moved to break up the 'twinning'. The character designs are strong enough to prevent it from being a big detraction.

The paint work varies to a degree - with the majority of the line, the apps are tight and tidy, but there will be the odd figure (Yajirobe, for instance) where they'll be a little loose and fuzzy in places. Overall, though, the color choices are strong and the execution is crisp and sharp, reflecting the clean line work of the manga.

As with most vinyl toys, there's not a lot of articulation here - usually, you'll get neck and shoulder joints at the most, which are probably more a result of the molding process than from a desire to increase the play value.

Fortunately, these characters have reasonable proportions, so balance issues are low. Chi-Chi has a higher center of gravity than most of the others, so a display base might have been nice in her case. Yajirobe does come with a piece of cardboard that can be folded into an unobtrusive stand, which is nice. Overall, though, balance problems here aren't anything that some museum putty can't fix.

Accessories are rare with this line, but personally, unless it's a prop that's central to the character - Thor's hammer, say - then I think it's just one more thing to lose. Most of the extra pieces here are walking sticks and fighting staffs, and they fit into the characters' hands nicely. Yajirobe's sword sheath may give you some trouble fitting into a hole on his side, so be prepared for that.

The toys are sealed in plastic blisters backed with cardboard, so there's not a lot here to get excited about. The graphics are fine (though pretty uniform), and naturally the blisters allow especially fussy collectors (read: all of them) to compare paint jobs. Otherwise, there's not much here to tempt purchasers into keeping the packaging.

Since these figures were released over the last year or two, finding them shouldn't be all that expensive or difficult. You can buy Son Goku, Grandpa Son Gohan & Klilyn together for $39.99 + shipping on eBay. There's three other Son Goku variants available as a set for $47.99 + shipping, Uranai-Baba for $9.99 + shipping at bonanzle.com, Chaoz for $13.99 + shipping on eBay, Woolong for $9.99 + shipping at bonanzle; Son Goku, Yajirobe & Karin all together for $57.95 + shipping at anime-king.amazonwebstore.com, Emperor Pilaf for $14.95 + shipping on eBay, Chi-Chi for $8.34 + shipping on eBay, Kame-Sennin for $24.74 + shipping on eBay, a smaller variant of him for $9.99 + shipping at bonanzle, a masked variant for $9.99 + shipping on eBay, and Mr. Popo for $22.39 + shipping on eBay. You may want to shop around a bit before buying, since there's plenty of them for sale online. Have fun!

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: FUNimation Dragonball Z Figure Set: Boss Rabbit & Goku (2002)

These are the best Dragonball toys that I've seen to date - really terrific sculpts and paintwork! They capture the flavor of the original artwork very well. If I remember correctly, three two-figure sets were released - I bought two of the line at Toys 'R' Us originally.

As you might imagine, Boss Rabbit doesn't have a lot of articulation, but Goku has a good amount of poseable joints. I could imagine that some fans might want more, since Goku is such an active character, but I think it's a good compromise between poseability and preserving the sculpt.

You can still get this set for a very good price - thecardkid.com has it for $9.99 + shipping.