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: Yutaka (?) Robodatchi PVC Figure: Robo-Z (1996-8?)

This is another Kimono My House purchase that I (think I've) just identified. Like many of my Japanese toy purchases, the design caught my eye so I bought it without having any idea of what it was!

This figure is also based on a manga - this one's named Robodatchi, which (not surprisingly) features an extensive cast of robots... oh, and some humans, too! This little PVC appears to be a super-deformed (or SD) version of the Robo-Z character. Most of the Robodatchi websites I've found don't translate very well into English, so I still don't know very much about the manga (or Robo-Z). But like a lot of other manga, it has a ton of cool merchandising!

I dug around a bit and found some blister-packed, super deformed PVC figure sets that look an awful lot like the toy that I have. I'm thinking that li'l Robo-Z probably came from one of these sets - maybe it was opened up and they were all sold separately. Let me know if you run across another one of these sets that includes my character!

Anyway, there's not a lot to say about the piece itself - the design is cool, and the sculpt and paint work are decent. This isn't a high end toy or anything, so it's a good example of a figure in this quality/price range. I think I got it for about five dollars - a little higher than your average PVC toy would cost.

Needless to say, I haven't ever seen anything that looks exactly like my toy online. If you use Google, eBay or thefind.com, I'm sure you'll be able to find a lot of stuff that's much better. Happy hunting!

Toy OTD: Japanese Topo Gigio PVC Figure

Since my wife is a puppeteer, I'm sure that there's some cross-pollination involved, but I've always had a fondness for Topo Gigio! I'm too young to have watched him on the Ed Sullivan Show, but the skits are great to see on DVD (well, aside from the really-not-meant-to-be-watched-one-right-after-another thing).

Unfortunately, there's not a lot of domestic merchandise available - not surprising, I guess, for a character who hasn't been famous in the U.S. for about forty years! Like many faded stars, Little Topo does live on in Japan, as well as many Spanish-speaking countries.

I think this mini-figure was originally one of a blind-boxed series of Topo Gigio PVCs. There's a store in Sausolito, CA called The Sausolito Ferry Company that sells opened blind-box figures - you pay a little more for them, but at least you know exactly which figure you're getting! I'm pretty sure that I bought it there for $12-15. I'm not sure, though - maybe it was a Comic-Con purchase.

You don't get mini-figures like this for articulation or packaging, but the sculpt and paint work here are both very nice - there's an admirable level of subtlty, especially in the face. The character's on-model, the textures are strong, and check out that guitar - pretty tight for a mini-figure!

Unfortunately, there's nothing like this available online right now. I'd set up an eBay favorite search, or hook up with a Japanese auction service. Good luck!

Toy OTD: Tomy Magical Collection Figures: 'Runaway Brain' Mickey, Pablo The Cold-Blooded Penguin, Bullseye

I'm generally not a big fan of small PVC figures, but this line is so well sculpted, a lot of them are too good to resist! Here's a few stellar examples.

The sculpts are typically very strong, with good posing and a nice sense of the character's personality. The paint work is also pretty tight, especially considering the size of the figures. If the character needs it, it'll be packaged with a small stand.

Some mini-figures get a little carried away in an attempt to create a background, the result becoming cluttered and busy. For the most part, though, the Magical Collection line ignores backdrops completely, keeping things nice and simple.

The best thing about this series is that it has no focus - any character from any Disney film (feature or short) could be made into a figure. While there's not a lot of really obscure characters, there are plenty of unintuitive ones.

These have all been out for a little while, so you'll have to do some digging to find them. Runaway Brain Mickey is for sale on eBay for $26.99 + $7.99 shipping - yikes! There's a monochrome version of Bullseye available at Toyzz.com for $11.99 + shipping, but I can't find the regular version. I can't find Pablo anywhere, so warm up those eBay Favorite Searches!

Toy OTD: Jidousports PVC Figures

The dog Jidou is the lead character in a sports-themed animated series. It appears from the studio website that they have a television, internet, and merchandising presence; and that the series has aired in various formats in Asia. Whatever. What counts is that he's super-cute!

There's a bunch of figures available depicting Jidou and his friends playing various and sundry sports. As usual, these little guys have great sculpts and nice, tight paint work.

I can't recall how I got a hold of these toys; I thought I ordered them online from the company, but they don't seem to be available that way any longer. When I bought them, they were about $8 or $9 + shipping each. I think eBay is going to be your main hope on this one!

Toy OTD: Plastoy Tintin PVC Figures: Thomson And Thompson

I'm constantly impressed by the quality of Plastoy figures - the sculpts are on-model and well-posed, the paint work is strong, and they have good taste in licenses.

I don't often get figures this small, but I was struck by the subtle differences in the two brothers, and I'm a big Tintin fan in general.

I bought these at a store in San Francisco called Karikter - both of them are available at their online store for $7.50 + shipping each.

Toy OTD: Strangeco, Super 7's Neo-Kaiju Figures: Seonna Hong's Kara Kara Tako Girl (2004)

Today I'm featuring another figure from this great, artist-filled toy line! All ten characters are great, but this is one of my particular favorites. Super-cute, but with a nice, offbeat quality to it. Nice sculpt and paint apps for a capsule toy - each came in its own beautifully labeled egg.

These have been out for a few years now, so they may be tough to find. They do show up on eBay, priced between $8.00 - $20.00 each. You can get this figure right now at designertoystore.co.uk for £7.99 (about $16 USD) + shipping.

Toy OTD: Dark Horse Mutts PVC Figures

A little while ago, Dark Horse released a four-figure set of characters from the Mutts comic strip. Earl and Mooch are both available in larger sizes, but there's two other characters (Guard Dog and Shtinky) included that you can't get any other way. So of course I bought it!

The sculpts and paint apps, while not as good as many imported toys, are still nice for the figures' size. The poses also stand well without bases, not as precariously as the larger vinyls.

These haven't been out all that long (since last October), so you can still get the set for retail - reduced, in fact, to $13.49 + shipping from Things From Another World.