Toy OTD: Princess Mononoke Image Collection Maquette: Ashitaka (2003)

Almost every bit of merchandise based on a Studio Ghibli film is amazing, and this piece is especially good! Princess Mononoke is one of my favorite Miyazaki films, and this is a beautiful sculpt of a possessed Ashitaka (one of my favorite sequences in the film, too!). The pose is really lively, and the well-applied paint work is spot-on model. Nice!

The figure is packaged separately from the base, but it's simply a matter of setting it up - that really helps minimize shipping damage (as opposed to molding the figure and base together). Ashitaka's sword is also packed as another piece for the same reason (I haven't included it here).

Japanese merchandise is generally limited and quickly 'retired', and this piece is no exception. There's a few for sale online, but they've gone up to $300 + shipping! Grit your teeth and get shopping - it'll probably only get worse if you wait (though you could try to dicker if one comes up in "or-best-offer" mode on eBay) - good luck!

Picture OTD

Someone went to a lot of trouble! Pretty awesome.

Image courtesy of mine.icanhascheezburger.com. Thanks also to Roger Colton for the heads up!

Toy OTD: Ghibli Vinyl Totoro Bank: The Cat Bus

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!

Trailer For New (Sort-Of) Ghibli Film

From ghibliworld.com:

Kitaro Kosaka’s director debut from 2003, Nasu: Andalusia no Natsu (or Nasu: Summer in Andalusia as it's called in English) will receive a sequel this year called Nasu 2. For those haven’t heard of Nasu: Andalusia no Natsu, it was the first Japanese animation film ever to be selected for the Cannes Film Festival. All though it's a Madhouse anime, it's still sort of a Studio Ghibli film as director Kitaro Kosaka is one of the main animators of Studio Ghibli. He worked on Studio Ghibli films like Howl's Moving Castle (animation director), Mononoke Hime (animation supervisor), Spirited Away (animator supervisor), Laputa: Castle in the Sky (key animator), Grave of the Fireflies (key animator) and many more.

Continuing its story in Japan, this year its sequel Nasu 2 will be released. Kitaro Kosaka will team up again with Madhouse. More importantly Yoshida Kenichi joined the team as animation director, who is a famous Studio Ghibli artist as well. In the past he worked as key animator on Ghibli films like Princess Mononoke, Whisper of the Heart, Porco Rosso, Only Yesterday and many more. Anyway, there now is a trailer of Nasu 2 available, so check it out!