tatsunokofan
Gatch Guru
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Registration Date: 03-12-2006
Posts: 1513
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Hi all!
A new, and not inexpensive, Gatchaman item has been announced -- a polyresin figure statue of Jun! Produced as a limited edition of 300 pieces by a company named R.A.W.S. (Which stands for "Real ArtWork Series).
The figure shows Jun's head, torso, and legs to just above her knees, and is mounted on top of a base designed to look like her Yo-yo. The Yo-yo is then mounted on top of a black cube-like base with silver plates bearing the Gatchaman name and a serial number. All told, the figurine will measure 28cm tall x 9.7cm wide x 9.7cm deep.
As I mentioned, the figurine is not cheap. She retails for 14,800 yen (15,540 yen, after taxes), roughly $137.00, so be prepared to dig deep if you want one.
The figurine is scheduled for a late-November/early-December release, but preorders are being taken now for her. If you have a favorite Japanese hobby store to order things like this from, you might wish to check with them about her. From a quick check, I've found that she can be preordered through both CD Japan and Hobbylink Japan, which can be found at:
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/index.html
and:
http://www.hlj.com/
I have dealt with both in the past, and can verify that they are both trustworthy retailers. CD Japan has a preorder deadline of September 25th, but I do not know for how long Hobbylink Japan will accept them. I wouldn't dawdle if you really want one of these.
Anyway, I just figured you'd want to know!
James
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10-09-2008 22:00
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tatsunokofan
Gatch Guru
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Registration Date: 03-12-2006
Posts: 1513
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10-09-2008 22:14
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tatsunokofan
Gatch Guru
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Registration Date: 03-12-2006
Posts: 1513
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Hi all!
Ummm... Should I mention that the guys are already wearing skin-tight uniforms, so "clingy" is not really an issue there...
| quote: | | If they do a Joe figurine, they cannot cut his legs off too -that would just be so wrong! |
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Actually, Bandai has already done something like that with Joe, though on a much smaller and less expensive scale. Back in early 2005, they released a series of vending machine toys of Tatsunoko characters. For 300 yen apiece, you could get Ken, Joe, Casshan, or Hurricane Polymer. Each of these pre-painted figures were made of soft plastic and had to be assembled by the buyer. Once assembled, they measured between 3 and 4 inches in height. While Ken was done as a full figure, Joe was sculpted from the knees up.
Here's what they looked like:
Personally, I didn't think the Joe looked bad. Had they done him as a full figure, he'd have been much smaller, like the Ken figure was. For the size of these figures, the detailing on both of them was very nicely done. Not as nice as the Jun figurine, mind you, but still very nice.
James
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11-09-2008 16:58
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tatsunokofan
Gatch Guru
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Registration Date: 03-12-2006
Posts: 1513
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Hi all!
| quote: | | I had a question for you. On eBay I see some 12 inch figures of Ken and Joe from Mediacom. Some have ridiculously high prices. Are they very rare or was there a limited number of copies? |
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With the Medicom Ken and Joe figures, it's sort of a yes-and-no. When Medicom first released the figures in Japan in early 1998, they were fairly expensive, 9,800 yen apiece (Around $90.00 each). For their initial release, each figure came with a limited edition cloisonne pin (The red bird head for Ken, the "G" symbol for Joe). A second standard-issue run followed without the pins as a bonus. Surprisingly, the non-limited edition versions seem to be available in smaller numbers, so I suspect that there were actually fewer of them made.
Anyway, because of the high retail price when these figures first hit the market, the figures tended to be sold on the secondary market for high prices as well.
This changed when Battle of the Planets mania briefly hit in 2002/2003. At that time, Diamond Comic Distributors made a deal with Medicom to reissue the Ken and Joe figures in blue Battle of the Planets packaging for the U.S. market (The original Japanese packaging were black boxes). With the tooling for the figures already done, and with Diamond purchasing a large enough quantity of the figures, Diamond was able to sell them for around $30.00 apiece.
Aside from the different packaging, one noticable difference between the two releases were the figures themselves. In the years following the original Japanese release, Medicom had redesigned their standard male figure body, but the uniforms worn on the Battle of the Planets releases used the original pattern for the old style body. The result is that the uniform doesn't seem to quite fit right. As Heather puts it, they look like droopy drawers Mark and Jason.
Also, in case you wondered, the Battle of the Planets versions of the figures did not come with the cloisonne pins of the original limited editions.
So, in general, the original Japanese release can still command a higher price, simply because it is the original Japanese release. Of course, the prices on the Japanese versions have dropped somewhat over the years, simply because of the existence of the BotP versions. The Battle of the Planets version, having been produced in higher quantities, usually goes for less. This assumes, of course, that the seller has any idea of what they actually have.
So, to finally answer your questions directly, the Japanese release is more rare, but not overly so, but the Battle of the Planets version is far more common (At least here in the U.S.). There was a limited edition run in Japan (Look for the sticker on the box saying "Limited Edition!!" and the pin visible in the box over their left shoulder), but there were plenty of them made. The U.S. release had no limited edition. Technically, there are a limited number of copies available, simply because the figures are no longer being manufactured, but they were made in decent quantity before production shut down.
| quote: | | also noticed the Dark Jun figure--where did the idea for that come from? Was it a discarded idea from any of the series? |
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No it was not. The "Dark Version" Cool Girl Jun figure was nothing more than Takara wanting to release an "Alternative" version of Jun when they reissued the standard version of the Jun Cool Girl figure back in 2006. They had apparently considered doing a version of Jun in her civilian clothes as the "Alternative" version (Which is what they did with the Cutey Honey reissue they released at the same time), but they decided that this made her look too much like a Barbie-style fashion doll, and went with the Dark Version instead. Personally, I'd rather have had her in civies.
James
This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by tatsunokofan on 11-09-2008 at 21:08.
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11-09-2008 18:37
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I'm still waiting for the dark one to get more reasonably priced.
