Gashapon Rakuen - Top Ten 2009

Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in. The famous quote from Michael Corleone, portrayed by the efferverscent Al Pacino from "Godfather III". This truly was how I felt for the year of 2009.

I had been tightening the purse strings and it was evident that the purchases were dwindling but because of the high yen prices, expenditure remained the same as the year before. 2010 looked to continue in this fashion and I might not yet totally abstain from collecting cool looking figurines from Japan or elsewhere.

So what's the trend in the "フィギュアマニアーク(Figure Maniac)" scene for the past 12 months? Good Smile Company's Nendoroids are gaining steam and certainly made the year theirs. As you could see the purchase of 8 Nendoroids by yours truly are no fluke showing. An ecletic selection of characters they had done from both the TV anime and game spectrum. Their Pucchi series are worth a collect as well with their foray into the "Death Note" series as well as "Vocaloid". They even ventured into making plush toys in the mold of Nendoroid. Let's just say only the real foolish might splurge on those.

The action figure trend continues to blossom with Kaiyodo and Max Factory on the frontline locking horn with their Revoltech and figma series respectively. Revoltech had 3 series running concurrentlly, namely the Kawaguchi series, Queensblade series and Hakuto no Ken Revolution. This ensured there was continuity in release throughout 2009. The latter release of the Sengoku Basara pair surely has to be the highlight of the year. Meanwhile in the Max Factory camp, it was an illustrious 2009 with the figma series gaining momentum as it continues to forge on. Despite putting popular series like "Lucky☆Star" and "Mahou Shoujo Nanoha" in the forefront, they have also dabbled with some obscure series like "muv-luv alternative" and "Golgo 13". 2010 will continue to see this duel to ensue as Revoltech ventured into the Sci Fi genre as one will expect the likes of Alien, Batman and even Jack Skellington to be Revoltechized. Other action figurines series such as Square Enix's Playarts, Bandai's S.H. Figure, Aoshima's Mobip and Yamato's v.m.f just have to take a back seat.

In the figurine scene, things had been much nullified as compared to recent time although a couple of companies like Griffen Enterprise and Taki Corporation could not stop producing figurines of slighted quality. My personal favored manufacturers were still the old timers like Alter, Kotobukiya, GSC and Max Factory despite Megahouse's Excellent Model truly as the name implies to be "excellent". Not many notable new companies joined the revolution in the past 12 months, I could recall Uplark and First Class being a couple of them Yoko of "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann" and Kanu Unchou from "Ikkitousen" were the "In-Girls" for the year but it was Saber Lily from "fate/ulimited code" and alternative versions of Hatsune Miku from "Vocaloid" that take the spotlight. Ultimately it was a year for series with plenty of girls with big swords or other types of weapons such as "Queen's Blade", "Ikkitousen", "Nanoha", "Sengoku Rance", "Koihime Musou" and "Hyakka Ryoran(百花繚乱)". A little known PC game "Toho Project" then swooped the scene in the latter half of the year.

Trading figurines had been dwindling along the line of being fading into oblivion while coming out a couple of endearing series for 2009. The main theme of the year for me is "Super Deformed". This type of figurines has always a niche in the Japanese toys but it made successful return for the past year, owed very much to the overwhelming success of Nendoroid no less. The "Big Head Anime Heroes" series from Plex/Zakka/ Tokimeki.com have also set the scene alight with dabbling with many popular Shounen Jump series. Other notable SD trading figurines include Kotobukiya's One Coin Grande and ASCII Media Works' Nintengo and Bandai's Choco Minto, Petit Prop Plus and R-Style.

Shokugans had been the domain of Bandai, Re-ment and F Toys. Adults don't get enticed because some god-awful candies or chocolates. Well it has been like that since Horico had stopped collaborating with Kaiyodo. Beside certain One Piece Collection series as well as Pucchi Sample contemporaries, it had been a bleak year for candy toys.

Bandai tried their best to rejuvenate an ailing gashapon genre with a new "Digital Grade (DG" class with better sculpting and paintjob. Interest has barely been rekindled but capsule was now widely regarded as merely kids' toys as it first started out to be. Yujin or now known as Takara Tomy Arts as well as System had also supplanted into a dormant industry which waits for its next eruption.

Finally 2009 has been a pretty year for prized items. The quality the likes of Banpresto, Taito or Sega produced superceded their cost price and collectors embraced it. While many preferred the challenge to go to game centers and throw in coins to go grab these assets, many toy shops these days offered them with a slightly hiked price. Banpresto definitely had a decorative time and in their new "World Directory" series which they did for Dragonball and then One Piece, they got a collector like myself who was sucker for such large characters ensemble series hooked. Of course the cost of the Dragonball series made me steered off but on any given chance I might still grab it at a more affordable price range. Then came the real money sucking propanda of them all: Ichiban Kuji (一番くじ).
Making use of the ancient old "buy a ticket and snitch a prize" format which parallel gambling except that you actually get something at the end of it as of gashapon and trading figures.
Many popular series including "Neon Genesis Evangelion", "One Piece", "Dragonball","Naruto", "Code Geass" and "Macross Frontier" were featured and made fans and collectors alike to fall into the poisonous pit.
The prizes were categorized into various levels, "A" being the most desirable but the preference is subjective and many series have some alluring items up for grab. This Kuji phenomenon looked to sweep the scene in 2010 and let's hope I can strayed off it, though I have already fallen into it a couple of times myself.


Manufacturer: Megahouse
Month of Release: January
I had my run-in with Megahouse's long running Dragonball Capsule series. Despite the series churned out some classic vignettes, I had not really bought into collecting the whole series. When Shounen Jump celebrated their 40th anniversary in 2008, there was a myriad of celebatory events. The most prominent of it all was the Dragonball crossed One Piece and Megahouse jumped on it to produce this set which really epitomized the interesting diorama creation of the series with the signature snazzy coloring; a really colorful start to 2009.


Manufacturer: Bandai
Month of Release: October
It is affirmative now that the One Piece Collection series is a real top brass in terms of quality. Despite not as super deformed as before, this series is gaining from strength to strength and now a staple for all collectors of One Piece figurines. The "Infiltrate Impel Down!" set is the second of the three parts released in 2009 and it covered the latest arc in the manga and anime. The line-up with the prison wrecking crew for Luffy was top notch. The supporting line up including the chief prison warden Magellan, his assistant Hannybaru, Shichibukai Hancock and her sister of Amazon Margaret also help propelled this set to the ninth position of the year end top ten.


Manufacturer: Benelic
Month of Release: November
How you want to spend 365 days staring on a piece of calendar that really spice up your day? Benelic who possessed the rights to Studio Ghibli productions always looked to entice true blue fans of those fantastic animated features with some really interesting polystone made table calendars. It had been 3 years since my last "Tonari no Totoro" 3D calendar and this 2010 edition is yet another charmer with Mei on the swing draped of a huge tree which was the frame for the calendar itself. Ingenious and makes you look twice whenever you are down in the coming year.


Manufacturer: Banpresto
Month of Release: November
"Strong World" is the 10th animated film of the One Piece series and the first time author Eiichiro Oda was overseeing this project. The film of course sparked aggressive merchandising to promote the movie and one of those, the Banpresto Ichiban Kuji gave us a full 8 piece set of 1/10 scale figurines of the Straw Hat crew in glistering hitman attire which I believed should play a crucial part in the movie. I plunged in quite a bit of money to snag the remaining figurines and managed to snag this pair and they look great by themselves.


Manufacturer: Plex
Month of Release: May
Plex's Anime Heroes series had touched on One Piece with the Winter Island-Chopper story arc which the ninth theatrical feature was based upon. This year they decided to start afresh with the entire One Piece story beginning with this volume which condensed a fair bit of Luffy and gang s' adventure into the Grand Line. I really fancy the characters selection for this set especially I was a rather late bloomer into the OP frenzy, therefore missing out some of the old figurine collections in the early years. Of course the quality these days are much better.


Manufacturer: Plex
Month of Release: March
Like the Dragonball Capsule series, I had convinced myself I was not a big Dragonball fan enough to collect their long running Anime Heroes series as well. However when Plex went on to produce a series featuring characters from Toriyama's endearing mega hit series unleashing their ultimate techniques, I was bought. Keep this series going man!


Manufacturer: Good Smile Co.
Month of Release: October
Truthfully I hated the "fate/stay night" anime. I had never touched their PC nor PSP games and felt the popularity was overrated, but when Type-Moon went to spice up Saber's attire for their new game "fate/unlimited code" and gave her a "Lily" suffix, the entire otaku world went gaga. When GSC produced this spell-binding Nendoroid doll, you just can't help buyt fall in love with it.


Manufacturer: Koei
Month of Release: December
2009 was a year when Japan was infatuated with their Sengoku (Warring) era, more on this in the review of this set. Capcom's Sengoku Basara really took the scene by storm but it was gaming rivals Koei that had dabbled with these historical features in their mindless massacre games better known in this part of the world as "Samurai Warriors". Koei had been releasing SD figurines for their "Sangoku Musou" series previously but it was their first volume of the Japanese counterparts that really was the winner for them this year for me.


Manufacturer: Square Enix
Month of Release: February
How can we complete our countdown without any contribution from Square Enix? Final Fantasy Dissidia is a cheap excuse of a PSP game spawned to bring the protagonists of all the previous FF series together under one action RPG platform which fanboys got hooked onto the bait willingly. However for me the Trading Arts series featuring Cloud, Squall, Zidane and Tidus as well as the Warrior of Light in the original Final Fantasy with real pristine quality was a must buy and a definite featurette on this top ten.


Manufacturer: Good Smile Co.
Month of Release: March
So who has the audacity to ward off the combined might of Cloud and co.? It was none other than Zetsubou Sensei himself! I have not have the pleasure to catch the anime series but a story about a highly pessismistic teacher who had lost all hopes in life really piqued my interest and when GSC gave us a Nendoroid rendition of it with the most comedic face of a figurine of all time, there was no way Nozomu sensei will not win the top accolade of 2009. I hope this title will refrain Nozomu from ending his life a bit longer.

Now look at the winners of the 3 categories:



Roronoa Zoro is one cool swordsman and aspired to be the best in the Grand Line. However usually our algae-infested hair friend looks like a broody chap in some aged Japanese man's outfit but when he is in the Strong World movie, Zoro ditched his gawky attired and go for a more classy and slick hitman get-up, In this beauty of a figurine, Zoro slugged a mammoth of a gun on his shoulder and together with his truimvirate of blades buddies, he is a man of a mission and snagged the Best Male Figurine of the year award.



As mentioned, Yoko Littner is one of the most made figurine in the market for 2009 and there had been a few gems out there but when I first saw this Alter 1/8 scale rendition of Yoko in a Western outlaw outfit, I was totally bought despite my staunch abstain from complete figurines which usually cost a bomb. The sculpt for this Yoko firm as a prominent bodily feature and the paintjob was up there with the Alter patented quality. Stunning feminine power to storm her way to win the Best Female award.

It had not been a spectacular year in terms of diorama vignette. I did not acquire either of the Formation Art series and Kaiyodo only did a blwon up version of their old K&M Kamui vignette. So the Best Diorama accolade goes to Chopper & Piccolo. It was just amusing to the see the awkward looking Demon King obliging to the autograph request of our cute reindeer friend.