Monthly Archive for May, 2010

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SD ZAKUs

SD Zaku from various SD Color Gundam series (gashapon)
Manufacturer: Bandai

ZAKOOO ZAKOOO TIMMEEEE!!
heheh, my most favourite grunt from Japanese mecha series all the time!!
Zaku is one of the most famous grunt mecha from Japanese legendary mecha series, Kidous Senshi Gundam / Mobile Suit Gundam

and as a Zeon mechas big fans, I’m collecting almost every variations of Zaku
this time, it’s the SD version’s chance to got all the spotlight, later I’ll share another figure type of this green dudes

what is a Trading Figure?

trading figure, or blind box figure are toys that are sold randomly inside a closed box
you buy one box by not knowing what is the figure inside, is it the one that you wanted? or the one that you already got hundreds of it? you never know…
the original idea of the trading figure is, like the name, you can trade your double one with another collector who need that, vice versa
many Japanese characters sold using this method, and the latest trend, urban toys also sold by this method, like the one that produced by Medicom or Kidrobot

commonly, it looked somethin like this bunch

some people love the thrill when they buy one of this, but nowadays more and more shops sold them by marking which figure/toy is inside, and making the most popular character to be sold out first -_-’
well, can’t blame them, I also prefer to know what is inside and find the one that I wanted
hey, even the manufacturer sometimes already mark them from the beginning, like this R-Style trading figure series and the other:

you can tell which figure is inside by reading the box’s top
even if we can’t read Japanese, we could use the number to choose which one we will get
no more doubles for me…um, maybe I still love doubles for some army building figures ;p

what is a Gashapon?

so, what is this gashapon thingy?
gashapon actually is a vending machine system, introduced for the first time around 70′s in Japan and later became a very popular trend
commonly, this term was use to describe any toys came from a capsule like container from a random vending machine, the toy itself usually need a minor assembly before it could be display or play with

nowadays, the most common gashapon system that we could find almost everywhere is the one which developed by Bandai,the Capsule Station Gashapon, it looks somethin like this

although there are also a lot of other gashapon developer such as Yuujin

“gashapon” term itself came from the machine sound, after you inserted the coin and spin the circular lever in front, the machine will stir the container and make “gacha-gacha” sounds until your random capsule will fall down to the tray and make a “pon” sound…

hundreds of Japanese character has been produced as gashapon, and even some US character and the latest trend, the urban toys such as Touma’s Time Capsule series
There are many hardcore collectors for this kind of toys, me myself also a fans of this figure type, it was one of my early collection

this vending system already spread all over the world, it also became a common sight in my country started 2-3 years ago
well, you guys who live in Japan are very lucky, there are many huuuuge gashapon paradise scattered all over the country, like this one in the Yodobashi Camera Umeda Osaka

some gashapon machine contains a rare figure series or a popular one, so people usually make a hunt for this machine also when they travel to Japan or other places

happy hunting then

greetings from a toys fan

hiya guys!! 
finally I decided to take the risk and started my own Toys Blog ;p

well, short story bout me, I’m just another person who love toys

I’ve been collecting toys since I was a toddler, no foolin… while other kids play with their toys; fight them with some other toy, giving them a bath, show them off at the neighborhood playground, or even blowing them with a firecracker, I rather took them out of the box in my house and just stared at them, playing by pretending everything happens just in my thought… geez, what a weirdo ^^’
but that was the little me, I really prefer to display them rather than playing with them, even until now

for me, toys are somethin that you display in your room or house, much more like a work of art such as statue from a certain era that could tell a lot of historical/nostalgic story to me. It’s more like a commemorative work of art of the popular culture. That’s why I prefer to called the things that I’m collecting as Figures rather than Toys.

what am I collecting? almost every kind of toys
including Japanese Figures(such PVC, gashapon, gunpla, tokusatsu, etc), US Characters (Marvel, DC, McFarlanes, etc), die cast, urban toys, Lego, Playmobil, vintage characters, trading card, toys gun and so on…
but, since I’m just a noob-low budgeted toys collector,I only got a little collection from each category ^^’

ENOUGH TALK!! it’s time to bring out the Figures!!
I’ll try to regularly update this blog whenever it’s possible, it’s kinda hard being a full time employee -_-