If you like the trying your luck at the gacha vending machines, most major
toy shops in town such as Action City, Toys 'R' Us (TRU) and Simply Toys should
have quite a few new gashapon series from manufacturers like Bandai and Yujin.
As for shokugans and trading figures, all Action City and Comic Connection
outlets should have a wide variety. Other shops like Toy Frenz and Anime
Generation situated in China Square Central and La Tendo in Sunshine Plaza have
some for you to try your luck as well. Even major retailers like TRU, Isetan
Parkway Parade, Seiyu, Takashimaya, Mei-dya supermarket, Cold Storage
supermarket have some new series from manufacturers like Bandai and Konami.
If you are a perfectionist like myself who will go all means and cost to get
a complete set, you should try the following shops (* :highly recommended):
For gashapons, when you buy in a set, you should have at least a piece of the documentation slip (the piece of coloured, folded paper which indicate all the pieces available in this particular series). In most cases the retailers will pack a complete set with a complete number of slips. However, these days the pirates went a step forward with reproduce the slips (but even that the quality of the printing is different as well). However for Bandai gashapons, there's 2 versions for some popular series:
For candy toys, if you are getting a complete set sold by certain retailers, make sure you receive the original box packaging was included for it's authenticity. Most of the time the retailers would not include the candies because it might turned bad by the time you bought it.
Like for candy toys, make sure the original box packaging is included when you make a purchase for a particular series of trading figures. I do spot a carded version for trading figures from Yamato recently which was meant for sales in the U.S. Those are as original as the Japanese versions.
Basically the best way to detect any sign of bootleg would be the price. For
example, if you get a set of gashapons for a quarter or half the price of what
other shops are selling, you need to reconsider it's authenticity.
Paintwork can be another way to detect bootleg gashapons. One good example was a
bootleg version of K&M's Heidi set, in which one of the Heidi figure had
eyes painted gazing another direction from the normal version.
Lastly a warning when you get cheap gashapons from Taiwan or Hong Kong, high
chance that might be fake.
It's definitely easier said than done, because a lot of factors constitute to the final pricing of certain items from various retailers. In this time of intense price wars, no one benefits more than us collectors as we hunt for the best price around. There are also times when we are looking for some hard to find series, and have to pay exorbitant prices. I had been ripped off myself when I bought my first set of gashapons for twice the price I could get from somewhere else, and I'm pretty sure most novice collectors had their bad taste of been over-charge for certain items. So my advice is that you should check around what's the cost price, in Japan that is. Of course you have to take the exchange into consideration, and not to forget the shipping fees.
Now in the seller's perspective, you should have heard a famous Hokkien saying there's nothing that's "fresh and cheap and with a big b**bie"; customers have a lot of wants... they want toys to come in quick, they also want them cheap which is really not feasible. Therefore sometimes we can't blame certain shops for jacking their price because they might be trying to bring in their goods faster for local collectors, thus incurring a higher cost. So as customers we have to consider whether we want "fast and expensive" or "slow and cheap". Another problem with some series is that they had color variants and some like the Final Fantasy Creatures series have 2 color variants (clear and metallic). In the latter case, the metallic and color variants came in same proportion as the full color ones, in such extreme case, you can't even form a complete color set and we are not going into the secret piece yet. So in such cases, there's no choice but for retailers to jack up the prices. In our local context, collectors are still not very appreciative of monochrome variants as yet.
Gashapons as you guys know are capsule toys, and have been kept inside a constraint space for a long time before you take it out and assemble; therefore there's a high chance that some parts especially the long, straight ones will be bent out of position. In certain extreme cases, the parts are so badly bent, you will not be able to fit the entire piece together. Fortunately almost all the gashapons are made of soft PVC which can be manipulated easily with a hot water treatment, I'll guide you step by step:
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| 1. Gashapon in it's original capsule form. | 2. Taking it out, woo, finally Shin getter! | 3. Urgh.. One side of the wing is badly bent. |
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| 4. Prepare 2 bowls, one filled with hot boiling water ; the other with cold water. | 5. Immerse the Shin getter into the hot water for 1 minute. | 6. After that, scoop the piece out (not with your bare hand of course), and immerse into the cold water, while clamping the wing into position. |
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| 7. After a good minute of clamping the wing into position, this is the final state of a bent wing. Easy, isn't it? |
Such bending problems can occur to candy toys or trading figures too, luckily several thoughtful manufacturers always hold the straight parts with hard cardboards to keep the part in place.
I love some sweet key chain figurines as well and through my collections I had quite a number to boast about. However such figurines are not made to stand like other figurines thus you would have to come out with ways and means to stabilize them. The best way would to find a suitable yet simple base for your figurines to station on, below is my experience on dealing with such figurines:
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1. So we have here is an adorable baby Giroro Gochou from "Keroro Gunsou" anime series. This piece here is a "link-up" mascot, meaning you can link it up to other figurines of this series on top and bottom |
2. For my choice of base, I would be hoping clear, elegant acrylic circular ones much like mahjong chips but clear ones. But I only managed to find these bunch of nice round mirrors from "Art Friend" which is a good enough substitute. |
3. Firstly we have to remove the linkers on top and bottom of Giroro. |
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4. Next apply a suitable adhesives on the base of the figurine. This time I uses industrial super glue which doesn't gives nice finish but perhaps that I have limited area at Giroro's bottoms to work with perhaps. |
5. Then find the center of the round mirror and set Giroro there, holding it in position for a good minute or so to allow the adhesive to hold the figurine to the base. |
6. And finally you have our cute baby alien frog on a stable base. Though I found out thatthe smooth mirror face does not hold super glue as well as plastic does but it is good enough for me. |
First of all, we have to look at the nature of the super glue we are using here as well as the material of the toy is made of. As we all know there are several brands and strength of super glue, glues like UHU is pretty mild, usually result in a sticky patch to hold pieces together, however it would be a sight for sore eye with that finish. Stronger glue would give a better finishing, but their constituent might distort the paintwork as many had experienced. As for the material of the gashapon, brittle plastic is more suitable for application of strong glue while better to keep clear of glue from those made by PVC.
There are also times when the figurines just can't stand properly, several collectors including myself would use blue tac, but once again the finish isn't too fantastic. One suggestion is to build a whole diorama to keep your figurines in place. Fortunately the quality of sculpt these days have been revolutionalised by Kaiyodo to be more stable from fallen in shambles.
Gashapons can be really popular that it was all swept out after it was released. Known series like HG-if Dragonball Z and Naruto Real collection 1 had gone through second releases due to their popularity. One way to differentiate between 1st and later press for Bandai gashapons is the presence of 4 embossed holes at either the back or bottom of the figure. The 1st press would have a complete 4 holes, and any subsequent releases will have a hole taken off subsequently (2nd release 3 holes; 3rd release 2 holes so on and so forth).
As for the repaints, this I'm not too sure but I heard that the pieces actually had raised circles instead of embossed holes. With every repaint, one of the hole would be replace by the a raised circle, perhaps someone can verify this claim for me.
People love gashapons because of it's size, and the fact that it doesn't take up much spaces unlike the bigger action figures. However as your collections grew, displaying them can be a problem. I have known some collectors who just kept their series intact in boxes, not intending for display. Others are puzzled on how to display the figurines nicely.
Glass cabinets is a great way, especially your figurines are easily seen, and you can keep your toys free from dust and mildews. With a display light, you can have your mini gashapon museum to boast to your friends. However glass cabinets ain't cheap, regardless whether it's bought from furniture retailers or custom made.
Alternatively several shops including La Tendo are selling display casing for small trading figures, they came in all designs and sizes and even some made for bottlecap figurines. The casing is good if you have only a few outstanding sets you want to display, and those series with big diorama settings can never fit into most of this display boxes.
Lastly like what I do is to make acrylic steps to display as many of my collection as possible, the problem is the accumulation of dust, but you can admire and feel your collections easily. You can also custom made with the measurements of your choice. I always patronize the following workshop for my acrylic steps for a pretty attractive price. The problem is that you had to design yourself and fax to them, you have to self collect the steps as well. Anyway this is the address and contacts:
Good Strong Gum Pte Ltd
Blk 3025 Ubi Road 3
Unit 01-141/143
Singapore 408653
Tel: 67477119
Fax: 68469210
Attn: Emily
© Copyright KK Heng 2006