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Lingo |
Meaning |
Diorama |
My fave genre in which the figurines are sculpted with a background, a scenery which is completed with minute details like accessories etc. |
| variants | Common in trading figures and shokugans in which the "unscrupulous" making the already very tough mission of complete colour set by including different versions of the same sculpt, frequently in a monochrome or monotone colour paintwork. The worst kind has to be the clear or "crystal" variant, however some talented modifiers had a chance to customise their own paintwork. |
| SP | "Secret piece", common in shokugans but these days gashapons also included a SP in their series. The availability of a SP varies from very easy to obtain (like Morinaga One Piece sets and Epoch Doraemon collection) to sure will find in a single inner box (like in the case of Kotobukiya One Coin series) to can't even get one in an entire carton (Square Enix's Final Fantasy Creatures series) Therefore the low availability of a SP jacks it's market value tremendously and it depends on the collectors whether they want to pay that obscene price to get it. Another trend these days is to include a part of the SP in each of the normal pieces, and you have to get the complete set to form the complete SP (such as in the case of Tomy's "Star Ocean 3" and Megahouse's "Dragonball Z capsule series") |
| Kagawa-uette | Kaiyodo's talented sculptor, Kagawa Masahiko has revolutionalised the intricacy of gashapon figures sculpting. His biography includes popular K&M series like World's Famous Theatre series, Akira and Tezuka Ozamu Anthology; K-T's Astroboy series; Horacio's Heidi, the girl from the cheese alps; and "Oh My Goddess" figures from Kaiyodo-Afternoon magazine collaboration projects. |
| Carton | A cardboard box in which manufacturer distribute their candy toys or trading figures to retailers, containing several inner boxes. |
| Inner box (some might call an outer) |
Well decorated display box which contain the individual candy toys/ trading figures' boxes. Normally the cover can be bent, showing a title in which will entice people to buy the boxes inside. |
| Tikam | A malay term, meaning choosing an item at random, not knowing what it is actually. |
| Vignette | Figurines that normally come with a base (most of a time part of a diorama), a good example would be Bandai Ultraman Strange Monsters vignette series. |
| Wonderfest | Kaiyodo-organised biyearly event which give their supporters a sneak preview of the stuffs they are conjuring up in the latter months of the year. Each year there would be a winter (normally in February) and summer (normally in August) Wonderfest held at Tokyo International Convention Centre. It's an event not to be missed by collectors and retailers alike. |
| Exclusive | Japanese love exclusive stuffs, and this has spread into toys collection, Kubrick by Medicom toys might be the biggest culprit to come out with this idea to jack up the price of some toy pieces. Therefore it's not rare to find exclusive figures releasing month in month out, and you might need to perhaps get a magazine or DVD, attend a certain event or visit a certain part of Japan to get these exclusives! |
| Prized items | People always confused between gashapons and prized items. The latter is perhaps what they say "got money also cannot buy". Perhaps that's in the past. Prized items are those toys exclusively to be given as prize in game vending machines in the game centres (like the good old days of UFO catcher). They can range from key changes to vinyl figures to soft toys to handphone straps. Sometime such novelty items are so nicely done that they are highly sought after. Banpresto and Sega are 2 major companies to manufacture such toys. Fortunately retailers have managed to bring in some of these prized items for collectors here. Beware of bootleg though. |
| Hobby Lobby | Famous Kaiyodo retailing shop in Akihabara, Tokyo, and Osaka at Nihonbashisuji. Display all Kaiyodo products (both trading figures and action figures) like a museum, a must for all Kaiyodo fans. |
| Manufacturer Error | Nothing is perfect in this world, even sometime machines can mould certain part wrongly or left out a piece when packing. This is what we call manufacturer error. In Japan, as long as you return to the retailer you bought your toy from within a certain time frame, you can get a new complete piece from the manufacturer. However in Singapore not all the time retailers practise this because unlike Japan, most retailer get their stuffs from a wholesaler, so it's almost impossible to contact the manufacturer. I had a case once with one of my Tales of Phantasia figure with the broom missing, but really thankful that ToyFrenz in Clarke Quay is able to get a new piece for me. I know my friends at La Tendo has such fantastic retail enthics as well. But don't try your luck to cheat a SP! |
| diecast | Certain figures you collect might have some metallic constituents, this is what we called diecast, or what the Japanese called, "Chogokin". |
| Mini bust | Figuax and K&M love making busts of popular characters. Before you think wayward, a bust is a statute showing only the head and perhaps the upper torso (chest). Some people love mini busts, but this is not my cup of tea. |
| MS | Mobile Suit. A HG gashapons series for Gundam as the robots are called mobile suits. |
| Booktoy | A lot of Japanese publications love to come out with an exclusive figure, this is what we know as book toy. Some good example is the Behamut from the FF creatures artbook and Chii on the sofa from Chobits Volume 8. A lot of toy magazines like Hyper Hobby, Be Pal and Figure Oo also include some exclusive booktoys at times. |
| Mail-in exclusives | Of all the exclusive, the write in exclusive is perhaps one of the hardest to acquire, basically we don't live in Japan and are illegible to get it, However with auction sites like yahoo and ebay, anything is possible. Good examples of "mail-in" exclusives are the belldandy figure in 2003 done by Kaiyodo and offered by Afternoon manga magazine. |
| Bottlecap | A lot of drinks are starting to give exclusive trading figures. Pepsi and Coca cola have been coming some popular bottlecap series and other drinks in Japan is joining the bandwagon, now there's even a bottlecap culture there. |
| Trade | Gashapons, candy toys and shokugans are meant to buy at random and trade with fellow collectors when you have the extra. Only lazy people like myself only want to get a complete set. However trading is good because it saves you money and time, and you only will get the pieces that you actually like from the series. |
| Capsule | The capsule of gashapon actually hold a more significant value than for collectors to dump away, of course when it's taking up space. In retailers in Japan, they actually provide you a recycling box for you to throw your unwanted capsules, so the company can recycle. These days manufacturers like Megahouse and Kaiyodo decorated their capsules in such a way that collectors do not bare to part with the capsules. |
Lingo |
Meaning |
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HG |
"High grade" gashapons from Bandai which cover
characters mainly popular console games, manga, anime and live action hero
series. "IF" actually stands of "Imaginative Figure" in which Bandai sculptors made use of the "high grade" concept on human characters instead of mechas (like Gundam MS)/monsters (Godzilla)/live action costumed superheroes (like Ultraman or Kamen Rider). |
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Full Color |
The most popular of the 100¥ "Full Color" series has to be the monthly SD Gundam stages (running at 50++ as of March 2005). Personally I feel this Full Color series represents the true classic meaning of gashapons figurines, which are meant to be cheap and "Super Deformed" to makes things interesting, especially for someone like myself who love SD figurines. (Easier to keep as well) In mid 2004, Bandai gashapons introduce a "Full Color -R-" series for mini figurines of anime series like "Dragonball Z", "One Piece" & "Naruto" as well as console games based "Capcom characters". This line of figurines are non-SD, and basically like HG but very much shrunk in size. However the paintjob is pretty awkward and the market response is lukewarm, perhaps only the DBZ line is persisting, now in it's 5th instalment (as of March 2005) |
| SR "Ver. 1.5" |
"Super Real" series from Yujin gashapons. Covers almost anything from girls to animals to vehicles. The "0.5" versions is a smart (I call it unscruplous) way to earn more from exisiting molds by doing repaints. Some of the repaints do look better than their original series. Yujin's "SR" series have a high tendency to include a couple of chases in each set to annoy avid collectors. I must say the quality of SR series is starting to outbeat the Bandai's HG series ( even some expensive trading figures from companies like Yamato). In additional priced at 200¥ , it only costs $2 in Singapore to capture a piece from the gacha machines. |
| Swing | Bandai gasha's keychain collection is known as "Swing". One interesting to note that Bandai loves to name their swing series with cute names like "Kira Kira" or "Bura Bura". Swing series usually cost 200¥ even though their figurines usually resemble the Full Color series but better painted. |
| Mascot | Used by both Bandai and Yujin for their handphone strap series. Some common series include Yujin's "Double Mascot" (which bears 2 figurines instead a conventional one) as well as "Okigae Mascot" (found in both companies, trademark being of course the characters bearing extra costumes that can be shed, like the popular Winnie the Pooh Okigae mascot series). |
| Kuttsukun Desu | Bandai's fridge magnet series, the no. 1 ongoing series is the "Soreike! Anpan man" series (going to Part 40 by March 2005). Not very popular here in Singapore. Usually 200 ¥ |
| Figure DX | By Bandai gashapons. Very similar to HG figurines, so far seen for "Doremi Ojamajou" as well as "Futari wa Pretty Cure" series. |
| Geniro (Original Color) Wildlife Toukan (Pictorial) |
Popular Yujin wildlife figurines which feature insects, spiders, shellfishes, fishes, reptiles, amphibians etc. Quality is almost as good as the Takara's "ChocoQ" series. |
| Nari Kiri | Bandai gashapon's goods (most probably for children) including stuffs like accessories, wallets etc. for kids to cosplay themselves as their fave anime characters. |
| Cinemagic (Paradise) | Yujin's diorama vignette series. So far only done so for Disney movies as well as "Hyokkori Hyoutan Shima". Usually 300¥ |
| Real & Imagination collection |
2 popular Bandai HG series. "Real collection" (popularized by Naruto) mainly involved a HG figurine been made into a vignette usually with a base scu;pted in the form of their powers/skills as based from respective anime series. "Imagination collection", a 300¥ series, made up of high quality diorama vignette series of particular anime or live action hero series. |
| Chimakore | Very similar to SD Full Color series, except every piece came with a black base, pasted with a message the characters had said from respective anime series. |
| Moe.a.la.Mode | Classy 300¥ HG series started in late 2004 to focus on cute anime girls. Simply "Moe" |
| Capsule Town/b> | Yujin's interactive capsule miniature model series in which you can form town, complete with vehicles. |
| Characters Rail | Bandai gashapons with mini model trains based on several popular anime/ live action heroes series. |
| Egg Chap & Kingdom Pole | Yujin's cute Disney Characters based toys . Egg Chaps are Disney Characters made into an egg form which you can open up to put your fave stuffs within. Kingdom Poles are characters made into American Indian style totem pole pieces which can be stacked on top each other. |
| Totem Dome/ Pocket World/ Characters Block | Bandai's new series of gashapons which featured little dioramas in a small container like a dome or a cube block. So far has done for anime series like "Doraemon", "Panda Z" and "Keroro Kunsou". |
| Machine chronicles | Bandai gashapons paying tribute to the vehicles seen in live action features like Kamen Rider, other Tokusatsu series as well as Thunderbirds. |
| Enfubi Collection | "Enfubi" is referrinng to the soft vinyl material in which a lot of classic Popy Ultraman figurines are made of, being hollow in the inside. Bandai gashapons have been starting to produce a miniature enfubi collections to some of the live action heroes series. |
| D.G.P | "Digital Girls Party", Millenium's very own collection of risque gashapon figurines. Starting their 500¥ gashapons since early 2000s, the series grow from strength to strength and looks relentless to produce more "ecchi" girls to satisfy the pervertic needs of fanboys. The figurines are of pretty high quality nonetheless. |
Lingo |
Meaning |
| 20th Century Famous Manga masters | Furuta has done a series of trading figures to commemorate some of the most famous manga masters of the 20th Century including the author of Devilman and Getter Robo, Go Nagai; author of tetsujin 28, Yokoyama and author of Maison Ikkoku and Ranma, Takabashi. |
| ChocoQ and Chocoegg | I bet you know Kinder Surprise, Japanese love toys in chocolate egg as well, therefore companies like Furuta and Takara been coming out plenty of series of chocoegg figurines. It's a tough job collecting these as you might have to have high dental coverage! While Takara's ChocoQ mainly does animal figurines by Kaiyodo; Furuta's ChocoQ is more extensive, covering even trains, planes and accessories. Tomy has been doing a Disney character based, "Choco party" series as well. |
| World Military Museum | Another Takara-Kaiyodo collaboration for a series of small scale military vehicles like tanks, fighter planes and now even warships. Very exqusitely done and well celebrated by military miniatures collectors. |
| 1/144 Workshop | F Toys Confect's very own miniature vehicles series. No collaboration with Kaiyodo here. |
| Shin Rishi Roman & Historical Figure Musuem |
Two shokugan series which covers historical characters both from Japana and abroad. The former is by Furuta while the latter is by F Toys Confect which sometime might be collaborating with Kaiyodo. |
| Sekai no Shinwa & Nihon no Minwa |
Popular shokugan series from Kabaya in which they enlisted the help of Volks design village to help them with the design and production of the figurines, usually based on ancient mythology and old Japanese folks tales. They even did a set of dragons in 2004 as well. |
| SF Movie Selection | Science Fiction Movies based. Konami famous trading figure line which covers popular sci fi productions like Alien, Thunderbirds, Mighty Jack, Battlestar Galactica, Gamera and UFO. |
| Charapucchi | "Chara" stands for characters while "pucchi" means small sized. Thus basically this popular Bandai shokugan series has a distintive design in which the various characters of the respective anime series are to be seated on top of something spherical. They have done a few series for "Dragonball" (sitting on top of the dragonballs) as well a series for "Gundam Seed Destiny" (sitting on top of Halo). |
| Pucchi Sample & My Style series |
2 wildly popular miniatures series from Re-ment. The former usually involves food stuffs and eventually miniature foodstuffs-associated appliances like disply shelf, refrigerator and even a mini kitchen. The latter is an elegant series of everyday used accessories miniatures, highly sought by many collectors including Pinkt:Street dolls lovers. |
| The "omoi de" series | Megahouse's miniature series which are great compliments to the Re-ment miniatures. A lot of focus on nostalgic accessories. Another Pinky fans' favorite collectibles. |
| Timeslip Glico | A series of nostalgic based shokugans from Glico. The variety includes nice nostalgic miniatures and "Tetsujin 28" & "Ultraman" figurines from Kaiyodo to miniature nostalgic magazines and music CDs. |
| Tokusatsu Encyclopedia | High quality Tokusatsu figurines from Iwakura and Orion. Mainly covers classi kaiju (monsters) like Godzilla and Gamera. |
| The "Meikan" series | Bandai vignette based shokugans which have covered classic series like Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Godzilla and Tatsunoko Pro. Heroes. |
| Crystal Club | UHA's trademark miniature crystal miniatures. Not much ravings in Singapore. |
| Choco Snack | Morinaga's tasty chocolates to compliment nice figurines from series like "Konjiki no Gash Bell", "One Piece", "Dragonball", Kamen Rider etc. |
| Soul of Figuration | High quality figurines from series like "Dragonball Z", "One Piece" and "Steamboy" been packed with "rumu" sweet from Bandai. |
| Mini Figure Selection | Bandai's very own bottlecap figurines collections which featured anime series like "MS Gundam","Dragonball", "Saint Seiya" and "Steamboy". |
Lingo |
Meaning |
| Chara-in-Pack & Capsule series | Megahouse's high quality diorama based trading figure series. Did a good 5 series of Capsule figures for Dragonball Z and a set on "Gundam Seed". "Chara-in-Pack" is a new concept which have done for popular anime series like "Naurto", "One Piece" & "Bleach". High price but nice packaging. |
| S.I.C Takumi |
Super Imaginative Collection. A Bandai action figures series for Kamen Rider and associated live action hero. It's so popular that there are 3 series of S.I.C trading figures. Sculpted by the master himself, Taketani Takashi. |
| One coin | A hugely popular trading figures series from the famous garage and model kit maker Kotobukiya. These linage of trading figures are in a league of their own, with great paintwork as their main feature. Of course the 500¥ price is one of the kind also |
| Story
Image Figure & Capcom Figure Collection |
Yamato's line of anime trading figures, so far
as done for shows like "Love Hina", "Rurouni Kenshin", "Hellsing", "Berserk", "Giant Robo" and "Intro Depot". Future series involved include "Trigun", "Cowboy Bebop",
"sCRYed", "Bubblegum Crisis", "Bakutenshi" etc.
Yamato also doing a series of Capcom based characters trading figures such as "Chun-li and Cammy" as well as "Morrigan and Lilith". Both series are overpriced and badly sculpted. |
| TFC | Yujin's trading figure collections. Very easy to decipher the abbreviations indeed. |
| Chesspiece EX & DX & Jr. | Megahouse's trademark chesspiece figurines collection is gaining momentum since the "Dragonball" and "Kamen Rider" series back in 2003. Now they divide to so many series even a "Jr." series which is battle game series targetted for children. |
| C Model Heroines | Megahouse high quality and highly priced trading figure series mainly on heroines of various anime series new and old. Some famous series include "Ace Heroines", "Dragon Heroines", "Super Robots Heroines" etc. |
| Trading Arts | Square Enix's high quality trading figurines brand. Series coverd include "Full Metal Alchemist", "Final Fantasy Creatures", "Final Fantasy Characters" and "Front Mission". |
| C Works | Epoch's own high quality trading figure series. Simple sculpt and finishes, typical of Epoch's quality. |
| Neo Super Revolution | Medicos Entertainment's exqusite trading figure series which covers classic anime series like "Tiger Mask", "Ashita no Joe", "Kinnikuman" and "Galaxy Express 999". |
| FiguaX Dynamic Block | Happinet robin and FiguaX's immensely popular trading figure series which are intricate bust figurines of characters by great artists like Go Nagai and Mitsuteru Yokoyama; Streetfighter characters, live action movie "Azumi and even "Cutie Honey". |
© Copyright KK Heng 2005