Ken the Eagle – CollectionDX – Toy Reviews, Japanese Toys, Action Figures and more

Gatchaman

I am sure new collectors of vintage Japanese Soft Vinyl toys believe that many classic characters might be out of their reach or price range due to high demand and a diminished supply of figures available. Rightfully so many of those high dollar figures are worth their value but there are quite of few high quality soft vinyl figures of classic characters still available for mere pocket change.

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Take this original 1970’s Popy produced mini soft vinyl figure of Gatchaman from Gatchaman II. These regularly appear on Y-Auctions between $5.00 and $15.00 with my example being purchased for 500yen.

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As far as I know, these figures were released in a set of five on a blister and card packaging and were released when the sequel to Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, Gatchaman II was aired. I always believe that these figures were missing their capes but upon viewing a photo of a still sealed package of the figures the capes were never included. There are another set of mini soft vinyl Gatchaman figures but they are actually smaller than these later figures and they have a permanently stretched up arms although they do come with capes.

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The figure itself is a great and classic representation of Gatchaman. I love the colors and sculpt all around and it is a fantastic period representation of this classic character with all it’s out of scale funkiness. Articulation consists of moveable waist and arms. I particularly like the anime look of the face sculpt. Although these are mini-soft vinyl figures and are smaller than your average sized soft vinyl figure they are still at a reasonable size and look great in the display case.

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For around $10.00 how can you miss out in these? Keep in mind I am sure a sealed package of all five or trying to locate Jun the Swan or Ryu The Owl are more difficult to acquire and cost more but if you are like me and not particularly concerned with packaging for soft vinyl figures this is a great inexpensive purchase of an original Popy 70’s produced figure of a classic anime character.