- “Trading
Toys”," Gashapon” , or as they are often described “Capsule
Toys” . They are easily found products in Vending Machines and have the characteristc to came in “blind
packaged” boxes this is important to stimulate the demand and
collectability of these items where repeat purchases are desired by the
manufacturer to stimulate trading amongst children ( and adults!). For the
European
market they have a similarity with Kinder Eggs, but the products of these new
trading toys are much better and well made, they are pre-painted, pre-built and
require a minimum of assembly. In certain brands they came with accessories like
decals, stands and electric engines!! And then there are a smaller
limited percentage of kits or items with “special” colour
paint schemes and even one or more limited edition
aircraft. These are often also known as “chase” items.
This
structure as I am sure you are aware allows for the sale of these items to be
stimulated in a number of ways a) The basic collection of all colour variations,
b) where extra decals are supplied the standard paint types can be varied
through use of different airframe identifiers or theatre markings, c) specials
and chase items are obvious the items all collectors will be seeking by
swapping, trading or buying at premium. The Projekt Flieger Series for exemple
was also unique in that it came with highly sought after “mini kits” (Also
in 1/144) such as 20mm Vierlinks AA guns, 37mm AA Guns, sdkfz222 Armoured
Cars etc.
In
recent times it has been noted that as well as interesting and collectable
in their own right, these items can fill interesting gaps in the Kit
market, due to their inexpensive cost they are ideal for remodelling and
or repainting, indeed some people even collect them in volume to use for
the act or “war gaming”. And they bring some itens never
released in traditional plastic kits market.
As
I have been asked to write this in the context of aviation modelling, I
will now concentrate on those companies and ranges that have made a
significant contribution to the provision of aircraft based Gashapon.
The
main players in the aircraft market are Bandai, Takara, F-Toys (who seem
to have an affiliation with Platz!), Café Reo, Dragon (Doyusha) and
Furuta, as did POPY (a Bandai Company) but whose series are now in
demise.
One of
the first Series on the Market was Bandai who produced the “Wing Club”
Series, this was a series of 1/144 WWII scale models from a number of countries
and theatres of war, although this initial series had some quality and build
issues it has gone from strength to strength and it's more recent series have excellent build quality.
Bandai
also released a hugely popular series of products under the POPY brand, this is
the famous “Project Flieger” series. “Project Flieger” was again a 1/144
scale series of “Luft’46” style German prototype and speculative “paper
planes”, it ran for two series before being cut short due to its main designer
moving on. This was a sad day as many regard these series as the finest and most
interesting and one that certainly could have had another couple of series
without running out of steam.
Dragon is
more famous for their 1/14 4 Armour also released an early series of 1/144 Ju-87
Stukas, which was a fairly limited, but very interesting series of six
aircraft plus one special, and more recently has produced F-14 and F-15 series for
the JSDF.
In the
1/144 scale Takara have produced a number of themed ranged such as
“Famous Aircraft of the World : Wings of the Luftwaffe” – “Famous
Aircraft of the World” is a tie-in with a popular series of Aviation books, it
is interesting to note that Takara regularly tie in their series with other
commercial partners be it publishing deals or more frequently big Japanese
blockbuster style cinema releases! The painting on Wings of the Luftwaffe” has
reach unreal levels of detail, down to the level that recent releases even have
slogans painted on the bombs slung under the Bf-109s! These FAOW/WOTL Series have
been criticised by some for being to reliant on the Bf-109 & Fw-109! The
upside is Takara’s ranges often have a large range of aircraft in the series,
and have included some more interesting items such as V2,A4 and A9 variant
missiles.
Takara
also seem to have strong links with Hasegawa who appear to figure strongly in
the design of these items.
Takara
have also been the key player in the 1/144 and 1/700 Aircraft Series (they
also produce a huge range of 1/700 Naval series, including some cross over
Soviet ‘Ekranoplan’ items) producing a number of themed ranges, the 1/700
series provided a range of larger military aircraft such as the C-5, C-17,
KC135, Airships, B1 & B2 and some WWII Items.
F-Toys
have broke free of the two main suppliers and have generally been more
innovative in producing aircraft not covered in the ranges of the other
manufacturers, so no endless stream of 109s and 190s here, but they have
specialised in “twin engine” planes, such as Hs-129, He-219, Mosquito and
P-38
etc. They also produced a very nice range of Schneider Trophy Sea plane racers!
F-toys also specialise in producing Helicopters and have produced a wide range
from Westland, Sea Kings to KA-52 Hokum’s to V-22 Ospreys. They
have a series called Acroteam with some acrobatic teams of the world as
Thunderbirds, Flecche tricolori, Red Arrows...
Ftoys
also appear to be linked with Platz as they will often produce jointly branded
product or complementary “specials”.
Café Reo
have been producing modern jet aircraft in their J-planes series and Area 88,
items
like the A-10, Buccaneer, F-8 Crusader and also a series called “Big
Birds”, which have not been covered by the other producers these include
items such as B-24 and G4 M Betty, now they are close to releasing
the Big Birds 2 series with He-111,G3N Nell and P-61 Black Widow.
Click on
images below to see larger images
If
anyone would like further information on 1/144 or 1/700 Gashapon aircraft,
or an article discussing the representation of armour in 1/144 Gashapon,
please let me know.
Here's
a link to my blog where you will get more info about these 1/144 tiems
http://kampfgruppe144.blogspot.com/
And
make a visit to http://p208.ezboard.com/b144miniarmour
Martin
and Roberto
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