January 31, 2006

Gundam and Anime in Japan

I spent some time in Japan recently and while I was there I had the chance to see 1st hand the popularity of all things anime. The stores are filled with merchandise based on popular anime series. When I was a kid I loved the Macross series so I really got a kick out of looking through all of this stuff - I even bought a Gundam Fix Figuration model (similar to the one pictured on the left) to display in my office.

Female figures (like the one pictured below) are even more popular than the mechanized (robotic) figures - very serious looking Japanese business men spend more time than they should browsing the aisles at the local hobby/toy stores for the latest GoodSmile (great pictures) collectible - it's a little odd but you've got to give the manufacturers props for attention to detail, the models look great. All of these models are from cartoons that both kids and adults watch.

Danny Choo spends a lot of time taking macro shots of his collection - it's worth a look if you have any interest at all in the mechanized or female anime figures. You can also see quite a few pictures of these figures on Flickr.

Apologies, this post is a little off the tech topic but Gundam and Japanese anime are both popular with the Geek Squad so I took a chance on it. Most of this stuff is available in the U.S. if you look around a bit but it tends to be on the expensive side - a Gundam figure will cost you about $70 and the selection here is poor relative to what you can buy in Japan - the female figures are even harder to find.

Posted by Cale on Jan 31, 2006

Categories: misc
Technorati Tags: gundam anime japan

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