Catching Back Up With Bandai's Kinkeshi! Premium Vol. 7+8!

In the last blog update, in some tongue-in-cheek fashion, I dunked on a particular hobby for sharing customer space with keshi mini-figures, despite their presence having no impact on sales or popularity.  If someone told me keshi was out of fashion and on the decline, I would be hard-pressed to believe them.  At this moment, there are two enormous pillars of keshi power standing, spanning across the world, undaunted by opinion and sales trends.  In the west, you have Super 7, as well as an endless selection of talented independent artists.  In the east, and today's topic, there is Bandai and their revitalization of Kinkeshi.

It's almost been two years since I first covered Bandai's new project with the classic Kinnikuman Kinkeshi franchise, and who could have ever guessed it would continue this far so strongly?  At a time where things were caught in neutral gear for a bit, when keshi was concerned, westerners looked to the east just at the right time to see Bandai's announcement of re-sculpting classic 80's Kinkeshi mini-figures with a few new additions sprinkled here and there.  These premium sets instantly became the must-have items, with sales number something Super 7 must have looked at once or twice before they considered relaunching their versions of video game and movie MUSCLE.

Currently, Bandai is taking preorders in September for the 8th Premium set, which is a staggering number, even when you don't consider the number of new gatchapon sets that have released along side the celebrated volumes.  On one hand, who could have guessed Kinkeshi would be back in the driver's seat again, but when you look at the quality of the work within each set, it's not in the least bit surprising why it was so popular when it first debuted.

Despite my busy schedule off the blog, I am taking a look at Volume 7 and 8 now, and I have to say how much I regret not returning any sooner.  Volume 7 looks unbelievable, with maybe the most unique and bizarre line-up yet, with the newest set having a ton of favorites that I recognize from earliest keshi memories.

Absolutely knocking it out, still, years beyond their first announcement.  If you're interested in preordering a set for yourself, follow the link below.

http://p-bandai.jp/item/item-1000127785/

Kinkeshi Avalanche! Gacha Series 4+5! Premium 5+6! Noir!

Happy New Years, everyone!

I do want to apologize again for being largely ghost-like in 2017, and I hope posting like this is a good sign for things to come for 2018.  Honestly, although I think I brought this point up briefly in a previous post, I feel I could have done a little better last year, especially near the tail-end of it all.  The fact of the matter is: I could have, but being so absent from the scene for so long, it was increasingly harder to find the perfect spot to jump back in, although a hundred of hundred people will tell you there is no perfect spot, just jump in whenever.  Be that as it may, missing a laundry list of convention news and releases, from all the new products coming from Super 7, down to all the independent work I wanted to cover, it added the problem of coming back with now the extra question of why.  What could possibly shake me out of this hiatus if the stuff that just whizzed by my head couldn't?  That was the question that circled in my head, although I figure now it's a silly one to really consider a moment of thought.  That's the stupid thing about stupid thoughts.  You can throw some bad food in the trash or a bad drink down the drain and that's that, but a poisonous thought can keep coming back, haunting you with its broken logic and unreasonable demands, breaking down your common sense until you finally give in.  Assuredly, that's something of a over-dramatic look at it all, but I'll tell you one project that isn't missing one step: Bandai and Kinkeshi.  And what they are doing, just might be the boot to the ass I was looking for.

Last April, I covered Bandai's Premium Kinkeshi Volume 3 Set, but since then, they have exploded in new products, for both serious collectors and newbies with just a few coins in the pockets.  Missing the news and release of their new Gachapon series, which appear to be a micro set of new sculpts, exclusively found in Japanese vending machines, they have expanded that, or at least working on expanding, to Series 4 and 5, that look to hearken back to the wrestling move posed heroes and villains.  There appear to be some added surprises in there as well, so keep your coins close.

But if you're the sort that has a little more than loose change, you might be more interested in the Premium sets releasing sometime in the near-distant future.  Sadly, Series 4 came, went, and was shipped to happy customers, without so much of a mention from me, so for that, I'll have to go back and check out what I missed.

Moving forward, however, Bandai released some images showing off a few new series to the ever-expanding awesome resurgence of Kinnikuman and Kinkeshi.  For one made and released just for someone like me, the "Noir: The Best" set seems to be a re-release of some of the favorites from previous sets, just for those who have been hiding under a rock, but now in a cool dark-grey colorway.  Pretty awesome stuff for us clueless collectors, as well as completionists who now have a new colorway to add to their collections.


But I wouldn't be calling this a Kinkeshi Avalanche if it was really just that.  As partially-spoiled above, Bandai is also working on the release of both Premium Volumes 5 and 6.  Aiming to come out during this winter, and possibly the next couple months, these guys are home-runs after home-runs.  It's absolutely amazing to see how well these guys are looking and how thriving their comeback has been.

Keep an eye on the link below for more information on release time and price, as well as any more surprise releases, because of this is just the first of the year.  What else does Kinkeshi have planned for 2018?

http://p-bandai.jp

Bandai Reveals Kinnikuman Kinkeshi Vol. 3 For Preorder!

Welcome back everyone!

With the brand new revitalized Kinkeshi Volume 1 reaching the hands of pre-ordered customers in the past week, Bandai announced Premium Volume 3 is up for pre-order now!

For those who somehow don't know (hey, it's cool, welcome aboard), Kinkeshi is arguably the grand daddy of keshi mini-figures and late last year they announced that the classic line from the 80's would see a return with new figures and new resculpts of old favorites.  This being the third announcement brings great news, as fans across the world have signaled the desire for this line to continue on.  It's great to see such a success story in both the keshi business and the keshi community.  In times like these, it's always healthy to have a little artistic coming together.

Displayed in the new set, are a lot of familiar faces, looking good as hell, but there's some new wrestlers entering the ring for the first time too.  One catching my attention the most is the USB flash-drive character, who also seems to be catching more eyeballs than just mine.  The studio behind the Kinkeshi revival also seems to have something of a soft spot for the modern mutant man.  He's certainly strange as hell, but that's part of the charm.

For more information, check out the link below, and as always, thanks for checking in.  In the next few months, I'll be having some baby news.  It's crazy to imagine it, but it's almost time.  Coming upon the last lap.

http://p-bandai.jp/item/item-1000114076

JoJo's Bizarre Keshi Adventure!

Probably by today's standards, I wouldn't really be called much of an anime fan.  I still watch it from time to time, but nothing like I had in the past.  Back in the day, as some may agree, anime was a rarity of a sort and getting it was often tricky.  Now, you can trip over websites begging you to watch their free streams of 24 hour anime, but that's not to say it's a bad thing.  It's just a long way from where it was with Akira, Dragon Ball Z, Gundam, Evangelion, and all that.

I still keep up from time to time, but with only so many hours in the day, and only so many hobbies to dedicate time to, I have to be a bit more picky on what to watch.  Not to make this an anime review so much, but one of the series I have actually been getting into and really enjoying is JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, so you must guess the sort of curiosity and excitement I've had when I've see pictures of a gorgeous Japanese vending machine keshi line find themselves all over social media.  So much so I think I'm going to flood this post with like six pictures or something!  That much!

I'll be honest, so please anyone that has more information about this set than I do, please comment below, I don't know much about this set yet.  It appears by the copyright information in the photos, they are done in some regard by Bandai, but I have no idea if they outsourced any studio for the actual sculpts.  I would love to find out more on this, because I find these miniatures really amazing and capture that over-the-top wildness and style the anime has.

What's notable about this set, up front, are two things.  One is that the set is rather large, which is a pleasant surprise.  I am unaware of a previous line to traditionally build up to a large set like this, but the anime has been around for quite some time now.  The second thing is it's combination of clear plastics and traditional keshi plastics that seem to really make this series stand out.

I'm really excited to see these guys find their way to the States, but from what I've read from a couple auctions, they seem to be coming single-file in gumball capsules.  If this is true, it's going to be difficult seeing these guys travel in complete sets, but who knows.  I'll certainly love to get whatever I can, if not the full set.  They need a real review for sure.