Tasuke's Anime Dolly-a-Whenever Thread...

[tasuke]

i don't really have enough girls or fashions for them to be tossing up a fresh photo on a daily, or, even weekly basis,
so this will have to serve as the closest i can currently come to a Doll-a-Day thread. Enjoy...


my first Anime doll ever, -circa 2001/2002- TOYNAMI brand "Princess Ayeka" (Ayeka Masaki Jurai) from the 1992 Anime "Tenchi Muyo!"

[tasuke]

and, my most recent Girl, TAKARA 2002 "Sakura Shinguji" from the 1996 SEGA Video Game/Anime franchise "Sakura Wars"

[davidd]

Gooba gabba! Gooba gabba! One of us! One of us! You've been pulled in by the gravitational vortex of the Doll-A-Day / Doll-A-Week / Doll-A-Wheneverz... thing!

The Power of Peer Pressure!

I've glimpsed all kinds of amazing toys and figures in the backgrounds of your anime doll photos. I'm sure you'll be able to come up with subjects on a weekly or more often basis!

Sakura in her pretty white dress with the pearl necklace is totally squee-worthy!

Welcome to the Doll-A-Random-Yet-Regularly-Scheduled-Time madness!

Were the Tenchi Muyo figures actually licensed by or distributed by Pioneer, the laserdisc company?

[neon_jellyfish]

Another one fell down the A Doll A... rabbit hole! Good luck!

[Lejays17]

Yay! Another convert to the Doll-a-Whenever threads.

Your newest girl is cute, I like her pink jacket with the tails.

[werepuppy]

Yay, another convert!

It's going to be really cool to be able to see all your anime girls; I've been interested in seeing who is in your collection because it seems pretty varied!

[GreysPrincess]

Woo, welcome to the ADAW crowd!

I really do love your Sakura; she’s lovely!

[tasuke]

Were the Tenchi Muyo figures actually licensed by or distributed by Pioneer, the laserdisc company?

PIONEER certainly licensed TOYNAMI to produce them, if that's what you mean.

Tenchi Muyo was the most popular and successful of PIONEER's multiple Anime holdings in the 1990's,
and in the very early 2000's, when Anime in the U.S. was beginning to go mainstream,
PIONEER was there as one of the early trailblazers, -along with BANDAI and their GUNDAM franchise-
attempting to ride the wave, and get the most popular and successful of their Anime properties onto Cable T.V.
and as much market-appropriate merchandise as they could into U.S. stores.

though Tenchi Muyo did have to be slightly edited/altered to air on CARTOON NETWORK,
it must have been reasonably successful even so, as PIONEER wasted no time rounding up U.S. licensees for merchandising,
and the best of them were TOYNAMI and their character doll line.

far as i know, these dolls were only available in collector/comic shops, and my mom got me all three of them,
at my favorite comic shop at the time, for just shy of $30 each.

Ayeka Masaki Jurai was my favorite, and the girl that inspired me to learn how to make doll clothing,
but Ryoko Hakubi and Tenchi Masaki were there as well, and also benefited from my gradually developing skills;

[tasuke]

with their fairly terribly-designed doll bodies, my TENCHI dolls were really beginning to show their age by the late-2000's,
and, just recently gaining home internet access, i was just beginning to discover the wealth of far superior Japanese-market character dolls
that had came and went all throughout those formative years when i was clumsily learning doll-tailoring skills
on those comparatively-terrible TOYNAMI Tenchi bodies.

my first, badly-overdue eansion in Anime dolls came in late 2008, a TSUKUDA HOBBY "Mamotte Shugogetten!" Shaorin Shichiri,
which just so happened to be in the same general "Non-Scale" 12/13in. size as the Tenchi dolls.

i got her off of E-Bay for $40 shipped, a total freak happenstance, it seems,
as i have yet to see another pop up there in the decade since i stumbled upon her;

[davidd]

Wow! Her outfit is gorgeous! Is that her full stock, or have you enhanced it with your own additions?

Interesting background on the early history of anime distribution. It was definitely a niche market for a long time.
Was the now nearly extinct term "Japanimation" still in use when you first became interested?

[werepuppy]

It's kind of amazing to think how the market has changed in, let's say two decades? With the rise of home computers becoming more and more affordable, and improvements being made to internet access in the majority of places, what was a very niche market for a long time with Western audiences has become as mainstream as our own comics and cartoons.

And to see how the toy market showed this change is also really interesting - I still have three Trendmasters Cardcaptors dolls that I got as a child and to compare them to doll available now is like chalk and cheese.

Your collection must be a great overview on the changes in market tastes, actually, as well as a really interesting look into the history not only of distribution, but also improvements in manufacturing.

Also, if that is Shaorin's stock with no enhancements, it's actually better than I would have thought for early 2000s anime dolls.

[tasuke]

yeah i did actually make a fair few improvements upon her stock costume.

for instance, the rainbow-effect mesh ribbon trim was added, her stock vinyl "boots" were replaced with actual Korean-style "Beoseon" socks and slippers,
and her Mint/White Bra, Panties and Stockings are completely custom made;

(( here's also a blog post covering the two, wildly-disparately-scaled, dolls of this character ever produced to date; https://shoujodolls.com/index.php/en/blo...tten-dolls))

STOCK;



IMPROVED;

[tasuke]

actually, i too had one of those BANDAI/TRENDMASTERS Cardcaptor Sakura dolls, back around the same time i got the Tenchi Muyo ones;



her and the four IRWIN Sailor Moon dolls i also had, were actually all part of my first rudimentary collection of Anime dolls;



it was just that the Tenchi Muyo Ayeka was my favorite, by far, and the girl i was constantly using as my model
during all the trial and error and successes of my slowly-developing skills at doll-tailoring.

while i haven't yet, and, may never, get a chance to replace those long-gone Sailor Moon dolls with modern equivalents,
i did get a second chance at Sakura Kinomoto, thanks to the new TAKARA/TOMY "Liccarize" doll series, and positively jumped at it;

[davidd]

werepuppy is certainly spot on with her assessment; your collection is like a historical overview of at least two decades of anime figures, illustrating not only the changes in the quality of the available offerings, but of the distribution patterns and the manufacturers that have come on board... and disappeared... over that time.

[fishy]

Yeah, it's like an anime history museum.