Wednesday, 22 November 2017

80's Golden New Japan Pro-Wrestling Coffee Figures


In 2007 Japanese coffee maker Asahi Coffee would release their
second wave of New Japan figures along with select cans of their
canned Coffee drinks.


                        


The complete set with matching booklets, stands and original
coffee caps.


Like New Japan's previous line of Coffee figures (the IWGP
Champions figure set released in 2005), this 5 figure set was
inserted at random and included mini booklets and individual
display stands.

                  

The set itself was named "80's Golden New Japan Pro-Wrestling
Figure" and revolves around some of the promotion's most famous
legends.

For size comparisons, I'll be comparing each figure to their Mini
Big Head counterparts (all using Tiger Jeet's stand for reference).
The figures in this set are:



Antonio Inoki with famous jawline and red fight towel.

Riki Choshu in his trademark fist pump pose.
The 80's New Japan Coffee figures stand out easily with their
more cartoonish, super deformed features and lighter skin tones.

Each base is detachable and contains each Wrestler's name
written in the Japanese Kanji and Katakana alphabets.
Not Rikidozan: Tatsumi Fujinami with his 1980's attire.

The 80's Golden version of Fujinami features a white robe
which Fujinami wore during the 1980's before sporting his
more well known red and black entrance robe (a feature no
other Fujinami figure contains as to my knowledge).

Kotetsu Yamamoto doing his best Mr. Clean impersonation.

The strict New Japan dojo trainer and legendary Wrestler
Kotetsu Yamamoto has once again been recreated.

While Yamamoto is my second favorite figure from the Golden
series, I wish Asahi adjusted the color of Yamamoto's shirt to a
slightly lighter colour to avoid blending in with his skin tone in
the above figure.

                         
The last figure and sole Gaijin in the set is of Tiger Jeet Singh.

The amount of detail in Singh's clothing mixed with the assort
-ment of colors easily makes this my most favorite figure of the
set.

It should also be noted that these two versions are the only
known figures of Tiger that include his classic indian entrance
gown.



                                    

Like similar Japanese Coffee figures. The Golden set also
contained a mini booklet packaged with every figure.



The inside of the booklet includes illustrations and a short
biography for each Wrestler.


The booklet also contains a bit of shameless self-promotion;
encouraging customers to buy more canned Coffee!

                                   
                                       
The backside of the booklet promotes NJPW related website
links and associated sponsors.

This incredibly rare set is extremely hard to come by. Finding
a complete set is even more difficult.

2 comments:

  1. Do you know who made these? Sure looks like Boford...

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    Replies
    1. They were marketed by Wonda; who also had campaigns for the other coffee prize figures made by AJPW and NJPW during the era. Makes sense - but as far as I know, they were never labelled with a production name.

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