When the terms Jr. Heavyweight or Cruiserweight Champions are brought up between
Pro-Wrestling fans, one of the first names that comes to mind is Jushin Thunder Liger.
Like the original Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama) that came before him, Jushin Liger was
a tremendous success in Japan. A talented in-ring worker, a gimmick lifted directly from
a popular Japanese anime/manga series and a Wrestler who has become instantly recognizable
by his trademark mask.
It's no surprise then that New Japan decided to capitalize on Liger's success with a plethora
of merchandise all based on the Hyper Beast God.
Digging through the archive of old product photos, there's no time like the present to gloss over
several different figure variants. For Blog #150, let's take a closer look at a few of the figures
released of Jushin Thunder Liger from the Super Star Figure Collection line.
Jushin Liger's original Red and white figure variant was one of the first figures from Toukon
Shop's Super Star Figure Collection line dating back to the late 1990's.
Pictured above on the left is the Black Liger variant (Super Star Figure Collection 27) which
features a darker attire in which Liger began wearing in the late 1990's. This particular figure
variant was released in 2000.
On the right is the white and silver Liger variant (Super Star Figure Collection 49) which was
produced in 2002.
improved greatly by 2002?
.png)
A loose (with slight wear) example of the white and silver Liger variant.
.png)
Standard for most Toukon Shop/Character Product figures, each variant contains the
same sculpt.
.png)
A close up of Liger's mask and fighting pose. You can almost anticipate a flurry of shotei
strikes are soon to be unleashed!
As if the standard red, black, and silver Liger variants weren't enough, Toukon Shop
also released three special clear versions!
The see-through translucent figures variants were another first for Toukon Shop starting
in 1998. A figure type Character Product and sister company Mogura House would adopt
into future figure lines.
The clear Liger variants are:
Clear Red (Super Star Figure Collection 10 - 1998)
Clear White (Super Star Figure Collection 10 - 1998)
Clear Blue (Super Star Figure Collection 49 - 2002).
The clear blue Liger variant reminds me of the Frito Lays "Ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi"
Mail-away figure exclusive from 1997.
As an added bonus, I'm throwing in one last figure variant for this blog:
Released alongside the Super Star Figure Collection and Deluxe Figure Collection lines
in the late 1990's came Toukon Shop's "Official Bronze Type Figure" line in the process.
The "bronze" look was actually just Toukon Shop painting over certain figures from the
Super Star Figure Collection entirely black.
I would imagine (but don't recommend) stripping the paint off these bronze figures would
be the closest thing to owning a Prototype of each Super Star figure.
Unlike the clear figure variants, the bronze figures obscured intricate details on each
figure; making them harder to appreciate.
Sadly, this Liger bronze figure has lost portions of it's paint along the arms.
The bronze type Liger figure was released in 1999 and contains the same packaging as the
original red and white Jushin Liger (Super Star Figure Collection 10) from 1998.
Stay tuned for more Puroresu figure coverage!
No comments:
Post a Comment