Working in the comic shop business, I spend a ton of time looking at really awesome collectibles. Some of my favorite items that we stock here in our shop are the various statues and busts we have that line the 30 plus showcases spread throughout the store. We currently have over 1200 different pieces from various companies crammed for your viewing and purchasing pleasure. Characters from Batman to Spider-Man, Boba Fett to Freddy Krueger, and Hellboy to Harley Quinn...you’ll find something to wow you in this section of the store. That I promise you.
Two weeks back I decided to write up a detailed piece describing a line of statues I enjoy called Batman Black & White. Its a cool look at the various different sculpts of Batman in B&W format through different artists interpretations. You can check that out here if interested. https://steemit.com/comics/@blewitt/a-look-at-comic-statues-batman-black-and-white-edition
Doing that made me think of some of the other cool lines that I can bring some attention to. So that’s why I’m writing this up today. To show off another highly successful line that has a big cult following. I’m talking about the Bishoujo line from Kotobukiya.
Kotobukiya is a Japanese company committed to providing killer collectibles. Mainly in the form of statues. Two of their most successful lines are the Aftfx and Bishoujo pieces. The Bishoujo line realizes sculpts of women based off the designs by artist Shunya Yamashita.
They started off doing popular female characters from the worlds of Marvel & DC. They have since branched out to cover characters from plenty of video games like Street Figjter, Tekken, Metal Gear, and Mass Effect. They have even done popular characters in female form from successful movies like Ghostbusters, Men in Black, Kill Bill, and Star Wars. Some killer versions have been the Horror ones like Freddy Krueger, Edward Scissorhands, Chucky, Ash, Jadon Voorhees, & Tiffany.
A few that are in the pipeline and set to release later this year are a Michael Myers one along with a Pinky Pie My Little Pony piece.
The first piece to come out was Marvel’s Rogue. It was released in 2009 marking this the 10 year anniversary of the line. It’s still going strong today and by my horrific count, I added up 93 pieces and I’m sure I missed a few. Either way, we are around the 100 mark which is a tremendous success. They actually released the Rogue and then several years later, rereleased it with the jacket. They did similar rereleases on select pieces with a minor tweak. Check out the different Rogue’s below and the art it’s based on.
Most of the pieces have been available through the direct market meaning any shop could have ordered them. A small handful have been exclusives only available through a select retailer or through a conventions such as the ol’ San Diego Comic Con. We have actually been attempting to work with Koto on our own Exclusive Bishoujo for the shop. Problem is we would need a production run of around 700-1000 pieces depending on the sculpt. That is an extremely expensive endeavor. One that was possible a few years back but currently difficult. Hoping to one day revisit this with them.
Back on track, some of those earlier pieces, both regular releases and exclusives now fetch a pretty penny on the aftermarket. As more new collectors enter the market and try to track down those earlier pieces, it drives up the prices. Simple supply and demand at work here. Take a look at some of the pieces that will currently put a hurting on your wallet. Keep in mind that upon release, depending on when they came out...these retailed for between $60-$80 bucks.
One of the pieces that fetch between $400-$600 depending on how many are up at a given time, is the White Costume Phoenix which was a San Diego Comic Con Exclusive back in 2010. I remember snagging a bunch of these at the Koto booth. The line was so new but we had a feeling it would be a popular one so we stocked up the these.
We actually liked this one so much that we ended up using it as an inspiration for one of our own Exclusives. Our highly successful White & Gold Phoenix Funko Pop!!! We figured that Phoenix in her White duds only had one collectible on the market and it started going ballistic...so why not capitalize on that?!?
Anyway, I hunted around the shop today and snapped some pics of the random Bishoujo pieces that we currently have in stock. We have a mix of some old and new, regular release and exclusives. Take a peek with me!! See who you can recognize!!! Let’s test your nerd knowledge!
Thanks for taking a look with me.
Blewitt