Binchou-Tan Part 1 Gashapon Set

Product Information/Specifications

Introduction

When I stopped by J-Hobby, the owner showed me this gashapon set of Binchou-Tan.  At that time, he told me it was really popular in Japan.  He also showed me some trading figurines of that series.  Because of the price, I hesitated from buying it until I came back the second time.  It was after I saw these gashapon figurines on display at another Japanese hobby shop in another city.

The Binchou-Tan Part 1 gashapon figurines have been sold out for a long time now & were never reissued.

Some of the pictures aren't clear & good.  If I have time, I'll redo the bad ones & repost them.

The Review

The front & back sides of Binchou-Tan Part 1 gashapon paper

The Binchou-Tan Part 1 gashapon paper is quite interesting compare to others I've seen.  It really advertises the series & the paper is quite big too.  The back side has a manga strip of the series for your enjoyment.

The Binchou-Tan gashapon paper states there are six + two figurines in this set.  The full set is as seen below.

The full Binchou-Tan Part 1 gashapon set with secret figurines

It has Aroe, Binchou-Tan, Chiku-Tan, Kunugi-Tan, Saku-Tan, & Ren-Tan.  The two secret figurines are the last two on the right side of the pic, Aroe & Binchou-Tan.

The assembly of the girls isn't too hard.  It's mainly the body & head.  In some case, there are accessories included for the hand or body as well.  Also, there isn't any assembly required for some figurines since they come as a whole.  Each come with a base.  With the exception of Ren-Tan, each come with a stand which is a must have for the girls to stand.

As you can see, the base comes with no peg holes for the gashapon figurines to stand.  Also, the girls don't have pegs on their feet.  In fact, their feet are round which makes it impossible for them to stand without the stand & base.

To make the figurines stand, you slide them horizontally into the stand.  The U hook holds the head.  It's quite tricky.  I had some of the figurines lean forward & some floating in the air without their feet touching the ground.  Sometimes, they completely fall out of it.  I'm not sure why Yujin made this design.

Kawaii!  ^_^

These figurines are no doubt cute.  They look even better when you see the actual product with your own eyes.  The poses are cute & give off some energy   Binchou-Tan's pose with the stick is the same was the one with the rice scooper really.  Just a slight change & an extra accessory included.  The poses seem to reflect their characters well, regardless of them pretty much being in the loli department.  But check out that cute bug that's hanging from Kunugi-Tan's dress in the pic below.  It's wasn't hard to put on there by the way.

The painting details are extremely good for ¥200 gashapon figures.  In fact, I think ¥300 would be appropriate for these.  The amount of bleeding is very minimal & the colours are very solid.

Most of the pattern designs & letters are etched it & they are very clean.

Believe it or not, all the details on the face is actually painted.  The paint job is done very beautifully, especially the eyes.  I couldn't believe that there was hardly any paint bleeding on them.  Very even & clean.  It was unbelievable.  The details of their mouth are good as well.

The facial expression are pretty & cute.  They do provide some impact when you look at them.  The one I like the most is Binchou-Tan with the piece of rice on her face.  It's really adorable.

Overall Conclusion

The Binchou-Tan Part 1 gashapon set is really a cute set to collect.  Displaying them in my room, it really gives some life in my room with their cuteness.  Currently, they are displayed in my display case.  With the exception of taking them out of pictures for this review, I never took them out of there since the day I started displaying them.

On a scale of ten, I give Binchou-Tan Part 1 gashapon set a nine.  The high points were from the cuteness factor really.  Also, the excellent detailing paint work done on these figurines; especially the eyes.  The lost point was mainly from the stand issue.  It's really hard to make them stand the way you want them too.

As much as I really recommend people who like cute figures to collect this set, these are extremely hard to find now.  Because of it's popularity in Japan in the past, this set was considered to be pretty valuable; especially with the secret figurines.  I don't know what the collector's price for this set is now since the series is slowly dying down.

Photos were taken using Sony DSC-F828 digital still camera & HP scanjet 4470c scanner.

Last updated on February 12, 2008