5/20/2022
at last... blorbos from my shows have been achieved... i bought these as a "congratulations for surviving a full year of college" gift for myself and i have been waiting so long to get them!! the actual shipping was plenty fast, but because i sent them to my permanent address instead of my dorm, i did have to wait a bit before i could actually see them. BUT NOW I HAVE THEM HAHAHAHA and i'm going to talk about them because i think that's really fun to do
these are from volume one of the auldey tomy full color figure series, which released in 1998. this makes the figures a few years older than me (2003) LOL,, i specify that these are auldey tomy because these same figures were released by hasbro in i think 1999, with a couple of differences that i'll get into a little later. jessie stands at about 5 inches tall and james is a little closer to 6 inches. i'm terrible at visualizing size in my head so i thought they would be waaay smaller when i got them. i'm really happy with the size!! they're just right for me. each of them came with a plain black plastic base that can be put on and removed as desired.
considering that these are used, nearly 25 year old figures, they're in pretty decent condition. there's a few minor scuffs and spots, which is something i expected with their age. jessie has a minor misprint on her eye, which would probably bother a lot of people, but i personally don't mind it! i just think imperfect toys are extra endearing. jessie you are unique and special!!!! the colors are nice, the figures can stand on their own even without bases if you have a flat surface, and i think the poses are great too. jessie has a bit of a lean to her on camera. you can't really tell in real life, which i think is weird!? just take my word for it. anyways they both came in a very cute little box (that has absolutely suffered the tests of time... look at that plastic..!!!) which has a fun design. i ran the text on the back through google translate and it looks like that bottom bit of text is their japanese motto. ^__^ super cute
jessie and james aren't 200 dollar collector's figures, so if one is going to buy them, they should not expect that kind of quality going in. (my figure collector dad doesn't like them x_x sorry dad... not) on the flipside they also aren't all that expensive! they're small toys that sold for around $8.99 in america, not sure about their retail price in japan but it's probably around that same value. the fact that they're entering vintage territory does mean the price has gone up, but i found mine for only around $40 (including shipping) on ebay. certainly not as cheap as they once were, but if you absolutely love team rocket like i do, then i think it's a worthwhile investment. (side note, the older i get the more fond i become of ebay... awesome site)
something of note about these figures; the hasbro and tomy releases are different enough that it definitely matters which one you get. the hasbro figures only have one trainer, but include a pokemon figure and a large pokeball to put them in. (hasbro releases of jessie and james had ekans and meowth, and koffing and arbok respectively.) hasbro releases are also more expensive secondhand, the cheapest hasbro jessie i found was $40 and the cheapest james i found was $60; that's a hundred dollar investment if you get lucky! if you're mainly interested in the trainer figures, look for the auldey tomy release. i think they're super super cute and i've had a lot of fun with them!!! overall i am very very happy ^__^
