TOY FAIR 2001:
BANDAI: Digimon, Final Fantasy, Others
Story by Douglass Kern, with Daniel Lipkowitz
Pictures by Daniel Lipkowitz

[Remember - every picture links to a larger size!]

When Daniel and I entered Bandai's portion of Toy Fair 2001, the entire show room seemed filled with excitement. I got a real positive feeling in there, While not as big as the Hasbro location, Bandai did seem to have a full plate of products that may become good sellers for them this year.

Power Rangers

Since we arrived a bit late, we missed most of the "Power Ranger" presentation. What we did get to see was the display of a new motorized transforming Zord, with goes from a dinosaur to a robot.

Anime Collector

This is a new line being made for collectors. Based on a popular anime series, which will shown on cable's Cartoon Network, "Anime Collector" consists of mostly figurines and some vehicles. The product was introduced by an actress who looked like she was Ulala from Sega's "Space Channel 5", which, oddly enough, has nothing to do with Bandai.

Escaflowne

Also of interest to robot fans, Bandai had an "Escaflowne" setup as well, with what looked like the Scherezade and The Big O on display. Looks like Escaflowne will get a second lease on life through Cartoon Network.

Final Fantasy

Bandai had some figures from the upcoming "Final Fantasy Movie", based on concepts from the Final Fantasy games. The figures look like they have good articulation and detail, very surprising actually. The entire mood looks a lot more sci-fi based than the fantasy or steam punk atmospheres of the Final Fantasy games. The really stand out figure is the villain alien, who is detailed and huge.

"Final Fantasy" Movie Figures

"Final Fantasy" Movie Ships

Also on display were two figures from the upcoming Final Fantasy X game, which shared the same amount of detail and articulation, though they both were a lot more brightly colored than the figures from the movie.

"Final Fantasy X" Figures

Digimon

The "Digimon" section was filled with new items, most of which focused on Season 3. Yes, we had the chance to learn about the upcoming show, which has not even started in Japan. Details on the show were sketchy, though, since the Toy Fair presentation was designed for store buyers, not for information on the show. However, we were able to get these details:

• Terriermon, who was introduced in the Digimon movie, will be one of the starring Digimon. His owner, Henry Willis, is in it as well.
• The Digi-destined are fighting against the evil Impmon, who also can become Beezlemon.
• It looks like the cast is all going to be new, with no hold overs. In fact, there is a new Digimon who looks almost like the offspring of Patamon and Gatomon.

Note, we were not allowed to photograph most of the Bandai booth. We were allowed to photograph this scary thing from Season Three, though:

Scary Digimon Thing

Now on to the toys. The really nice, stand out toys for this line have always been the transforming ones. The upcoming ones for the next season look particularly nice, much better than the current ones. Bandai is also expanding this section of the line by offering larger transforming toys.

There were three main characters shown. The only one I recognized was Terriermon and his other forms. The other two were entirely new. First, there was Growlmon, who is the new dinosaur style character for the show. Growlmon looks a lot more vicious than previous ones dinosaur Digimon. His current deco consists of a nice tasteful red with some navy detailing.

The other new character was a Kitsune-based digimon. Kitsune are fox spirit tricksters from Japan who have multiple tails. This one also looked very nice with an orange and white color scheme. In addition, this character had nine tails.

Here is the product list for the transforming Digimon toys for 2001:

5 Inch Digivolving Figures

• Growlmon who becomes War Growlmon
• Kyubimon who becomes Taomon
• Gargomon who becomes Rapidmon
• Renamon who becomes Sakuyamon

8 Inch Digivolving Figures

• Guilmon who becomes Gallantmon
• Terriermon who becomes Mega Gargomon
• Impmon who becomes Beelzemon

Here are the rest of the Digimon items that we were allowed to photograph:

Bandai's Digimon Figures

Bandai's Growlmon, Kitsune-based Dragon, and other Digimon Figures

You have to feel for some of these product presenters....

Digimon Presenter -- poor guy...

Altered States Magazine would especially like to thank the kind folks at Hasbro, LEGO, Bandai, Toycom, and the Toy Fair workers for their help.

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All pictures and text are Copyright 2001 Philip N. Zeman, Altered States Magazine, and SkyJammer Enterprises. You may not use these pictures or text without the permission of Altered States Magazine and the author(s). Directly linking to these pictures is forbidden. Please link to http://www.alteredstatesmag.com/