Mandarake Babel 2 Poseidon

Babel II Poseidon Figure Front

Mandarake Non Standard Edition Babel II Poseidon

 



When this figure was first release I think everyone was super excited - finally a new Jumbo Machinder that was more than one of the Mazinger Z villains from Mandarake. This figure was marketed as a "Non-Standard Edition Babel II Poseidon." We all scrambled to put in orders (it was announced that it would be limited - to around 5000 if memory serves?  Now we know that the number didn't include all the festival repaints). In any case, my Mandarake order was cancelled with some explanation regarding a prohibition on the licensing from selling directly to someone in the US - they were only allowed to sell directly in Japan and Hong Kong. Luckily I managed to use one of the Japanese toy buying services to get mine. Some of my friends weren't so lucky - seems there was some type of lottery.

Babel II Poseidon Box Lid


Babel II Poseidon Box Ends

Babel II Poseidon Box Contents

Babel II Poseidon Box Contents Extras

Retail was 38000 yen. The box is very reminiscent of the classic Popy Jumbo Machinder boxes - however one complaint is that the lid doesn't cover the sides completely - sort of a half-box. Inside each part is protected for shipment by bubble wrap.  There's an extra head (that's supposed to be smiling - it's really subtle) plus a pair of fists (figure comes with open-hands loaded), an optional belly sticker and instructions.

Babel II Poseidon Figure Front

Babel II Poseidon Figure Detail

Babel II Poseidon Figure Back

Babel II Poseidon Figure Feet

Babel II Poseidon Figure Foot Bottom

Babel II Poseidon Figure Foot Bottom

Babel II Poseidon Figure Smiling Head

Babel II Poseidon Instructions

Babel II Poseidon Instructions Back

Babel II Poseidon Sticker

The figure has more of an anime proportion than a traditional JM proportion (thicker chest with short legs) which gives it a more whimsical look - that's really my only compliant. However it does fit it better with the Gelbros and Mandarake's other sofubi figures due to this so I'm not really complaining.

 There are now three additional intended color variants:

  1. Original Issue Light Blue (above) issued in May 2017 with presales in April.
  2. Dark Blue with Black - released at the Daimansai Festival on May 3 and in homage to the original vinyl toy issued back in the day (very limited).
  3. Purple with Silver - this along with the yellow were solicited during the month of September with an October release date.
  4. Yellow with Black - the yellow were a subset of the Purple release with even smaller numbers.



All Mattel images and captions are copyright Mattel, all Popy, Bandai, Banpresto images and captions are copyright Popy/Bandai and used without permission. The same goes for Mandarake or Babel II Poseidon. All other content, including images and editorial, is Copyright © 1997-2017 John Eaton and/or contributors unless otherwise stated. If there are any comments or objections, please contact John Eaton, by clicking here.

2 comments:

DaimosZ said...

The reason about the licensing issue is because Hikari Productions who owns Shows and mangas like Babel II are *notorious* for how unwilling they are to work with foreigners-and even their fellow Japanese licensees-partially because of issues surrounding royalties from their characters in other countries namely the US (Fred Ladd and PRO own Gigantor/Tetsujin 28 in the US and ditto for MGM who owns Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot/Giant Robo in the States) that they cannot control so since Mitsuteru Yokoyama died (who was actually pretty OK with licensing exclusives in the US) *very* few of their figures and merch got a official US release (A couple figures based on the Giant Robo OVA and the Dvd for the 2004 T28 anime and live action movie)

John Eaton said...

Makes sense.