HUGE news for the Dragonball figure community was just broken over on the Japanese Bandai website—

It seems (In summation) that for the 2003-2004 release seasons, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Dragonball in Japan, Bandai Japan will release a new series of Dragonball and Dragonball Z figures, similar to the Super Battle Collection!

The series will consist of five series of releases- each consisting of five figures.
But the best part is the lineups themselves-

The first lineup will be a “twenty years of Goku” series and consist of:

• Goku (Dragonball, with Nimbus)
  
• Goku (Beginning of Z, with Baby Gohan)
  
• Battle Damaged SS Goku
  
• SS Goku (in Saiyan Armor, Cell Saga)
  
• SSJ3 Goku (with Halo)
  

The second lineup will consist of characters never before made by Bandai (and one not even planned by Irwin!) Lineup #2 consists of:

• Piccolo Diamoah (Elder form, with “newly hatched” Ma Junior (“Baby” Piccolo))
  
• King Kai (with Bubbles AND GREGORY!)
  
• Imperfect Cell (with egg)
  
• Krillin (A Bald Krillin by Bandai!)
  
• Super Buu (the tall, muscular one)
  

The third line up will be dedicated to the Dragonball Z movies, but the actual contents of the line have not been made available at this time…
The focuses of the other two lines also have not yet been made available.

Each figure will retail for 2,600 yen (roughly $20.00 USD) and come in “collector friendly packaging”— More information can be read (If you have the Japanese font installed and can translate Japanese) at Bandai’s webpage- www.bandai.co.jp.

…It’s great to hear that Bandai hasn’t totally forgotten Dragonball Z. The only downside is the Import costs to bring them over here, as Irwin holds the rights to DBZ figures here in North America…

We’ll have more information (and hopefully images) as soon as we make the rest of it up!

Posted by on April 1, 2002 02:39 AM