First of all, it's important that you know that I am not affiliated with Banpresto, Sega, Takara, Konami, or any other manufacturer of these game prizes. I'm simply a collector of Japanese toys, who first became fascinated with the little plush toys while collecting Sailormoon items. From there, I grew to love the keychains, the figurines, and everything else! All of the information of these pages comes from my experience as a collector, from internet research, and from various books and catalogs.
Some info about Banpresto, the company.
Founded in 1977, Banpresto is a leading developer and manufacturer of game equipment for Japanese arcades and amusement centers, which means that they produce the actual skill games that consumers play to collect the prizes. Therefore, its in Banpresto's best interests to create interesting and popular prizes, which keep collectors and anime fans coming back for more.
In addition to manufacturing the game machines and the game prizes, Banpresto also develops video game software for the Japanese market. (For the Sony Playstation.) They also have their own chain of amusement centers and restaurants throughout Japan.
The most commonly known game prizes are the small plush toys based on popular television and movie characters, which I believe made their debut in 1990.
The plush toys generally range from 6 to 8 inches in height and come in a variety of different styles. Most often the characters are "superdeformed", which is the common Japanese style of depicting characters with tiny, squat bodies and large heads. What really impresses me about the toys is the attention to detail. Banpresto has a real knack for capturing the personality of the characters. When you look at the facial expressions, or the little details on the costumes, you get the feeling that the designers are genuine fans of the series' and the characters they're depicting.
First, I have to address the single most frequently asked question... The toys on this site are for display purposes only and are NOT FOR SALE! Now that that's out of the way...
Why are they called "UFO Catcher Toys"?
Many of the skill games feature a controllable claw, which the user tries to position above the prize they want. When the position is set, the claw lowers and closes. If you're lucky, the prize you want is caught in the claw and you win that prize. In the machines made by Sega, the base which lowers the claw is shaped like an alien spaceship, hence the name "UFO Catcher Goods." This general name has stuck with all of the catcher toys, even though the machines made by Banpresto don't have the alien spaceship claws.
So what kinds of prizes do they make?
Common prizes include the plush dolls, PVC and plush keychains, figurines, posters, trading cards, coin banks and action figures.
Other prizes include such diverse items as t-shirts and hats, drinking cups and glasses, table clocks, picture frames, nightlights, slippers, remote-control toys, model kits, CD-Roms, handkerchiefs, wind-up tin toys, metal rings and jewelry, mirrors, pillows, sno-cone makers, pencil sharpeners, cameras, lie-detectors, ties, ping-pong paddles, basketball hoops and balls, drink toppers, ramen bowls, water pistols, Christmas tree lights, motion detectors, speakers, bath sponges and towels, sunglasses, bottle openers, cel-phone cases, purses and carry-all bags. And I'm sure there are others...
How can I tell the authentic toys from the bootlegs?
Sadly, there are a lot of bootleg toys out there that are based on catcher toys prizes. All catcher toys, no matter how small, have some sort of copyright information on them. There are small paper tags (similar to the "tush tags" on beanie babies) located on all of the plush toys, which have the Banpresto logo, the year of production and the id code for the toy. Inside the little paper loop, you'll usually find an official silver seal sticker with the name and logo of the production company who licensed the product. Cardboard hang tags began appearing on plush toys in 1992, in addition to the paper tush tags.
Keychain figures also come with cardboard hang tags, and they also have a copyright imprint somewhere on the figure. The copyright imprint should be sharp and clear.
The most commonly bootlegged toys are those based on Pokemon, or Pocket Monsters. Bootleggers have gone as far as duplicating the tush tags and the cardboard tags, so the toys appear to be authentic. So far, I've seen bootleg Pokemon plushes that had fake tush tags, and some that had fake hang tags, but I've yet to see one that had both tags. There's a clue to look for. To fight bootlegs, Japanese toy makers often use small stickers with the name and logo of the license holder. These tags are usually silver or gold, but are sometimes other colors. So if its a Sailor Moon toy, it should have the Toei Animation seal, and if it's an Ultraman toy, it should have the Tsuburaya seal, and so on, and so on.
More to come as time permits! Feel free to send me any questions that you'd like get an answer to.