Pokemon Pokeball Plush

A hundred years ago or thereabouts, NCS stocked four mighty morphing Pokemon plushes that magically transformed from Pokeball to Pokemon. Check them out here, courtesy of the NCS archives. To update the Pokeball-to-Pokemon plushes with new blood, Yujin has started preorders for five new types which ship in November 2006. Each Pokeball measures 60mm or 2.36" in diameter and opens and closes by way of zipper technology. Preorders for complete sets of six plushes are welcome today to ship in November.

Street Fighter Sound Drop

Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and the rest of the original Street Fighter gang return this December thanks to the efforts of Bandai. The brawlers aren't being featured in a new game but in a collection of eight toys. Although the Sound Drops look like mere teardrop-shaped pieces of plastic, they contain the voices of legendary fighters. For example, press on the Ryu Sound Drop and the man bellows out, "Shoryuken" as if he was right there in the room and rarin' to go. Preorders are scheduled to ship in mid-late December 2006 and NCS plans on supplying the various drops in a complete set of eight.

Tachikoma Trading Figure

Despite being high-tech machinery with onboard armaments, the spidery Tachikoma of Ghost in the Shell are child-like mecha with curious munchkin voices. Therein lies the duality of the machines and the contrast of character. Japanese manufacturer Movic skews towards the munchkin factor with a collection of squat Tachikomas colored in
six standard colors and two secret colors that are randomly packaged in blind boxes. Each Tachikoma measures 7cm tall and roughly 6cm in diameter. Preorders are welcome today to ship in Oct. 2006.

Caltoy UJ Whales

Another member of the animal kingdom finds representation in Sega's Caltoy brand - Whales. Measuring a mighty 43cm (16.92") long and nearly as tall, the whales are round-shaped with a teardrop point that pinches off into the tail. Although real-life whales are more oval in shape than round, the Caltoy whales nonetheless bear a likeness to their real world counterparts. True to standard Caltoy design conventions, each whale possesses beady eyes and sports a lush coat of luxurious fur. Three color variants (Dark Blue / Aqua Blue / Pink) are in stock and shipping to preorders today. New orders are welcome. View larger photos for the Caltoy Whales on the main NCSX website.

Convoy X Melissa

Unbeknownst to most mortals, a kiss from a pretty girl has the ability to energize a robot as chronicled in the recent Transformers radio drama. Capitalizing on the popular broadcasts, Takara creates a new toy series called Kissplayers and ties it to the radio play. The first Kissplayers toy is a Convoy featuring Dodge Ram SRT-10 with 500 horses under the hood which morphs from cherry red pickup truck to robot form. In addition to the Convoy, a strawberry blonde named Melissa does the smooching and serves double duty as a de facto Race Queen with sheer underwear and Lolita appeal. Yuki Ohshima of Kaiyodo who's behind the popular K-T line of posable kinetic figures designed and sculpted the Melissa character. A third product inclusion in the package is a drama CD which contains 7 tracks. View larger photos for the Convoy X Melissa toy on the main NCSX website.

Mina Majikina 1/8 Scale Figure

Japanese manufacturer Toys Planning releases a 1/8 scale Mina Majikina PVC figure where the white-haired goddess kneels on a pedestal and holds her Chinsei Hachijou in both hands. To ensure that she's always ready to attack, a green quiver of arrows is attached to her bottom.

Mina wears perfectly pressed blue and white clothing - from the blue glove to the blue bow wrapped in her hair to the white top and skirt with blue trim. Mina's ivory tresses add to the whitewash. To keep her company, the demonic Champuru sits alongside her and provides a temporary spell of companionship. Sized at 1/8 scale or roughly 13cm tall, Mina represents the first in a series of Samurai Spirits figures scheduled to ship from Toys Planning. All preorders are shipping this afternoon and new orders are welcome. Please note that the Mina figure in stock today is the Japanese version. NCS expects a USA version to arrive sometime in November 2006. View larger photos for the Mina Majikina figure on the main NCSX website.

Catch the Dots: Makaimura

It's been 21 years since the original Makaimura (Ghosts 'n Goblins) game captivated players with the story of a knight in shining armor and the maiden that he set out to save. Since a procession of classic games from the past have already received the Dot-Pin treatment, it's only natural that a Makaimura Dots toy be released as well. Two sets are on offer: a version which includes enough pegs to create a representation of a bearded Sir Arthur in his red underoos (Set A) and another which shows off Art's suit of silver armor (Set B). The pegs and peg-boards from both sets may be combined to create a rendition of Arthur fully suited in armor. Once fully clad in metal plating, Arthur appears ready to rush off and rescue his betrothed. Preorders ship today and new orders are welcome. View larger photos for the Makaimura Dots on the main NCSX website.

Namco Dot Graph Sound Figure

Inspired by the Dot-Pin toys from Tomy, Japanese manufacturer Unifive licenses some Namco retro classics and gives birth to the Namco Dot Graph Figure with Sound toys. Instead of using little pins to create scenes however, the Namco Dot Graph Figure with Sound toys feature a 7 x 5 hole-punched pegboard with background graphic which accepts complete figure inserts. For example, in the Dig Dug dot graph toy, there's a Pooka and Dig Dig which are plugged into any one of the 35 square holes. One they're pushed in, you're done with the scene.

Each pegboard measures 7 x 9 cm and six types are available as follows: Galaxian / Xevious / New-Rally X / Mappy / Dig Dug / Tower of Druaga. Two secret variants are packaged randomly in each factory case as well for a total of eight retro figures and four duplicates. The base of each toy includes a sound chip + speaker which is activated by pressing a button to play a short yet boisterous jingle from the game. All preorders ship today and new orders are welcome. View larger photos for the Namco Dot Graph sound figures on the main NCSX website.