Collectable figures are one of the most popular types of merchandise among vtuber fans. Although our site focuses on vtubers, figures are a part of many different fandoms including those for anime, video games and Japanese pop-culture. Figures come in a variety of different forms and today we’ll be going over a few of the most popular varieties. Whether you’re a fan new to the merchandise scene or a veteran collector we hope you’ll be able to learn something new. Let’s get started!
Nendoroid
Nendoroids are a popular line of figures created by the company GoodSmile. These figures present characters in a chibi art style with an enlarged oval-shaped head with a smaller proportional body. Nendoroid figures can usually be set up in a variety of different poses with the use interchangeable parts such as arms and faceplates as well as additional accessories. GoodSmile has different varieties of Nendoroids including a line of figures specifically in a sitting position, Nendoroid Swacchao, as well as a line called Nendoroid Doll (more on that next).
Nendoroid Doll
Similar to the standard nendoroid, these figures use a chibi style head, however the body has a more standard doll-like form. Nendoroid Dolls, like their standard Nendoroid counterparts, do come with faceplates and accessories but also have the benefit of being poseable with the use of bendable joints of the body. Unlike other figures, characters’ costumes are not an integral part of the figure. The costumes are a separate accessory and usually made from a fabric material.
Figma
Figma is a line of high-quality figures produced by the Max Factory Company. Similar to Nendoroid Dolls, these figures can be set up to be arranged in different poses with the use of bendable joints located in the limbs and also come with various accessories. Kaiyodo’s Revoltech is a line of figures that also uses bendable joints to create poses.
Scale Figure
As the name implies, scale figures are created to be a scale size of the character. Most often these figures are reduced to 1/6th to 1/8th the character’s original size. Scale Figures are sculpted from resins derived from PVC providing the opportunity for these figures to be some of the most detailed available. Unlike lines of figures mentioned in this article so far, scale figures are sculpted into a fixed position and cannot be set into different poses and do not come with accessories. Scale Figures also have the widest price range from roughly $40 on the low end to several hundred and even over a thousand dollars due to high quality and limited availability.
Sofubi
Soft vinyl, also known as sofubi, figures are made using a soft version of PVC and are commonly hollow on the inside and are made by spinning plastic in a mould until the plastic has taken shape, a method called rotocasting. These figures tend to be the simplest in design, the yellow rubber duck is a common example of a soft vinyl figure. While rotocasting enables sofubi to be created on a mass scale, there are also a number of artisans, primarily Japan, that make sofubi on a smaller scale.
Gashapon
Gashapon are spherical capsules first developed by BANDAI in the late 1970’s and are distributed from vending machines. Gashapon can contain small figures but can also contain things such as miniatures, stationary and other small accessories that can fit in the palm of your hand. Gashapon or gasha figures, for short, are among the cheapest and smallest figures one can find. Gashapons are very popular in Japan but are far less common elsewhere in the world.