"My Moyashimans, let me show you them."
So I'm not normally a person who invests in a lot of anime-related merchandise. Much of what's available easily in the United States is related to series I don't really have any investment in, and most of the more expensive anime figurines that are available at conventions are a bit too... boobalicious for my tastes. So when I see a toy or item that's related to a series I like, I tend to jump right on it. That's how it was with this set of 6 figurines from the Moyashimon: Tales of Agriculture manga, anime and live-action drama.
I saw them up for pre-order on the Jbox website (a great website for obtaining Japanese snacks, study books, bento boxes, and anime goodies), and despite the $38 price tag, I decided that I just had to have them.
I ordered the "A" set, which contains six Moyashimon in their normal-colored versions (the alternate "B" set seems to be just another color scheme that might glow in the dark, I'm not sure). Included (from back-to-front and left-to-right) are Cladosporium trichoides (black mold), Clostridium botulinum (botulinum toxin), Lentinus edodes (Shiitake Mushroom), Lactobacillus yogurti (Japanese yogurt bacteria), Penicillium chrysogenum (green mold) and Aspergillus oryzae (yeast). They each come with a little pink stand.
What's really awesome about these toys is how many points of articulation they all have. Each of the stands has a hinged joint that plugs into the back of the actual figures so that they can be made to hover at various heights above the ground and from many different angles (though if the balance is disrupted too much, they'll tip over). Each of Oryzae's hair stalks can be bent forward or backward, the Black Mold has a spinny antenna... thing, and the bodies of each of the figures can be tilted to some extent. For figurines that I assumed would be mostly good for display purposes only, I got a surprising amount of playtime from them.
The price for the set was a little bit steep - $38 dollars works out to more than $6 per figure and I don't know if they'd really be worth that price for anyone but the most diehard Moyashimon fan... but that description fits me perfectly and I love them.
NOTE: As I discovered after leaving these toys out on the table overnight, they make good cat toys; my cats had knocked two of them down and hid them underneath the couch.
All photographs copyright 2010 by Johnathan Gohde. Used with permission.
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