The background to some of the Dragonball Z figurines
One of the hottest children’s toy niche on the market right now is from the well known Dragon Ball Universe, specifically a series of children’s TV Shows and video games under the name of Dragon Ball Z.
Funnily enough Dragon Ball Z is a huge thing in the Netherlands (where it is known as Dragon Ball Z kinderspeelgoed). From action figures to Lego sets to trading cards to anything children love. Dragon Ball Z is involved. Originally a Japanese manga series from 1984, the Dragon Ball Universe went world wide when the English-language version of Dragon Ball Z ini 1995. Children everywhere fell in love. Since it’s release 25 years ago, this niche has been one of the most successful of all time. Since 2009, a new roster of action figures and toys have hit the market under the new series name Dragon Ball Kai and this phenomenon is alive and thriving to this day.
The story behind it all was inspired by the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West. The Japanese adaptation of this follows a protagonist named Goku from his childhood and into adult hood as he fights villains, trains in martial arts, and explores the universe in his search of seven mystical orbs known as the Dragon Balls. These seven objects summon a wish-granting genie like Dragon when gathered together. Along the way Goku develops friendships with other characters in the universe, and gets involved in conflicts with enemies bent on world domination whom seek the Dragon Balls for their own malicious intent.
Amongst the toys, action figures, video games, manga, T.V. shows a series of collectible cards was released in the U.S. in 2008. Based on Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball ZT series under Bandai, they feature various scenes from the T.V. Series as well as new artwork from all three series. They had already existed outside of Japan in countries like Singapore and Taiwan with sets like one action figure for each character the card represents.
The hottest action figures on the market are often the most popular characters in the anime series. Action figures of protagonist characters Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks, and Piccolo are high in demand, as are famous antagonist characters such as Freiza, Cell, and Majun Bu. The Dragon Ball manga’s 42 volumes have sold over 152 million copies in Japan and more than 200 million copies in the world. The harshest critics of Japanese anime have praised the Dragon Ball plot characters, humor,a nd art as some of the best in anime with many famous manga artists claiming Dragon Ball to be a source of inspiration. The anime Dragon Ball Z alone was, some say, the most influential in popularizing Japanese animation in Western culture. At it’s core, Dragonball promotes the tenets of Weekly Shonen Jump philosophy from the 80’s… “struggle, friendship, and victory”. As the series changed from “hear warming” to action oriented over time the protagonists went through a unending cycle of fighting, training, and improving over time. They continue to learn lessons through victory and defeat, good lessons to pass on to children. The series praises challenges, teaching children through their toys and TV Shows that they can improve themselves by facing challenges.
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