Astro Boy Bandai 2004 Toys - Advice?

[Fauna]

I've been trying to build my Astro Boy toy collection recently, with the goal to get one thing of each character just to round things out. I have one of the Takara/Sono Kong figure sets, the one that comes with Astro and Robita. As well, there's quite a few of the Bandai-made toys made for the 2004 series, and I wanted to get some second opinions on a few toys I was looking at...



I'm really interested in this one because of the America-exclusive Delta and a sizable model of the Metro City police cars. However, the cheapest option I have will be about $35-40 after shipping. I know it's a ten-year-old out of print toy, but is this worth it? I haven't been able to find any reviews for it.



This one looks cool, too, but its price is overbloated.

Do any of you have other 2004 Bandai toys? I know there's three Astro Boy figures and one Atlas figure. I'd love to know about them and what quality they are, or what they can do.

[Little Brown Fox]

I'm of no help here, I'm afraid; but you could try putting the question up to Tumblr users- I happen to follow a couple of people who own some figures, of which you probably already know about... but, I figured that I'd put it out there anyway...

[teugene50]

sound's interesting.

[Fauna]

This is the only other Metro City police car toy available, Takara's Wan-Wan Patrol Set. It seems to only be a basic toy car, and you can only put Astro in the top of it.

I think I'm going to go with the Bandai toy for this one...Delta and the transforming option is way more tempting.

I did talk to a few people from Tumblr about the Atlas figures. They said the Bandai figure is larger and lights up, and the Takara figure is more posable and looks show-accurate.

[Dragonrider1227]

Oh yeah, the toyline that didn't appear in stores until AFTER the show went off the air >>

[Fauna]

I own the squad car and Delta set, and I'm getting really tempted to open it. Are there any objections, though? Like, the box is already open and it's sort of dented, but I'd really just like to take out Delta and the car to play with it.

The set also comes with intructions, a small poster of Astro running towards you and pointing, and a blurb on the back of the box that's one of the worst explanations of the series that I've ever seen:

[Daiya Mondo]

it is 3 o clock in the morning; moonlight pours into a room through a small window, the silver beams resting upon a box on the shelf. inside the room, a young woman slumbers, or at least is trying to. she shifts in her bed, eyes squeezed shut as she rolls from side to side, trying desperately to get comfortable.

but alas, she cannot sleep.

she stares up at her shelf, noticing that the way the moonlight hit the box on her shelf seems to make it glow and shimmer brighter than any jewel she had ever seen. suddenly, a melodic voice is heard.

"open me, fauna." the voice says, it sounding smoother than any chocolate and it reminded fauna of the tinkling sound of crystal. it echoes in her mind, suddenly she is relaxed and put into a hypnotic trance.

"open me, fauna. it is your destiny. open the box. open the box of pandora, fauna. you know you want to."

fauna cannot help but rise from her bed, her body moving on its own as she reaches for it. deft fingers open the box up with ease, along with removing any packaging that no child would ever be able to open because toy companies are evil.

the rest of the night is a blur and fauna's mother comes in to see if she is awake... only to find fauna lying on the floor on her stomach, making "beep beep" noises as she pushes a toy car across the carpet.

tl;dr: open the toy

[Little Brown Fox]

Well, that... was a fairly pleasant (and vaguely poetic) way to tell someone to open the toy... (I'd be lying if I said that I did not find it at least a little amusing)

[Fauna]

So, from the package's window, the layout is pretty effective. I forgot to take a lot of pictures of Delta, but with this being the only figure of him in existence, he's really good. He has no obvious painting errors, commendable for a toy so small.



It also comes with a set of instructions and a mini-poster. The poster is really nothing special, and I'd rather give it to a younger Astro Boy fan who would find it cooler.



It took forever to get the squad car out of its plastic wired hell, and this is what it looks like in full? It looks less like one of the show's squad cars in flight and more like a half-finished toy.



Also, the top of this set of casings keeps falling off if handled too much. The hinges are small, as they're intended to be removed, but it's really annoying to have it suddenly snap off all the time. Especially since this was a brand new toy.



The "closed" squad car, however, is great. I love the sculpt and design of the whole thing. If only the doors could be properly opened and you could put figures inside...


Was it worth $30? Ehhh, not really. I'd say maybe $15-20 realistically, but I guess I don't mind paying extra for something a decade old. In all, I love the "closed" squad car, and the Delta is great.

[Dragonrider1227]

Poor Bandai toys. Not getting on the shelves until after the show went off the air. They never had a chance. Not that they were all that great to begin with. I only have a couple myself. Astro with the light up arm, and Atlas with the light up eyes. Kinda want that lab playset though