Series: Dragonball Z
Company: Dorda Toys
Year: 1998
Size: 14 cm
Main distribution: America / Europe
Dorda Toys is a toy distributor from Los Angeles, United States of America. They do several products of official licensed characters, including Dragonball Z. Initially these released as Skateboard Figures, but they later got redistributed loose without their skateboards as Poseable Action Figures.
While the East got Bandai’s Super Battle Collection and Europe had AB Groupe’s Super Guerriers, America got these figures from Dorda Toys. The first line of Dragonball Z merchandise Dorda Toys made were Bubble Buddies, small bottles of bubble blowing fluid, with a wand attached on the lid to blow bubbles. Small figures would be on top of these bottles. These figures later got released separately as Finger Puppets. Then they made a line of Skateboard Figures. Again, these figures later got released separately again, which are these.
Irwin Toy and Haschel re-released these figures again as well, under “The Saga continues”, mimicking the rest of Irwin Toy lines. Haschel also re-released these figures in Mexico under “Super Guerreros”, mimicking AB Groupe’s Super Guerriers line. These had “As seen on Cartoon Network” on the packaging. Some of Irwin Toy’s ended up in Europe with the rest of their lines.
Only 5 Action Figures were made; Goku, Gohan, Piccolo, Vegeta and Super Saiyan Goku. Initially Goku and Gohan came with a Nimbus skateboard, while Piccolo and Vegeta with a generic skateboard. They made similar skateboard figures of Cabbage Patch Kids, so perhaps the skateboards got repurposed.
I got 2/5; Vegeta and Super Saiyan Goku.
Vegeta
Vegeta has articulation in his shoulders and neck only. He is wearing his Saiyan Armour from the Saiyan Saga. Vegeta has a confident expression on his face. His hands are 2 fists. The paint job is quite nice yet basic flat colours.
The figure is quite light, made of a hard plastic and feels hollow. It appears to exist out of 2 halves, a front and back, and screwed together with 5 screws.
The branding is on the white back part of his armour, and can be quite hard to read unless the light catches it. It reads in raised font: DORDA TOYS® ©1996 B.S./S., T.A. Licensed by FUNimation™ All Rights Reserved.
Super Saiyan Goku
Goku has articulation in his shoulders and neck only. He is wearing his trademark orange gi with 悟, which he wears on Namek. He is a Super Saiyan. Goku has a stern and angry expression on his face. His hands are 2 fists. His waist and wrist bands seem to be of a light purple instead of blue which looks a bit odd. Otherwise the paint job is nice nice yet basic flat colours.
The figure is quite light, made of a hard plastic and feels hollow. It appears to exist out of 2 halves, a front and back, and screwed together with 5 screws.
The branding is on the back of his right upper leg, and can be quite hard to read unless the light catches it. It reads in raised font: © 1998 B.S./S.T:A. DORDA® CHINA.
I was a massive Dragonball fan at the time, and one of the first series I truly collected besides the Lion King. I spent all my pocket money on these action figures, and harassed my family to go out to the bigger cities so I could buy them once I had saved up some. I travelled almost weekly by train to Sittard to the Atomic comic bookshop to buy cards and figures.
This was a time before internet, and we hunted for these figures in all the shops. Trading and selling on was a huge part of collecting, especially then, and it created some cool friendships.
Once the internet became more of a thing, I started hunting for more online. I saw these figures online in Irwin packaging, but I never saw them here in Europe. Although they looked a bit derpy, one of the five was a young Gohan (aka wilderness Gohan), which I really wanted as he was one of my favourites at the time. I always kept an eye out for it.
Later when looking more into Irwin Toy figures, I found these so weird. I knew Irwin Toy redistributed Bandai’s and AB Groupe’s, so where did these figures come from? They didn’t look like their own later figures either.
Years later, I find these two, Vegeta and Super Saiyan Goku, for 75p each! They were a bit derpy and cheap looking, sure, but I wasn’t going to say no for that price. I quickly realised it was those “mystery Irwin Toy” figures I wanted the Gohan from, and with only 5 figures in the set, I might as well try and get them all then.
Now that I had them in hand I could see they were Dorda Toys. And everything made sense. I’m guessing these are probably one of the first American Dragonball Z toys, which is cool.
It’s interesting their branding is different. I’m guessing Vegeta has 1996 on it because it was an earlier skateboard figure. I never found a Super Saiyan Goku on a skateboard, so perhaps this was a later edition of 1998? The logo also changed from DORDA TOYS to DORDA.
I still would like to find that Gohan. I didn’t realise they were so cheap feeling though, being hollow and with the screws. The other 2, Goku and Piccolo, are lower priority, but it would be nice to have the whole set.
They are simple, but their history and nostalgia make them a bit special to me.
Got any more details / information you think I should add? Or did I get something wrong? Do you own any of these figures? Which one is your fav? Do you agree or disagree with my findings? Let me know in the comments below!