Company: Benelic, Studio Ghibli
Release date: 2008+
Size: +/- 3 cm
Main distribution: Japan
This is a bath bomb of Ponyo from the Ghibli movie made by Benelic.
The bath bomb with figure comes in a blind box, so you can’t tell which one you get prior.
When opening the blind box you’ll find the bath bomb wrapped in silver plastic. When opening the silver wrapper, you’ll find the bath bomb tightly wrapped in plastic with a cute warning sticker on it.
It’s a basic ball shape, nothing special, and is light blue of colour. It smells like Soda.
Although you can dissolve them in a bowl of hot water to get the toy out, I don’t like wastage so I ran myself a bath and threw the bath bomb in.
It fizzes slightly, and does not create any bubbles like normal bubble bath stuff would. It slightly colours the water and has a sweet candy-like smell. It also floats. Slowly the figure is revealed. It doesn’t take that long for the entire bath bomb to dissolve, about three minutes.
The figure is of a soft rubbery feel.
The set exists out of 5 figures to collect; Smiling Ponyo, Sisters, Jellyfish Ponyo, Sleepy Ponyo and Bucket Ponyo.
The packaging shows a cute images of Ponyo, and the 5 figures you can get on the sides.
I got 1/5.
Smiling Ponyo
Smiling Ponyo is Ponyo in her fish form, happily swimming forward. She has a big open mouth / grin on her face and her hands sticking forward / outwards. Her hair is wavy as if underwater and her red robe-like body feels like it’s floating upwards.
The branding is on her bottom and reads in black print © 2008 Studio Ghibli -NDHDMT.
I’ve grown found of these Japanese bath bombs with figures inside. So when I saw a Ghibli one I of course had to have one.
It seems fitting that Ponyo comes in a bath bomb, with her being a water creature after all. It’s also hard to find nice Ghibli figures in general, unless it’s Totoro. And although I understand, I’m slightly sad it’s just figures of Ponyo in this set. I hope more Ghibli bath bombs will get made.
Because it’s only Ponyo in this set, I only bought 1. I wasn’t incredibly fussed which one I would get, although I think I like Smiling Ponyo the most. So I was quite happy to have gotten that one!
I do find the smell quite strong and sickly sweet. The bath wasn’t especially moisturising or anything, and only coloured the water lightly. But the figure is very cute.
If you like Ghibli or Ponyo, I recommend getting these as it’s hard to find figures of her.
If you like bath bombs for the bath itself, these are ok. They don’t colour the water much and the smell is quite strong too.
Got any more details / information you think I should add? Or did I get something wrong? Do you own these figures? Do you agree or disagree with my findings? Let me know in the comments below!