Company: Bandai
Release: 2024
Size: +/- 4 cm
Main distribution: Japan / USA / UK (Gashapon machines)
These are a Gashapon series called “narabundesu” or “lined up” by Bandai. Several IPs have gotten this treatment, existing out of characters walking in a line. This particular set are characters from the video game series Power Pros / Powerful Pro Baseball / Jikkyō Powerful Pro Yakyū, in particular from the mobile game Jikkyō Powerful Pro Yakyū (実況パワフルプロ野球) or Pawapuro Appli (パワプロアプリ), where they added Konami characters.
The figures can be obtained through a Gashapon machine. They come in transparent balls, so you can see which figure you have prior to opening it.
The figures are wrapped in plastic and also come with a coloured leaflet, although it doesn’t show the characters but simply their names (in Japanese).
There are 6 figures to collect. I got 1/6.
Power Pro (Smile Version)
Power Pro (Smile Version) is smiling with ^^ eyes and wearing a red and white jersey. It’s the modern variant, with a slim body.
Underneath its feet is the branding; it reads in raised font in indented squares under the left foot “B. 2702903 and the 4 dots of Bandai” and under the right foot “© KONAMI”.
The Super Famicom is my favourite console, and I do have Power Pros on it. Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball ’94, Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2 and Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 3 to be precise. It’s hard to find merchandise for the Super Famicom, so when I saw these at the Gashapon store, I had to have one.
Granted these are for the 2024 mobile game with Konami characters added, but I really hoped to get the Power Pro (First Generation). I ended up with the Power Pro (Smile version). Not the worst to get. Although I like Naked Snake, and Goemon, seeing them in this style is weird. I may have to try again to get the first gen guy.
Power Pros isn’t that popular in the West, but it’s still running strong in Japan with regular entries, so I was surprised to see this set here.
There’s 2 older sets of Power Pros narabundesu Gashapon too, so I hope they bring those over here too in the end.
If you like Power Pros, or Konami, or Gashapon, you might like these.
If you prefer less niche figures, you’ll give these a miss.
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!