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REVIEW: YES Anime/ Play Imaginative’s Anime Trexi
Naruto, Death Note, Bleach, and Tiger & Bunny...
At one point or another, every major toy company has had their own designer toy platform. Hasbro and Mighty Muggs; Kidrobot and Dunny; Toy2R and Toyers; Diamond Select and Minimates. The list goes on. And while some have come and gone (Mighty Muggs, Toyers), just as many continue to thrive and grow (Dunny, Minimates). Created by Play Imaginative in 2004, Trexi (trexi.com.sg) is another designer toy platform that has endured over the years. Starting off as a blank canvas for artists, the 2.5-inch tall figure format has recently expanded with a slew of officially licensed characters, including Disney, Nickelodeon's SpongeBob, and DC Comics. This year Play Imaginative teamed with YES Anime and VIZ Media, taking Trexi to new heights with the introduction of popular Japanese anime properties.
Called Anime Trexi, the series launches strong with four fan favorite licenses: Naruto, Death Note, Bleach, and Tiger & Bunny. Priced at around $11.99 each, Anime Trexi can be found online at fine retailers like YES Anime and BigBadToyStore, as well as brick and mortal stores such as Barnes & Noble (Naruto characters only), Spencer’s Gifts (select characters only), and Books-A-Million.
Packaging for Anime Trexi is surprisingly fun and unique for not only the four different licenses, but for each individual character in those licenses. YES Anime could have easily created a generic box for each wave, slapped the figure in it and called it a day. Housed in a closed window box, each Anime Trexi can be seen peering out of their clearly branded pack. Naruto and Bleach are the most personalized of the bunch, each package going above and beyond the call of duty with the addition of an animated character portrait on the front. Death Note is (appropriately) a very somber affair with eerie darkness setting the tone, while Tiger & Bunny dazzles with excellent use of color - not only on the sides and back of the box, but inside the box as well (each character has their own interior color scheme!). To encourage fans to collect them all, the back of each Anime Trexi package features the entire cast of characters found in each line. Bleach ranks the highest with a total of six cool figures to find, Naruto and Tiger & Bunny each pack five, while Death Note comes in last with only four characters to collect. Adding all four licenses together, that's a grand total of 20 Anime Trexis for the serious collector to hunt down.
Anime Trexi characters include:
NARUTO: Naruto, Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura, and Gaara
TIGER & BUNNY: Barnaby Brooks Jr., Barnaby Brooks Jr. (Hero Suit), Kotetsu T. Kaburagi, Kotetsu T. Kaburagi (Hero Suit), and Blue Rose (Hero Suit)
DEATH NOTE: L, Light Yagami, Ryuk, and Misa Amane
BLEACH: Ichigo Kurosaki, Rukia Kuchiki, Kon, Ulquiorra, Nel-Tu, and Grimmjow
Every designer toy platform has something about its appearance that sets it apart from the rest of the pack. Trexi is all about a stubby little body and legs, flat feet (perfect for stability), long reaching arms, gripping cupped hands, all topped by a round ball head. It's the ball head that's truly Trexi's calling card; a rotating head, allowing for multiple facial expressions. While the new Anime Trexi series still retains the ball head, the facial gimmick has been substituted for something more... anime: custom hair molds. Aside from abnormally large doe eyes, I think most anime fans will agree that hair is one of the major defining characteristics on an anime character. The Anime Trexi series totally nails this feature, creating some of the best designed Trexis ever produced. My favorite Anime Trexi characters feature spiky hair; the porcupine hairstyle made popular by the likes of Naruto, Kakashi and Ichigo Kurosaki.
The changing facial expressions on Trexi was a great gimmick, but I always felt the round ball head design limited the appearance of each character. Aside from unique painted decos, they all started looking the same. Anime Trexi breaks the mold by giving each character that much need individual personality. It's all about the wonderfully sculpted hair. The playful expressions are still there, but paired with a rainbow of spiky hairdos and hats, Anime Trexi takes the platform to a new fun level.
Anime fans will find a lot to love with Anime Trexi. The chibi-like figures match their cartoon counterparts well and with four hot anime properties to choose from, there's bound to be a collection that appeals to you. Tiger & Bunny is my favorite set of the bunch, but there's just as many Naruto, Bleach and Death Note fans out there. I can't wait to see what anime licenses Anime Trexi takes on next.
Are you a retail store interested in carrying Anime Trexi? Call YES Anime at 650-583-1623 and ask for Jason (jason@yesanime.com) or Joe (joe@yesanime.com).
Review and Photos by Jeff Saylor
Review Samples Courtesy of YES Anime
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