YUJIN SUPER REAL PURORESU

In The Year Nineteen Ninety Nine Professional Wrestling had achieved a new height of pop - culture fandom internationally, the Monday Night Wars between the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling were almost at its end.

In Japan the Professional Wrestling Industry would also have climbed new summits of Pro - Wrestling Fanaticism.

Puroresu ( Pu - ro - res - u ) is the Japanese pronunciation of Pro - Wrestling and is often shorted as Puro - Res.

The 1990’s had over a dozen Wrestling promotions In Japan that contributed to that fanaticism, however two promotions lead in the ranks of popularity that could Contrast the same momentum that was occurring in the West. The two Mainstay Promotions being : New Japan Pro - Wrestling and All Japan Pro - Wrestling.

Oftentimes with a consistent soar in Popularity of any televised form of Entertainment with a cast of characters Merchandizing has played a integral part of Business in both revenue and exposure. The year 1999 began the releases for Yujin Co. LTD. & All Japan under the Super Real series. Eventually they’d work with New Japan & Pro - Wrestling NOAH.

This First Installment in the Preservation Museum’s Collection will Highlight a Visual & Written Representation of the history of both the Japanese Pro - Wrestling promotions & the Toy Manufacture.

Yujin Company Limited is subsidiary of Tomiyama Co. , better known as Tomy.

• Founded in 1986 Yujin’s sole Purpose was to differentiate from Tomy’s main Line of toys, such as Diecast Vehicle Line Tomica being the main draw for Tomy’s toys for boys.

• Following the Success of the starting years, 1988 is when Yujin moved offices to be alongside their parent company in Tokyo marking the turning of a new leaf for the Toy company.

• Yujin Specialized in miniature Gashapon Capsule toys, Gashapon’s name originates from the Phonetical sound the Machine makes as you crank it clockwise for your lucky prize.

Yujin had produced a ton of figures for many different licenses

some of those include the Thunderbirds , Gachaman , Mazinkaiser , Kamen Rider , Mario Kart , DarkStalkers , Toy Story , and various of other popular licenses that really displayed a range in the market for all collectors alike.

The Acquisition of the All Japan License was due to few coincidences being that Yujin was still a fairly small company compared to Bandai , the Advertiser from the Agency Yujin worked closely with was a huge fan of Giant Baba, the founder of AJPW. At the time Gacha-Gacha or Gashapon was still a obscurity being that it was often associated with cheap children’s toys and all parties were unsure if wrestling fans would gravitate towards it, thanks to the referee at the time it is said he was enthusiastic about the project assisting Yujin in getting a advertisement in the Weekly Gong Puroresu Magazine. Both AJPW & Yujin was unsure of its success so that lead to a soft opening if you will by exclusively releasing the first Set right outside of The Nippon Budokan Venue in Chiyoda, Tokyo , Japan. All Yujin Employees involved in the project eagerly awaited outside the venue to see what reaction the collection would receive and to their surprise one of the first to approach the Capsule Machine was the 6’ 10” President of AJPW Himself Shohei “Giant” Baba.

Baba then Borrowed 200 Yen from his wife to purchase what was still somewhat a mystery to him, his large hands could hardly insert the coins as he clutched the dial, the Yujin team were nervous he would break the machine, his coins were eaten unfortnately but Ono - Chan of Yujin’s Super Real project insisted Baba Try again.

Shohei Giant Baba opened his first Gachapon & luckily it ended up being a Giant Baba Figure!

The AJPW Gacha set was released in the SR ( Super Real ) style and saw its Mass release across Japan in 1999.

All Japan AJPW Yujin Mini book — *All Japan had three parts released in Super Real Series, each figure came with a “Mini Book” highlighting the set and a Synopsis of each Prize Wrestler - Prize Figure.*

Mitsuharu Misawa • Giant Baba • Kenta Kobashi

Jun Akiyama AJPW Yujin Super Real Figurine.

Akiyama, the successful Amateur Wrestler of Tokyo Japan’s Senshu University made his debut for AJPW in 1992.
The Blue outfit depicted on this figurine signifies his time with the company throughout his eight year run with the promotion.

The Rest of this first series Included :

Toshiaki Kawada • Akira Taue • Jun Akiyama

The Gold Painted Chase Shohei Giant Baba Figure.

*Big Van Vader of AJPW & Yujins SR Part Two.*

Leon White also known as Vader, Big Van Vader in his earlier years and the Mastodon by most color commentators is considered amongst many wrestling enthusiasts as the best big man of his time.
Leon’s Diverse resume of promotions he’s worked for is too credit for his international fame. This figure plays a big role in the introduction of Yujin Super Real Gachas in the American audience.
American Wrestling enthusiasts gravitate towards Leon for his time in WCW & WWF, following his return to Puroresu AJPW saw his inclusion in Yujins second SR series attracting a wider audience amongst foreign collectors.
Series two also saw the likes of Stan Hansen and Johnny Ace, two other familiar western faces.

The early 2000’s saw Avid Pro - Wrestling toy collectors gathering on servers sharing information about every crevasse of Wrestling figures and accessorie collecting & amongst those topics the Yujin figures would finally surface through one lucky collector that had the opportunity to travel to Japan. Gachapon’s equal in the American toy market would be cheap figurines usually no more than half a dollar being sold aside candy machines in local delicatessens, bodegas and supermarkets.

This Americanization earned them the nickname of “Gumball” capsule figures amongst the English speaking collectors.

The Year 2000 also saw the continuation of the Super Real with Part Two of All Japan Pro - Wrestling Gacha - Gacha it also introduced a new variation involving rival promotion, New Japan Pro - Wrestling : The Fighting Box.

NJPW’s Involvement in this toy line saw updated Sculpts of the figures themselves, offering Slightly more realistic sculpts although the figures were ever so slightly smaller. The Fighting Box also would see the first inclusion of Figure stands in addition to the only time Yujin included a Title Belt, Cloth goods, and alternative heads and accessories. NJPW’s Fighting Box Blind Box Series saw two part releases that featured thirteen individuals including one figure that has a two in one feature.

The Natural Born Master T-shirt that Keiji Mutoh, better known as the Great Muta wore during his feud with Masahiro Chono over leading NWO Japan.
*Included as a accessory with Keiji’s Yujin Figure.*

*Jushin Thunder Liger of NJPW & Yujin’s Fighting Blind Box Assortment.*

Based on the 1989 Anime TV series Jushin Liger, that translates to Beast God Liger - Jushin Thunder Liger is a favorite throughout his entire career appearing in all of Professional Wrestlings major promotion’s World wide.
1995 saw Liger san’s appearance in the Live action Tokusatsu film Jushin Thunder Liger : Fist of Thunder.

What Followed the height of Puroresu in the late 1990’s was a future of tragedy & transitions.

January 31st, 1999 saw the death of the Founder, President and Wrestling Icon - Giant Baba. The passing of Shohei Baba quaked the entire wrestling world, following funeral services and memorials held in Baba’s honor a Gigantic void was left to be filled amongst AJPW.

Mitsuharu Misawa, the top preforming star in the company aka the Ace was appointed as new President.

Despite this position Mitsuharu and Babas now widow Motoko hadn’t agreed on company directions & then just over one year after Baba’s death Misawa had led the largest wrestling Exodus from any wrestling promotion to form a new wrestling promotion that was more suit for the soon to be stars of All Japan Pro - Wrestling.

That Company is Pro - Wrestling NOAH.

While New Japan had Stars such as Jushin Thunder Liger, Shinya Hashimoto, Keiji Mutoh aka the Great Muta , NOAH would gain talent such as Kenta Kobashi, Jun Akiyama, Akira Taue and would later go on to groom younger Talent such as Kenta & Naomichi Marufuji, however the two promotions with contrasting wrestling styles had a new parallel : The Fighting Box Collection by Yujin Co. LTD.

The NOAH & YUJIN Fighting Box Collection is scarce in all markets, naturally making them the most desirable, claiming your own boxed sets with complete parts is prestigious amongst Wrestling fanatics.

This set featured six Wrestlers, one of which being the first and only official Tag Team release within all Yujin lines.

Yujin’s Sculpture choice in this line stood true to the toyetic features that the AJPW Line had with more distinct statuesque posing, distributed through the Blind Box system they also featured green figure stands that resembled NOAH’s branding as well as their founder’s Emerald Green in ring attire. These Figure stands once collected with additional pieces would form the NOAH Wrestling Ring . . . the only catch is in order to get the full ring display you would need Nine base pieces, so the assumption of duplicates, repeat buyers or a frenzy to collect all stands to form the ring adds a interesting new layer to the psychology behind collecting this particular set over others.

Below is a representative of two of those pieces as the scarcity of these bases has left the Preservation Museums collection incomplete . . .