Gee, I don't know what to think about this.
Akira you'll want to see this. I saw
carnage6 talking about this figure on youtube last night. I think Goshin owns some FAPs, but I can't remember her member name on here so I can't tag her.
Adrenaline and
gqkrillin may have some interest in this too.
So let's go through this with some story. I've been collecting since 1998, and collecting online since I joined the original Dragonballtoys.com message board in 2001. I've never seen this Yardrat Goku figure. We all thought it was a myth. Back then, many people considered it a holy grail, because there weren't many DBZ figures to choose from and this one was highly unusual--Goku in a costume other than orange and blue.
I've never liked Full Action Pose (FAP) figures, so I've never paid them a lot of attention. I only have two pictures on my harddrive, one of all three known figures, and one scan or picture of the ad showing SS Yardrat Goku. I've attached those images to this post. Here is a different scan that Kanzenshuu has:
In 2002 or 2003, DBT member KKChung mailed me a bootleg FAP SS Goku he wanted me to make into a Yardrat Goku. This was unfortunate that he did this, because he didn't ask me ahead of time. I can't sew. So I had to mail the figure back and not do anything with it. The bootleg looked identical to the real figure as far as I know. I wasn't very fond of it. It was pretty ugly, just like this SS Yardrat Goku one.
Anyway, I'm analyzing and comparing the pics of this figure to what was probably a prototype in the ad. First of all, the neck thing looks terrible, but I'm sure you all noticed that. The prototype has a lilac colored one and this figure has a khaki or taupe colored one. I think the one on the figure would look the shape of the one in the ad if they pulled it apart and styled it. Something I never thought of, is that the prototype has that weird wrinkly piece of white fabric beneath the armor, just like this figure does. The chest armor on this figure looks very good. Much smoother and "factory painted" looking than I would expect from someone trying to create a fake. The waist armor though has the yellow lines spaced out much further apart than the prototype. The wrist things on the prototype are much lighter brown than on this figure, this figure has peanut butter colored ones. The pants on this figure are much darker than the pants on the prototype. The boots seem to be the same as what the regular SS Goku has, but the laces are just frayed a bit.
So is this real? Maybe. I have always said that this figure couldn't possibly be something that was 1 of 100, because we would have seen one come up for sale. Well, now we apparently have. Or have we? Is it possible that only a few were made? Less than 100? Is this one real or a fake?
I really want to see the yahoo Japan auction. Does anyone know how to find it? I don't know how to look at completed auctions.
Here's a link to the japanese words for Dragonball Goku Yardrat on Yahoo JapanAnd here's the text alone: ドラゴンボール 孫 悟空 ヤードラット
Note: ヤードラット is definitely how yardrat is spelled, because it is what is used on the advertisements.
