By Ray H.

Blues Is Here To Stay: Cowboy Bebop Toys

"I think its time we blow this scene, get everybody and their stuff together... okay 3... 2...1... lets Jam...."

Well, if your going to do a Cowboy Bebop story of any kind, you need to start it with the opening lyrics... they're just so jive.

Cowboy Bebop is the critically acclaimed anime series that has set a new standard in the industry. Weird name... fantastic show. Cowboy Bebop tells the tale of a band of bounty hunters in a genre that can best be described as sort of a "Space Western". This series has great writing, excellent animation, lots of action, comedy, drama, and a very swank blues & jazz soundtrack that sets the mood to the series perfectly.

A new Cowboy Bebop movie will also be released soon in Japan, as well, which will take place just a little before the final episode of the Bebop series, continuity wise. With all that hype surrounding the series its a given they have to give fans some toys, to feed their Cowboy Bebop need.

Medicom Toy has just released the new 12-inch Stylish Collection: Spike Spiegel action figure.

This figure offers a very detailed toy incarnation of everybody's favorite big footed bounty hunter. The Spike Spiegel action figure has a cloth costume, is fully articulated, and comes with Spike's gun. This figure retails for about $70 in Japan, give or take a little. American Bebop fans should be excited to know that Spike Spiegel was offered in the June issue of Previews for only $35! That is defiantly a great deal for a high quality toy.

Faye Valentine has also been immortalized in plastic, except she was made by Volks about a year ago. This is another of Volks high end doll's, she's 1/6 scale so she's also compatible with the Spike Spiegel. There is also a "kit" version of this doll available from Volks, which features more articulation and "sculpted" hair instead of rooted hair, it's molded in color and just needs to be assembled. The completed Faye doll retails for about 85$, while the kit version goes for about $130.

Bandai is also getting on the Bebop Wagon with some merchandise of their own. Hobby Link Japan recently posted the picture of the brand new Swordfish II kit. It's yet to be known what "grade" the plastic kit will be. Ppersonally I'm hoping for an easy kit like Gundams. As you can see it even comes with a cool little Spike Spiegel mini figurine. If all goes well with the Swordfish, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Bandai offer more Cowboy Bebop products, such as possibly Faye's ship the Redtail, Jet's ship the Hammer Head and of course the Bebop itself in the future.

If the Medicom and Volks offerings seem a little to steep for you, but you still need a Cowboy Bebop fix, fear not. This September Banpresto will be releasing a set of high grade, nicely detailed, claw catcher toys, that will be about 5 inches tall and have some articulation. The line will consist of:

• Spike Spiegel
• Faye Valentine
• Jet Black
• Ed & Ein
• Julia

What no Vicious toy? Hopefully if they do more, they'll include Vicious in a later series. These should cost around $10 each give or take, depending on where you get them.

Cowboy Bebop is available now on VHS and DVD (this is a very well done DVD by the way it has 5 episodes on it! the VHS only has 2 episodes a tape), courtesy of Anime Village.com. Its a great must see series. If your interested in any of the merchandise shown here, it can be had on-line at HLJ or Justbetoys.

"-see you Space Cowboy"