What's Up With Jakks DragonBall Action Figures?

[Tanooki Kuribo]

I'm not really a collector of action figures. I mean I do have a few here and there that I'd pick up that I thought were cool but, but not at all on a collector level.

So, I'm looking through eBay to see how much the old Super Battle Collection figures are going for and I see these Jackks 2-packs going for more than what I paid for my DragonBox: The Movies!

Then I figure (no pun intended) that the 2-packs were rare or something. But, then I see loose figures going for $50.00, $70.00, $100.00. One was almost $200.00. Another one, Bardock this time, was over $300.00.

So, I gotta ask. What's up with these old DragonBall figures? Why are they so much money? I can't belive people are actually buying these for this much. Were they made in limited quantities? Did the licence get killed off soon after making these figures? Is the paint made out of diamonds? That's it. Dimond paint, right?

Also, out of curiosity, what is the rarest Jackks DragonBall figure?

[DaemonCorps]

No idea why the 2-packs are going for so much now, but from a collector's standpoint, the Movie Collection releases (and whatever names of the other releases from around that time) were some of the most detailed figures at the time. Their sculpts went for more of a realistic look to the characters which gave off something of a mix of East meets West which not that many figures go for even today, and especially when it comes to anime figures.

Still, doing a quick search, it looks like figures from that line/era from Jakks range in price, mostly due to issues of in/out of box. Of the figures of these types, I'm gonna go ahead and make an educated guess and say that the more pricey figures would be the Broly and SSJ3 Goku figures.

Though looking at the figures you linked to, it looks like the Jakks figures in question aren't even from the line I'm talking about, so... iunno. Figures go out of print all the time and on occasion have some kind of wacky backstory as to why people are selling certain figures for so much. I'm gonna take a stab and say that from the looks of things, these were some of Jakk's last figures (do they even make DBZ figures anymore?) and thus were made in smaller quantities. Meh... I'm sure someone else can give a more proper answer.

[cracker]

The rarest figures that JAKKS made came from their GT line. Nova Shenron, General Rildo in armor, and Omega Shenron from this 2 pack were probably the rarest. Bardock and Battle Damaged Bardock were rare, but the price seems to be determined by the popularity of the character.

There are other figures that will fetch a lot of money, but weren't necessarily as rare. Saiya-jin Saga Vegeta, Arlia Vegeta, Freeza, and figures from the Bojack Unbound line seem to go for the most. There are also a few 2 packs that go for some high prices now.

The rare figures did come closer to the end of the time JAKKS held the DB/Z/GT license. The prices seemed to have stemmed from people on eBay asking these insane prices and people paying them. I don't know the actual production numbers for the figures that were released at the end, but am assuming they were slightly lower than say the middle of the time JAKKS held the license. With the WWE license, JAKKS wanted their figures to fetch more on the secondary market and I feel that some of that mentality carried over onto their DBZ figures. One thing they would do was mark certain figures with stamps saying "Limited Edition Paint" even though the number of limited paints were the entire production run of a certain figure/2 pack. By that logic, all of their figures were "limited edition paints", just not stamped.

Currently Bandai holds the license to produce Dragonball figures. JAKKS license ran out at the end of, I think 2008.

[Raithos]

What my colleagues above have stated is correct, for the American side of figures this site does it best:

http://www.dragonballtoys.proboards.com ... board=toys

All the info you could want on the lines you've listed is there, and then some.

[Chibi Gohan]

Also, out of curiosity, what is the rarest Jackks DragonBall figure?

The rarest seems to be the Sigma Rildo, but most expensive is the 2-pack with Bardock and USSJ Goku... I don't collect the American releases though, so I don't keep too much track on the exact prices.