Revoltech
A Creative Commons-licensed photo by Fuyoh! of Kaiyodo’s Revoltech Convoy figure.
Revoltech checklist
Updated Jul. 15 with Getter-1 (Renewal version) review links
Kaiyodo’s main line of Revoltech figures was rebranded as the Yamaguchi Series with the release of the 13th wave in May 2007. It gets its name from the sculptor, Yamaguchi Katsuhisa.
Born in 1970, Yamaguchi was an avid anime fan and active in modeller circles in his college days before joining Kaiyodo in 1993. He quickly made a name for himself with his work on Hokuto No Ken 200x, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Trigun figures.
The figures in the Revoltech Yamaguchi Series are generally about 12cm tall and retail for about 2000 yen. Kaiyodo has released two figures every month since May 2006 and has also released variants as exclusives.
The following Revoltech Yamaguchi Series checklist (which currently excludes the exclusives) includes links to Japanese pictorial reviews that have a generous amount of photos.
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Revoltech links
For further reading about Kaiyodo and the Revoltech line, check out the following links.
Kaiyodo
Japanese Wikipedia entry.
This has a good summary of Kaiyodo’s growth from plastic model shop to internationally acclaimed company.
Wikipedia entry.
A brief overview of the company
Sculptor bios (Japanese).
Kaiyodo is one of the few companies that credits and promotes its sculptors.
Revoltech
Revoltech Express (Japanese).
Kaiyodo’s Revoltech blog.
Wikipedia entry.
A good overview of the line with a checklist of released figures.
Japanese Wikipedia entry.
It’s suggested the Revolver joint was named after the handgun and considering Nightow Yasuhiro’s apparent gun fetish in Trigun and Gungrave, it seems likely. The Revoltech packaging colour also denotes the figure type: blue is for real robots, red for super robots, green for humanoids, and orange used when the main line was unified and rebranded as the Yamaguchi Series.
Fan wiki (Japanese).
The FAQ section is notable.
CollectionDX reviews.
Reviews of most of the figures.
Revoltech intro
Osaka-based Kaiyodo started out as Miyawaki Osamu’s small hobby store in Moriguchi city in 1964. He had closed his book loaning business and began selling plastic scale models simply because his son loved them. The store eventually became a gathering place for modellers to socialise and exchange ideas.
In the 80s, Kaiyodo began producing its own figures, beginning with high quality limited run garage kits before going into full scale mass production in 1997.
Now headed by Miyawaki’s eldest son, Shuichi, the Japanese company has gained international recognition for its detailed and faithful sculpts. Its dinosaur models grace the Museum of Natural History in New York and a full-sized Murakami Takashi Miss ko2 figure based on a 1/5 scale prototype by Kaiyodo sculptor Bome was sold for USD567,500 at Christie’s.
Action figure aficionados will naturally gravitate towards the Revoltech line of highly posable figures. Featuring Kaiyodo’s trademark emphasis on sculpting and detail, the line is a little unusual in that it derives its name from a joint.
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