Bandai Captured Mr. 2 Bon Clay at Arabasta’s Peak in 2002

Mr. 2 Bon Clay — Bandai Carddass EX, Arabasta Arc, 2002

A Vending Machine Card From One Piece’s Busiest Year

This is a single trading card from Bandai’s Carddass EX line, produced in Japan in 2002 and themed around the Arabasta arc of One Piece. Card number LL-12 carries a Normal rarity designation and printed game statistics — POWER 500 and DAMAGE 1 — alongside a skull icon in the upper right and three clock icons in the upper left, all part of the game’s visual system. The copyright marking “©BANDAI 2002 MADE IN JAPAN” confirms domestic Japanese production.

Carddass was Bandai’s vending-machine card format, first launched in 1988, placing collectible cards in dispensers installed in toy shops, candy stores, and game centers across Japan. For a few dozen yen per pull, you drew one random card and chased a complete set — a mechanic that made it one of the defining low-cost collectible formats of the era, sitting alongside food toys and gashapon capsule figures as a pillar of Japanese children’s anime merchandise culture. The “EX” designation within the line indicated a higher-tier release compared to standard Carddass, though the precise specifications varied by set.

Mr. 2 Bon Clay and the Arabasta Arc

One Piece, created by Eiichiro Oda and serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump since 1997, had surpassed 500 million copies in circulation by 2023, making it one of the highest-selling manga series ever published. The anime adaptation began on Fuji TV in 1999. The Arabasta arc spans roughly volumes 13 through 23, following the Straw Hat crew as they escort Princess Vivi back to her desert kingdom to prevent a war orchestrated from within. The arc is widely regarded as a turning point in the series, and its anime broadcast was running through its climax in the same year this card was manufactured.

Mr. 2 Bon Clay — real name Bentham — is an agent of Baroque Works, the criminal organization at the center of the Arabasta conflict. His Devil Fruit ability, the Clone-Clone Fruit, allows him to perfectly replicate the face and body of anyone he has physically touched. His fighting style, Okama Kenpo, applies ballet footwork and kick-based techniques to combat in a way that sets him apart from any other character in the series. The card reproduces his visual identity faithfully: purple cape, blue-striped trousers, ballet shoes, and a swan motif across his back. Though introduced as an antagonist, Bon Clay goes on to perform a selfless act that earned him intense loyalty from readers and viewers — an unusual trajectory that made him one of the most genuinely beloved figures in a cast of hundreds.

A Japanese Domestic Release at the Arc’s Peak

Carddass products from this period were manufactured for the Japanese domestic market and saw limited distribution internationally, giving them a geographic and temporal specificity that distinguishes them from the global merchandise waves that followed One Piece’s later expansion. The card’s gold border and purple background give it a strong visual presence well suited to display. For fans of the Arabasta arc, it captures Bon Clay at the precise moment the character was first being introduced — pressed in cardboard during the broadcast of the very arc it depicts.