4 Anime Collectibles Spanning Japan’s 1990s and 2000s

Today’s Random Four
Every morning we pull a handful of items from our store completely at random — and today, these four surfaced. Use code D260830UX2 at checkout for an extra 15% off any of them, stacked on top of the sale prices already running. With today’s markdowns, that’s up to 30% off. Good for 3 days. New picks drop every morning, so check back — you never know what’ll turn up.

This week’s picks span about fifteen years of Japanese anime merchandise, from a pair of bonus playing cards tucked into a 1990 manga magazine to a prize-item keyholder from 2004. The franchises are Gundam, Pokemon, and Lupin III — each a long-running pillar of Japan’s anime culture.

Worker Zaku SD Gundam Playing Card from Comic BomBom

A playing card featuring the Worker Zaku in SD Gundam style, included as a bonus item with the February 1990 issue of Comic BomBom magazine. Comic BomBom was a Kodansha manga magazine that ran from 1981 to 2007 and was one of the primary venues for SD Gundam coverage and merchandise promotions throughout the late 1980s and 1990s.

Meowth Amada Sticker No. 255 (1997)

Sticker number 255 in Amada’s 1997 Pokemon sticker series, featuring Meowth. Amada was a Japanese manufacturer that produced multiple series of officially licensed Pokemon stickers during the height of the Pokemon boom in Japan, making their mid-1990s sets a well-documented part of that era’s collectible landscape.

Gundam Mk-III SD Gundam Playing Card from Comic BomBom

A playing card featuring the Gundam Mk-III in SD style, from the same February 1990 Comic BomBom bonus set as the Worker Zaku card above. The SD Gundam line reimagined the mobile suits of the main Gundam franchise in a compact, chibi format — a spin-off that developed its own manga, anime series, and extensive merchandise run.

Daisuke Jigen Twin Keyholder by Banpresto (2004)

A twin keyholder featuring Daisuke Jigen from Lupin the 3rd, produced by Banpresto in 2004. Banpresto was a well-known Japanese maker of character merchandise, with many of its items distributed as prizes through arcade crane games. Lupin the 3rd is a manga and anime franchise created by Monkey Punch, centered on a master thief and his crew — Jigen among them as marksman and closest partner.

About This Collection

From magazine bonus cards to arcade prize merchandise, these four pieces reflect the range of formats Japanese anime collectibles took across the 1990s and early 2000s. Gundam, Pokemon, and Lupin III each have their own distinct place in Japanese popular culture, which makes items like these a compact way to represent several eras at once.