Jun the Swan Gatchaman Figure for Battle of the Planets Fans

Jun the Swan Figure No. 19 — Lawson Limited Gatchaman Series

Science Ninja Team Gatchaman and Jun the Swan

Science Ninja Team Gatchaman — known to Western audiences as Battle of the Planets and later G-Force — premiered on Fuji TV in Japan in 1972 and ran for 105 episodes through 1974. Produced by Tatsunoko Production, the studio founded in 1962 and still the rights holder today, it followed five young ninja scientists fighting the criminal organization Galactor. For a children’s action anime of its era, the series was unusually serialized and tonally serious, and it made a lasting impression well beyond Japan.

At the center of that team of five is Jun, designated G-3 and known by her codename Hakucho no Jun — Jun the Swan. She is the team’s only female member, and her costume reflects that codename directly: a predominantly pink bird suit with a distinctive red, cape-like pair of wings. Her weapon is the yo-yo bomb, and her role extends well beyond combat — intelligence gathering, tactical support, and a range of skills that set her apart from a more straightforward fighter. When Sandy Frank adapted the series for American broadcast in 1978, Jun became Princess, and she remained one of the most memorable characters from that Western version of the show.

The Lawson Figure Series and How It Works

This figure is part of a numbered series produced in connection with Lawson, one of Japan’s largest convenience store chains. The designation Figure 19 places this piece as the nineteenth in a numbered run — a format strongly consistent with how Japanese convenience store collectible campaigns are structured. These campaigns frequently follow the Ichiban Kuji model, a lottery-style prize system where customers purchase entries at the counter to win figures drawn from a numbered set. Whether this particular series used exactly that format or a different campaign structure has not been confirmed, but the numbered series design is characteristic of that approach.

The practical consequence of that distribution method is significant for anyone outside Japan: these figures were sold only through participating Lawson locations during a limited campaign window. They were not carried by standard retail channels and have no official presence in international markets. Tatsunoko Production is credited as the licensor, making this an officially sanctioned product rather than unlicensed merchandise.

Why Gatchaman Endures for International Collectors

Few anime series from the 1970s built the kind of audience in the West that Gatchaman did. Battle of the Planets aired in the United States beginning in 1978 and introduced the franchise to a generation of viewers who grew up knowing it by that name rather than the original. Tatsunoko continued developing the property for decades — producing Gatchaman II in 1978 and Gatchaman Fighter in 1979 — and returned to it in 2013 with Gatchaman Crowds, a reimagining aired in the Noitamina programming block. Anniversary merchandise releases, including campaigns around the franchise’s 35th and 40th years, kept the classic characters in circulation for collectors across those intervals, though which specific occasion this Lawson series was tied to is not established.

For collectors who came to the franchise through Princess and Battle of the Planets, Jun’s appeal is grounded in what the character actually does within the story: she functions as a full, multifaceted member of the team at a time when that was far from a given for a female character in action animation. A numbered figure from a Japan-only campaign gives that character a physical presence in a form that was simply not designed for export.