or "Soul of Super-alloy", is a popular line of adult collector's toys produced by the Japanese company

Bandai is a Japanese multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and Richmond ...

. The line, which began in 1997, focuses almost exclusively on

mecha In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines controlled by people, typically depicted as humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the meaning in Japanese is ...

(

robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may ...

s) taken from various 1970s and 1980s

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

series, although the line has diverged from this on a number of occasions, most notably the release of several mecha from the mid-1990s anime '' Neon Genesis Evangelion''. More recently, the line has expanded further to include 1970s mecha from

Super Sentai is a Japanese superhero team metaseries and media franchise consisting of television series and films produced by Toei Company, and Bandai, and aired by TV Asahi ("Sentai" is the Japanese word for "task force" or "fighting squadron"). The ...

and other

tokusatsu is a Japanese term for live action film or television drama that makes heavy use of practical special effects. ''Tokusatsu'' entertainment mainly refers to science fiction, war, fantasy, or horror media featuring such technology but is som ...

series, such as the Battle Fever Robo from ''

Battle Fever J is a live-action Japanese-American TV series. The third entry of the ''Super Sentai'' series franchise, ''Battle Fever J'' was a co-production of Toei Company and Marvel Comics. A total of 52 episodes aired on TV Asahi from February 3, 1979 to ...

'', Leopardon from the Japanese TV adaptation of '' Spider-Man'' and Gipsy Danger from '' Pacific Rim''. Also Bandai initiated the "F.A. (Full Action)" sub-line beginning with

Voltes V , popularly known as simply ''Voltes V '' (pronounced as "Voltes Five") is a Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Dōga and animated by Nippon Sunrise (formerly known as Soeisha). It is the second installment of the ''Robot Ro ...

; the F.A. sub-line sacrifices transformation and combination gimmicks in favor of anime-accurate proportions and dynamic articulation.

Lines

Soul of Chogokin

Accessories

Special items released to complement or complete the previous Soul of Chogokin Figures.

Black versions, recolors and renewal versions

Bandai released many variants of the original releases. Most are just repaints, while some of them have a totally different sculpt or add more features to the original SoC.

Limited items

Even though they were never too difficult to find, the following versions were never released in shops. Most of them required the use of coupons found in manga/magazines/CDs. Some were released in fairs/exhibitions.

Special items

The following special items were released in predetermined limited numbers. They have all reached incredibly high prices in secondary market.

Soul of Chogokin SPEC

The SPEC series started in 2007 as an expansion series to the original SoC line, it is designed to showcase robot characters from the 1980s onward. This line is replaced by the Hi-Metal R line.

Notes

References

{{reflist

External links

Official Soul of Chogokin website
(in Japanese. some wrong information exists)
Official Soul of Chogokin website
(in English. Not updated as often)
japan-robot.com Soul of Chogokin forum
Action figures Bandai brands Japanese die-cast toys Transforming toy robots 1990s toys 2000s toys 2010s toys Toy mecha it:Soul of Chogokin ja:超合金魂