A new line of Dragon Ball Ichiban Kuji figures has been revealed, which focuses on characters and key moments from the series' many animated movies.
The new line of figures were revealed on the official Dragon Ball website. The collection is headlined by a new figure of Broly in his Super Saiyan Full Power form, which was seen in the 20th movie in the franchise, Dragon Ball Super the Movie: Broly. Two other versions of Broly are also featured in the collection. In addition to the Saiyan bruiser, new figures of Frieza, now represented in his Gold transformation with a suitably shiny paint job, and his brother Cooler were revealed. As always, it wouldn't be a Dragon Ball figure collection without a new Goku and Vegeta to collect, so the line is rounded out with a new figure of the fused Gogeta and Vegeta's pink-haired Super Saiyan God transformation.
The Ichiban Kuji line of figures are intended to be given out as prizes at stores and promo events in Japan, but they are often available to be purchased directly from hobbyist retailers. Figures in the line tend to cost more than the mass produced, lower-detail "prize figures," but they are still generally much more affordable than the collector's grade "scale figures," which can cost upwards of $200 USD.
While these new figures look back at past Dragon Ball movies, the future of the franchise was revealed this summer in a brief teaser for the series' next movie, entitled Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. No details about the movie's central plot were revealed, it was shown that the new movie will take place several years after the events of Dragon Ball Super the Movie: Broly, and will feature new designs for Krillin and Goku's granddaughter Pan, who is now old enough to be enrolled in a school. The movie will feature a new style of animation that tries to recreate the look of hand-drawn art with CG animation.
Dragon Ball was created by Akira Toriyama and began serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1984. Toriyama's martial arts epic is now third best-selling manga series of all time, ranked only behind Eiichiro Oda's One Piece and the longest-running manga in history, Tatsuo Saito's Golgo 13. The popular series has continued with the current Dragon Ball Super manga, which is supervised by Toriyama and features art by the self-taught illustrator Toyotarou. The series takes place during the ten year timeskip seen at the end of the original Dragon Ball manga.
Source: Dragon Ball Official Website
