Half Age Characters

After a chilled introduction in the figure market with the Half Age Girls series in mid-2009, Bandai shifted the focus from cute girls to popular shonen series with the remarketed Half Age Characters series in mid-2011, this time with a stronger impact. This figure series started with Gintama, Naruto Shippuden and Ao no Exorcist. The concept has then been applied to One Piece in late 2011 with the New World version of the Straw Hat pirate crew.

With the Half Age concept, Bandai introduced a new design style, the half deformation style. It can be understood as a middle ground between realistic and super deformed rendering, pushing half way towards the increased roundness of SD characters while keeping a realistic head-body proportion, resulting in a cute early teenage rendering.

Figures have an average size of 9 cm and come with a stand base. Each set contains 8 figures, 4 characters and their alternate versions sporting subtle pose changes.

Volume 1

 * Release date: late November 2011
 * Price: ¥525, VAT included, per figure or ¥4,000, VAT not included, per box of 8.
 * Lineup: Monkey D. Luffy, Nico Robin, Portgas D. Ace, Usopp.
 * Alternates:
 * Luffy emitting smoke from his right hand,
 * Robin waving her right arm to say good bye,
 * Ace emitting flame from his left hand,
 * Usopp wearing his goggles on his nose.

Volume 2

 * Release date: late December 2011
 * Price: ¥525, VAT included, per figure or ¥4,000, VAT not included, per box of 8.
 * Lineup: Boa Hancock, Brook, Roronoa Zoro, Tony Tony Chopper.
 * Alternates:
 * Hancock smiling and winking her left eye,
 * Brook having his sunglasses on his forehead,
 * Zoro holding his 3rd sword in his mouth,
 * Chopper closing his eyes happily.

Volume 3

 * Release date: late January 2012
 * Price: ¥525, VAT included, per figure or ¥4,000, VAT not included, per box of 8.
 * Lineup: Sanji, Franky, Keimi with Pappug, Nami.
 * Alternates:
 * Sanji wearing an aidband on his nose,
 * Franky having his old haircut with his sunglasses on his nose,
 * Pappug wearing his sunglasses,
 * Nami winking her left eye and sticking her tongue out.

Jump Festa'12 Edition
This special set of 2 figures was pre-orderable at Premium Bandai shopping website starting December 26th 2011, by winning first a dedicated raffle. This set contains Luffy and Ace as modeled in volume 1 but this time holding their respective hats.
 * Release date: February 2012
 * Price: ¥1,000 VAT included.
 * Lineup: Monkey D. Luffy, Portgas D. Ace.

Volume 4

 * Release date: April 2012
 * Price: ¥525, VAT included, per figure.
 * Lineup: Nami, Nico Robin, Boa Hancock, Shirahoshi.
 * Alternates:
 * Nami holding a mint chip and strawberry ice cream cone
 * Nico Robin holding a chocolate ice cream cone
 * Boa Hancock with "soften" facial expression holding Luffy's straw hat
 * Princess Shirahoshi with a crying face

Volume 5

 * Release date: July 2012
 * Lineup: Trafalgar Law, Monkey D. Luffy, Red-Haired Shanks, Perona
 * Alternates:
 * Luffy holding a bonney chop across his chest
 * Shanks holding a straw hat, sword sheathed and closed mouth smile
 * Perona has a small ghost on her left side
 * Trafalgar Law ?

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