Toba Aquarium figure series

So in recent discussions with Widukind on the Recent Acquistions thread on the ATF, the Toba Aquarium series were brought up.

And rather than take over that thread, I thought I'd just start one here. The TOBA series don't get much attention here.

Not sure who actually makes the Toba figures; I think at least one Yujin model was reused for one* (a Kidako Moray with cleaner wrasse). And they definitely reuse models in their different series.

The only one I have is the Toba Aquarium Series 2--the 'living fossil' series (of course). It includes:

QUEENSLAND LUNGFISH
SPOTTED GAR
PIRARUCU
JAPANESE BULLHEAD SHARK
PITTED STINGRAY
CHAMBERED NAUTILUS
ASIAN AROWANA

They are smaller than your average Kaiyodo figure, but came on really nice stands--only the horseshoe crab is not attached (it just kind of...sits...on its rock).

And because it takes too long to do all the photos...a collage! The arowana is in there twice--its little 'water surface feature' kind of obscures the figure's head:

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Also the nautilus looks different because when I originally received the set...I received two heads and no bodies...

Better pictures can be found here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

As for other series...I can only find a reference to a 'Korokoro collection' as well--a few of the species are repeats.
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Lots of crustaceans...Blaine, I'm assuming that you can help out there!

And to be sure, these are just sets that clearly came from the same source. I do believe that there are other Toba sets that may be from other suppliers (interestingly, I can't recall seeing any Kaiyodo-derived Toba sets. It's like the one aquarium that doesn't have Kaiyodo sets).

One that I just found--Kitan Club/Nature Technicolor also made a series in their style [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Anyone else have pictures of these models? Or other sets?

* I just came across a few references to other Toba figures being made by Yujin, like the Horseshoe crab. I can't recall seeing that on the papers though.

Thank you :)

Look here

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For the record, I don't think the set is even on the TAI!

widukind wrote:

Look here

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The link isn't currently working for some reason, but I have seen those.

I'm always uncomfortable with the Alibaba/Taobao figures that are clearly not being sold from the original source...although, if it can't be found any other way...

First, your discussion is very interesting on ATF and no doubt that 3 persons could make a good topic.
I need to research it better once it is all unknown for me but I think the Japanese toys manufacturer is called System Service. Korokoro is the name of the collection and Toba Aquarium is the name of this particular set. I don't even know how to call them at Toy Animal Wiki but I will study it and follow your discussion.

Roger wrote:

First, your discussion is very interesting on ATF and no doubt that 3 persons could make a good topic.
I need to research it better once it is all unknown for me but I think the Japanese toys manufacturer is called System Service. Korokoro is the name of the collection and Toba Aquarium is the name of this particular set. I don't even know how to call them at Toy Animal Wiki but I will study it and follow your discussion.

I don't know how to sort these. I can find no reference to 'System Service'.

The front of the 'living fossil' series (apparently series 2) looks like this:
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The only English or contact details are on this page:
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where it refers to fansclub.jp, an existing site but I can't navigate it.

On the other hand, the Moray is apparently a first series (no number) but is clearly Yujin:
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And, for those wondering, they do depcit the full series--both have a few repeats, but the Yujin ones has several from different sets (turns out that I have a couple, the lionfish and seahorse, but their papers don't reference the Toba aquarium):
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I don't have any of the Kitan, but there are clearly at least 3 manufacturers for their sets (possibly more). Toba Aquarium may require it's own page wtih some cross-referencing to the companies and the relevant sets, where known.

The rest of the papers for the Living Fossil series can be found in the same folder as the figure pictures [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Only 3 relevant ones are in there for the eel.

Anyone that can read Japanese might have a better time of understanding the text, obviously.

Any of the fishes, like the grouper, blue tang and so on are Yujin.

widukind wrote:

Any of the fishes, like the grouper, blue tang and so on are Yujin.

Does that mean that Yujin also made a number of marine mammals as well? Not something I collect, but also not something I was aware of!

The manatee first line left side is Yujin too

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The other figurines i think i dont know :) , but they looks interesting :)

It is important to notice that Yujin uses figures from other manufacturers. I will keep investigating but the site fansclub.jp belongs to System Services and there we can read about the company:

System Service Co., Ltd.
Planning, manufacturing, OEM for amusement prizes and capsule toys and promotional products

Recently we have seen some Yujin birds with the same mould as the Ricolino and we all know the same moulds being used by Yujin and Play Visions.

Roger wrote:

It is important to notice that Yujin uses figures from other manufacturers. I will keep investigating but the site fansclub.jp belongs to System Services and there we can read about the company:

System Service Co., Ltd.
Planning, manufacturing, OEM for amusement prizes and capsule toys and promotional products

Recently we have seen some Yujin birds with the same mould as the Ricolino and we all know the same moulds being used by Yujin and Play Visions.

I never really noticed that about Yujin--although I know that they've used PV figures before. The question then becomes--are all of their figures from System Services? And does that mean that System Services has produced the majority of this kind of figure? Do they have a website of some kind, because their name is so generic that tracking them down is proving difficult.

Or, are they a vending-product company that sources and develops the sets for companies (like the Toba Aquarium) which means hunting down the actual makers of the various products. This would explain why there seems to be at least 3 or 4 different styles in the Toba sets--the 'Yujin' ones, the 'Fossil' one, the KoroKoro inverts, and the 'Kitan' one. At least.

Together we find out more and more :)

Sean, as you know toy industry is quite complex. Their website is exactly the one you provided and there we can find lots of informations about System Services Co, I could share the Google translations here but one of the things it translated was exactly that their text cannot be used without permission.
They manufacture in oem and odm but they also have cooperations with other manufacturers, mainly Chinese. They have also lots of cooperations with many Japanese companies and still with Toba Aquarium
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There's a lot of information, I accessed their website with Chrome and ran the translator
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Concluding, it is not really relevant what we call them now once it can be changed later.
I'll probably follow your suggestion and create a page to Toba Aquarium series with these sets listed there. However, I need to have things sorted first once I am not yet confortable with these series.

here a japanese auction

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widukind wrote:

here a japanese auction

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I dig that garden eel, but wouldn't want the rest!

sbell wrote:

widukind wrote:

here a japanese auction

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I dig that garden eel, but wouldn't want the rest!

I like that angelfish but too expensive and i have the specie :)

widukind wrote:

sbell wrote:

widukind wrote:

here a japanese auction

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I dig that garden eel, but wouldn't want the rest!

I like that angelfish but too expensive and i have the specie :)

There's that too. I have spotted and splendid fsrden eel figures already.

I need to revisit this topic in the future to see what I can do from it. With the Photobucket purge, it is now impossible to make more complex works on TAI. I wished we had a dedicated editor to Japanese series.

Roger wrote:

I need to revisit this topic in the future to see what I can do from it. With the Photobucket purge, it is now impossible to make more complex works on TAI. I wished we had a dedicated editor to Japanese series.

Yes !! It is very complicted, - I am impressed what you guys already know