Medicom Toy Announces “Bishoujo Kamen Poitrine” Action Figure

Medicom Toy, creators of the popular “Real Action Heroes” line of action figures based on classic tokusatsu shows, announces Bishoujo Kamen Poitrine as their next upcoming figure.

Bishoujo Kamen Poitrine was a popular 51 episode live action magical girl series that aired in 1990 as part of Toei’s “Fushigi Comedy Series.” This series was a family friendly, frequently humorous action/adventure shows created by Shotaro Ishinomori that featured young protagonists in fantastic situations.

In Bishoujo Kamen Poitrine, high school student Yuko Murakami is imbued with magical powers by God himself after accidentally pulling a bell onto his head while praying at a Shinto shrine. With the ability to transform into masked superheroine Poitrine by shouting, “Cosmo Magic Metamorphose!”, Yuko uses her magical powers to combat criminals, strange supernatural creatures, and the evil overlord Diable.

Poitrine has been named as one of the inspirations for Naoko Takeuchi to create Sailor Moon, and numerous references and parodies to it have appeared in many works over the years, including recent comedy series Bishoujo Celeb Panchanne, and an appearance by a version of Poitrine herself in 2012’s Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Wizard & Fourze: Movie War Ultimatum.

Medicom Toy interviewed Yuko Hanashima, the actress who played Poitrine in the original series; on March 3rd, she appeared on Fuji TV’s daytime variety show “Viking,” where original entertainers reprise songs from decades past. Hanashima performed “The Closest Place to Sadness,” the first ending theme to Bishoujo Kamen Poitrine. Prior to this, she appeared in costume during the promotional lead-up to Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Wizard & Fourze: Movie War Ultimatum.

Hanashima admits that most people call her “Poitrine” rather than by her real name. She also still keeps the original costume dress and cloak from the original Poitrine costume to this day — which she appeared wearing in the marketing for Poitrine’s reappearance.

Reminiscing about the circumstances 23 years ago that led to her casting, she originally was part of the third graduating class for “Maiden Cram School” (an idol training course that Fuji TV had between 1989 and 1991). Hanashima was hand-picked for the next in the series of Fushigi Comedy shows. She expected the series to be a cute magical girl show like previous series Magical Chinese Girl Ipanema and Magical Chinese Girl PaiPai, but when she heard that she would be battling criminals in a neighborhood and saw that she was wearing a mask and a very short skirt, she began to have second thoughts — even more so as the costuming director took a pair of scissors to her skirt and made it shorter and shorter.

I had this uncomfortable feeling until the shooting started, and then got even more desperate as it began, and I didn’t think I could do it. Then the director says, “Yuko! Move over top of the camera!” and I said, “But they’re going to see EVERYTHING!” — and they had to cut (laughs). Sure enough, you could see everything. The director told me to just do it and not worry about it, “They won’t broadcast that!” he assured me.

Eventually, she managed to overcome her embarrassment and film the scenes regardless of how embarrassed she felt.

Regarding the figure, Hanashima was amazed by the likeness and the quality of the figure. She had expected a cheap toy feel, but was impressed by its quality. In particular, she liked the bangs, which were created using a new technique involving false eyelashes, something that has never been done to create hair in these figures. When she first saw the figure, she was alone in her office, and since she was alone, shouted out, “This is amazing!”

“But why are you creating a figure based on Poitrine after all these years?” she asked the staff of Medicom Toy, to which they replied that they were attempting to introduce a new generation of fans to tokusatsu heroes, and when they considered female characters to add to the lineup, Poitrine was the first one they thought of.

The Poitrine figure is sculpted in immense detail with multiple articulation points — it stands 280mm tall, includes a cloth cloak and realistic metal plated jewelry, two versions of the Belle Saber (extended and collapsed) and multiple hands to recreate poses from the show. The figure retails for approximately 30,000 yen and will be available for only a limited time, from April 24th to June 6th 2015.

Source: Medicom Toys

All English translations are accredited to The Tokusatsu Network staff members. Please do not repost without crediting and directly linking back to the original Tokusatsu Network article.