Fruits Basket UFO Catcher Plush Banpresto 2001

This is a plush set released by Banpresto in 2001. I remember this set got REALLY expensive for a while, then seemed to lower in price when an American company made their own version. However, I do feel the Japanese version is better. Plus the 'American' edition of plushies tended to be a direct ripoff of the Japanese ones with lower quality and worse fabrics.

I think perhaps I will start leading with the full set picture, since that's what seems to show up as the preview image on the blog page. Full disclosure, I'm terrible at webpage-blog-organization-html stuff (grew up a decade too late to be on top of that) so please excuse this blog setup. Thank goodness blogger makes it so easy.

Anyway... The set consists of Yuki, Tohru, Kyo, Shigure, and Kaguya. Let's take a closer look at them.

Yuki looking very cute and charming. However, something with this set has made the feet peel on most of them. It's a similar material to many of my other plushies, and I store them all the same way, so I'm a bit puzzled as to why some sets peel and others don't. I do believe I got these secondhand (except for Kyo) instead of as a set when released, and I find those tend to peel more often than others that I've owned since they were first available. It's unfortunate :-(

I always thought this Tohru plush was exceptionally cute. I liked how her hair in the back conformed to her head shape and then fanned out on the bottom, very nicely done. I also got one with a good face shape. Shame her shoes are peeling too...

Kyo looks cute and grumpy and has managed to avoid any peeling. Now I really am thinking that it was previous owners. He has some residue and a bit of price tag on the back of his tag from when I attempted to remove it.

Shigure has simple materials so he's not in any danger of peeling, lucky fellow.

Kagura looking completely adorable. Her shoes are cracking but not peeling yet. I always appreciated the detail on her... her hair in the back I think is very well done, and the cat backpack is perfect!!

For pricing, I only remember the old high prices, and I don't imagine they fetch that anymore. When I search ebay I see a lot of the USA lesser-quality edition so I can't be sure. Looking quickly now I don't see ANY of the Japanese version, actually. If anyone has any info on pricing please let me know!!

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