As with Dorothy, I’m thrilled to be getting Big O figures eight years after the show premiered. Now that Roger Smith is on my shelf I can breathe a sigh of relief that at least the two most important characters on the show were made. 
While most of us were focused on SDCC last weekend, the Japanese toy industry was celebrating their own show-and-tell shindig at Summer Wonder Festival 2011. Our man in Japan, Robert Baldwin, was there to capture the latest and greatest from Kaiyodo, The Good Smile Co., and the other manufacturers who attended. 
Last year, Bandai’s Soul of Chogokin line produced a Big O figure. It is undoubtedly the best figure that Big O will ever get. The only downside was that it was very expensive and difficult to obtain for those outside Japan. But as a truly dedicated, or according to my girlfriend, an insane, Big O Fan, I had to have it. But I wasn’t done. Bandai also offered an exclusive accessories pack to the people who ordered their Big O figures through the Chogokin website. This made the accessory pack equally expensive and even harder to obtain for us non-Japanese citizens. Of course, I still had to have it.
What do you get when you cross Batman the Animated Series with a giant Japanese mech? You get the greatest anime of all time, The Big-O. I love everything about that show. I love the complex and subtle characters, the multiple layers and undertones, the mellow noir feel, the city shattering (literally) giant robot fights, the emotionally compelling music, and I love the ambiguity. I could sit and talk about the nuances of this show for hours if my friends would tolerate it. I am obsessed, and with obsession comes a compulsion to collect any and everything Big O related. When I heard the news that Soul of Chogokin was making a figure of Big-O, I was already sold.
