Spiral Zone - Japanese Spiral Zone

Japanese Spiral Zone

The suits and some of the vehicles in Spiral Zone originated from a line of action figures produced by Bandai that was sold from 1985 to 1988. Conceptualized by Gundam mecha designers Kunio Okawara and Kazuhisa Kondo, the Special Force Group Spiral Zone series depicted a team of special operations soldiers fighting a war in the early 21st century. The line only had 12 items, organized into Acts. They include: three 1:12 scale six-inch figures with full equipment codenamed Bull Solid, Hyper Boxer, and Sentinel Bear, two Bull Solid cloth uniform and armor sets, two Hyper Boxer cloth uniform and armor sets, two equipment backpacks, two bare human figures, and one vehicle called the Monoseed. The figures had 30 points of articulation. Non-toy media included a notebook, a novel, and a LP/story compilation released in 1986 by Warner Brothers and Pioneer Corporation called a Hyper Image Album. The LP disc in particular contains songs composed by Toshiyuki Watanabe and performed by Tomoko Aran, with the accompanying stories written by Kazunori Itō. He wrote the novel with HEADGEAR colleague Akemi Takada as illustrator.

Bandai had plans to release a fourth action figure (codenamed Fireball) and additional vehicles before the line was cancelled. They include a tank, a small flight pod called the Beaufighter, a radio-controlled assault jeep resembling the Chenowth DPV called the Fat Lynx, a fast-attack vehicle called the Mad Lemming, a bipedal mech, two personal transport backpacks, and the Monoseed Mk II assault cycle, among others. The Monoseed and Monoseed Mk II were the respective basis for the Zone Riders' standard motorcycles and Courage's Rimfire Cannon, while one of the two unreleased backpacks, a monocycle called the Monodrive, was remodeled as Max Jones' Zone Runner backpack.

The unreleased vehicles later appeared in the series' gashapon line, which also had a special Spiral Zone super-deformed board game and other products not developed in 1:12 scale, such as new personal mecha units, weapon packs, and three figures (codenamed Zone Bolt, Eagle Eye, and Zone Acorn).

Because of their extensive detail and high-quality construction, the Japanese Spiral Zone figures are well regarded among toy collectors and often fetch high prices.