I've seen a bunch of Epoch figurines from around 2007 on sale at a couple of the local Mint stores. I picked up one from each series a while back, but still haven't uploaded those photos. These, on the other hand, got uploaded in my latest batch.
These three are all Shigeo Nagashima figurines. There are three poses available, but there are variations. I'll explain.
The first figurine I opened of these three boxes is Nagashima giving a speech. I've seen this "image" used on cards before. This is the one I wanted the most, so I was satisfied with my first box!
The second box contained the exact same figurine. Doh!
The third figurine box had Nagashima kneeling with his bat. This one has an orange base. He's in his home jersey here too.
The third figure is tough to see on the box, but Nagashima has finished his swing and his helmet is flying off. I'll have pictures of that eventually, too, because the first box I bought a couple months ago contained that figure. And again, that piece has a home jersey.
I mentioned variations. There are eight different figures:
- three "Home" versions.
- two "Visitor" versions. I haven't seen any of these yet.
- three "secret" versions. I believe the neon orange bases are the secret versions, though I haven't done any research to check. But that does mean I have a variation!
I might buy a whole case of these because they're so cheap...
That's not "a speech" he's giving - that's his retirement speech. Nagashima's such a big deal in Japan that his retirement ceremony in 1974 is considered the top moment in Japanese baseball in the 1970's (which means it's bigger than Oh passing Aaron). I'm pretty sure the scoreboard in the background of the box picture is from that ceremony. I haven't seen an English translation of the speech, but I think it's as famous in Japan as Lou Gehrig's "Luckiest Man" speech. The Japanese version of wikipedia highlights him saying something like "Immortal Forever Giants".
ReplyDeleteThis October is the 40th Anniversary of the retirement so I'm sure there will be coverage in the Japanese media about it then. (I've already got a mental note to commemorate it on my blog - there's a number of cards depicting the ceremony.)
These are awesome! If you end up buying a case, let me know if you're interested in selling a couple of extras.
ReplyDeleteNPB Card Guy: yeah - I was in a bit of a rush (as always, it seems) and didn't want to get into the Nagashima speech story. I see that image pretty often on cards and magazines, more so than Gehrig's speech image. And I guess it'll be something I don't steal your thunder on! BTW, got your email, and the spare figure will be yours.
ReplyDeleteFuji: I didn't see any more cases when I went to one of the sources yesterday. Hopefully I'll find one this weekend when I go to the other store they were at. I'm a bit mad at myself for not buying them when I had the chance last time!