Kodoto - No, its not kodomo the kids toothpaste. Kodoto is a figurine similar to the size of a Corinthian Prostar or Headliner. Standing at around 7cm tall, this figurine is kind of cool if you ask me. Kodoto figurines do resemble the players more than Corinthian Headliner and Prostars. According to our records, the origin of Kodoto comes from China. The features of the players are sharper than the previous 2. However, the downside to Kodoto is the quality of the figurine.
1) Kodoto figurines do not come in a form of Blister pack, meaning they are released in loose figurine packet. The only packaging they have is a nice zip lock bag which contains the figurine.
2) Kodoto figurines do not craft out the name of the player at the base of the figurine. They had the default "Kodoto" wording on every single figurine. The only way to differentiate the figurines based on their released date can be done by recognising the base colour. For example, the current series of figurines have a common base color of transparent, something not done previously.
3) The texture of the figurine is also questionable. Prostars figurines are rock solid in its material, while Kodoto figurines can be bend over easily. The head of the figurine can also be plucked out from its body, which is quite creative if you are into remodeling of figurines.
With the above pointers, when we are comparing them to a Corinthian Prostar pack, you cant really complain as they had priced it lower than the Prostars. 1 normal Kodoto figurine would have cost you around SGD$6 to SGD$7 in the weekend flea market over at China Square Central, where a new blister Prostar could cost you easily SGD$10 over at the local ebay market.
Soccerstarz - Lastly, besides the Kodoto, there is also another toys company who is fighting for the lion market share in the soccer figurine business. Which is none other than Soccerstarz. So what are Soccerstarz? Are they another elite toys company? According to records, Soccerstarz was founded by a Danish company. That was also the reason that the 1st ever batch of Soccerstarz released were the Danish National team series.
After the fall of Corinthians, collectors were left frustrated and were crying out for a new toys company to take over from there. The last we heard, part of the Corinthian management is now helping out with Soccerstarz. Lets just take a closer look at the Soccerstarz and see how is it different from the rest.
1) The size of the figurine stands at approximately 5.5cm tall, which is the same height of the Corinthian Microstars.
2) Soccerstarz do not engrave the names of the players at the bottom of the base. Instead, they had wrote the names down using a machine. As compared to the Microstars, where the name of the player was engraved on the bottom of the figurine.
3) The players resemblance of Soccerstarz can be quite disappointing to be honest. Most of the collectors felt this too. Many was expecting better quality than this. When you put a Microstar beside a Soccerstarz, you would raise a flag to say the winner goes to Microstars.
4) Packaging wise, Soccerstarz had done a good job. The have 2 types of packaging, 1 is the mini blister form, where the buyer can see and select which player they are interested to make purchase from. The other form of packaging is the blind sachet type, where buyers have no idea what is inside the pack. It will boils down to the "luck" of the buyer. Similar as Microstar, blind sachets contains various coloured base figurines. Ranging from Green, Blue, Red,White, Blue, Silver, Gold and Black. With black being the most difficult to find and Green being the most common.
Besides having it in single blister form, Soccerstarz had also released various boxset of teams winning the Champions league, EPL title, League cup etc. The boxset has the same concept as the Corinthian Prostars boxset, where it will contains various team members of the team which won them the cup. It kind of look nice when you make the purchase but the price can be alittle pricey. Moreover, for the upcoming Manchester United boxset, majority of the players within the set had already been released as individual players. It is unclear whether it was the Soccerstarz producers idea to make more money from the consumer with the same group of players. It was said that this boxset cost around SGD$200, where 23 out of the 24 players had already been released as individual blisters. Comparing that to the previous boxset produced by Corinthian, which were an entirely new set of figurines and/or patterns of players, this is a little unfair for the consumers. Oh ya, the boxset for Corinthian back then were sold at a low cost of only around SGD$120 max. However, one can argue that prices are inflated now due to the cost of living and inflation factor. Well, you be the judge.
The price for normal Soccerstarz blister is around SGD$6-SGD$8, where a blind sachet can be purchased for around SGD$5.
Well, before we end off today's post, lets take a look at the differences between the 4 types of figurines
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| (From Left to right ) -Steven Gerrard (Corinthian Prostars), Luka Modric (Soccerstarz), Steven Gerrard (Kodoto), Dimirat Berbatov (Corinthian Microstars) |