Hi! Welcome back to our ongoing catalogue of Bomberman keshi. This time, I’ll be covering one of two sets from Super Bomberman 3. This one centers primarily around the Battle Game, featuring the World Bombers, the playable characters in the game. Note that this is a Super Bomberman 3 set, so it excludes any World Bombers who only appeared in Super Bomberman Panic Bomber W. The set also includes a couple of other characters, which I’ll discuss in detail when I get to them.

As stated, there were two sets of keshi released for Super Bomberman 3. One of them was a set of translucent figures featuring White Bomber and the 5 Bad Bombers. The other was this set of solid-tone figures. One of the known ways to obtain this set back in the day was in a Kabaya ramune candy box. I’m terribly sorry to whomever originally posted this image, because I can’t find it online anymore and thus cannot credit you, but here’s a picture of one of those boxes, which displays colourized versions of the whole set of figures on its sides:

A full set can be seen to the left of the box.Unknown

A full set can be seen to the left of the box.

I’m also fairly certain that they could be obtained in gachapon machines, for a reason which I will state later. On one final note, all 20 figures could be obtained in both painted and unpainted variants, though I currently own only one of the painted versions. Anyway, let’s get on with it!

Super Bomberman 3 Series A Info

  • Year: Circa 1995
  • Number of figures: 10
  • Figure size: Normal (up to 5cmx5cm)
  • Known colours: Light blue, teal, pink, white, brown, yellow

Bomberman

Bomberman
Bomberman
Bomberman
Bomberman
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This is a generic sculpt of Bomberman, throwing a couple of V signs while looking super chuffed about himself. There’s not a whole lot to say about it. There’s another generic Bomberman figure from the SB3 line that is a part of the other set, which I will hopefully cover at some point in time.

One important thing to note, not only about this figure but about all of the normal Bomberman figures, is the shape of his head. I don’t understand why, but a lot of people seem to think that Bomberman has a cube-shaped head, and they tend to draw him as such. It’s really ugly. Their heads are actually more of a cylindrical shape, which is why, when viewed from the side, you can still see their faces.

We have a few of these, so here’s another shot:

Lookit all them Bombermen.

Interestingly, the painted version of this figure is actually Blue Bomberman instead of the standard White or Black!

Metal Bomber

Metal Bomber
Metal Bomber
Metal Bomber
Metal Bomber
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Metal Bomber is so cool. He’s this heavy-metal-grinding, pointy-shades-wearing shy-guy-with-a-cool-facade. And he’s British. Is there really anything more you could ask for?

His figure is super-detailed, as usual, even down to the little spikes coverhing his cuffs and boots. The “UK” is missing from his belt buckle for some reason, and I don’t believe that this version of him (he had a different appearance in Super Bomberman Panic Bomber W) is supposed to have an antenna, but neither of these things really take away from the appearance… Okay, the missing “UK” is a pretty big oversight, but still.

He’s throwing a couple of thumbs-ups, which makes him great for posing alongside other things for potentially amusing results.

Alternatively, you could pose him beside copies of himself…

Mexican Bomber

Mexican Bomber
Mexican Bomber
Mexican Bomber
Mexican Bomber
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Mexican Bomber is a weird guy. He replaced Rasta Bomber in the World Bombers lineup and looks exactly like a lighter-skinned, taller, skinnier version of him with different colours. I guess Jamaica and Mexico are pretty much the same thing to a foreigner crafting characters based on ethnic tropes?

Just as in his artwork, he’s dual-weilding maracas, which is pretty terrifying if you ask me. Interestingly, the keshi actually fixes a problem with the artwork – in the art, his belt buckle says “USA” for some reason, while the keshi’s buckle reads “UMS”, the country he’s stated to represent. Also, his hair looks considerably fuller in this figure. It’s pretty awesome. On a side note, he leans forward in a kind of strange way, which I assume is meant to offset the weight of his luxurious hair. Unlike most of the bigger characters, he didn’t get scaled down; instead, they just made him a bit shorter and made his head a little shorter, though he’s still taller than the other characters.

Hmm… still needs more maracas.

Bomber Chun

Bomber Chun
Bomber Chun
Bomber Chun
Bomber Chun
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The English localizations have a bad habit of calling this guy “Bomber Chen” for reasons science cannot explain. His figure is only a little bit shorter than the others, as it should be, due to being an old man. His pose resembles that of his artwork. I will go ahead and say, at this point, that I’m glad that, for the characters who have them, they included instruments and weapons in this set. It makes them stand out from the plethora of other Bombermen.

There’s a slight issue with my Chun’s feet which gives him a little trouble standing up. I assume that this is because, in addition to his feet being posed in such a way that they minimize the depth of his base, he was cramped up in a capsule at some point in time, and his feet warped a bit. He has really, really thin feet in comparison to pretty much any other figure I’m aware of, barring Rui, but that doesn’t really count. Still, it’s his appropriate appearance, so I can’t fault them for it. I just have to kind of lean him against something. He’s old, he needs the support.

It’s at this point you realize you’ll be sitting through three life stories before it’s your turn at the DMV.

Pretty Bomber

Pretty Bomber
Pretty Bomber
Pretty Bomber
Pretty Bomber
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This is one of two Pretty Bomber figures released for Super Bomberman 3. It’s actually pretty similar to the other one, though not identical. There are some subtle differences in the positioning of her feet and her scarf, and her dress in this version is actually much more detailed than that of the other variant. Also, while the other figure holds a heart bomb in her raised hand, this one simply waves while winking and looking off to the side. Taking a look at the arm, I believe that it’s actually stronger at the elbow than the other figure’s arm. I’m pretty sure that this is because the translucent one is made of softer material. Taking a look at the face, it represents the evolution of her art style; the earlier Super Bomberman 2 figure has the bigger, wider eyes (I’ll show it to you someday… I’m holding out for a SB2 Brain Bomber that actually has his cloak).

As far as I’m aware, this Pretty Bomber is actually one of only four female characters represented in the entire Bomberman franchise keshi line. Three of the four of them are copies of Pretty Bomber in different poses. That’s… pretty sad.

"Also

Pretty Bomber in 5 flavours.

Bomber Uhho

Bomber Uhho
Bomber Uhho
Bomber Uhho
Bomber Uhho
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He’s from Kenya, and he’s, um, a tribesman. Hey, okay, he looks super cool, right? I think he does. His name is “Bomber Uhho”, and “uhho” is a Japanese onomatopoeia for… uh… grunting…… Is this racist? Look, Japan, I don’t think you’re trying to be racist with these World Bombers – we’ve got a gunslinging, hamburger-eating cowboy representing us, and you’ve even got a kimono-wearing karaoke man representing you. I know you’re not trying to be mean-spirited, and maybe Americans take things a bit too seriously, but…

Anyway.

Bomber Uhho does look really good here. Being a bigger character, he’s scaled down a lot, so much so that he’s actually shorter than Mexican Bomber. His pose is almost identical to his artwork, except that the positioning of his arms is flipped, likely to keep the spear both in a decent range for the mold as well as the gachapon capsule it would end up in. Speaking of those capsules, his spear is kind of flimsy, and is totally subject to bending. Mine has been bent a lot, as you can see. Also, now that I’m inspecting him more closely, his feet seem a little bigger and his head a little smaller than they should be, but despite all that it’s a very neat keshi.

Bomber Kid

Bomber Kid
Bomber Kid
Bomber Kid
Bomber Kid
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Sometimes translated as “Bomber the Kid”, Bomber Kid is… oddly short in this appearance. It’s not all that noticeable when he’s next to other characters, because he’s not even half a centimeter off from White Bomber, but if you put him up next to Indy Bomber it’s really noticeable. I’m not sure if it has anything to do with the hat because Bomber Cossack is taller than him, but it’s possible.

Being an American, Bomber Kid has a revolver in his hand and a belt full of bullets slung over his shoulder. It’s covering up his belt buckle, so who knows if the buckle would still read “UK” like it does in his artwork. Speaking of his artwork, his pose is pretty close to it. Most of the World Bomber keshi are rather similar in design to the game art.

Like Bomber Chun, his feet are turned a little too far from each other, which makes him more susceptible to toppling.

This town ain’t big enough for the three of us…

Bomber Cossack

Bomber Cossack
Bomber Cossack
Bomber Cossack
Bomber Cossack
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It’s the last of the World Bombers, Bomber Cossack. He’s still smiling, as always, probably due to whatever bizarre mental state forces him to perform the prisyadka for all eternity. He’s appropriately short enough, about the height of Bomber Chun, with his hat taking up almost a third of his entire height. It’s slightly strange to see his beard from the side, since he doesn’t have ears or a jaw to speak of.

Sadly, there are no red variants to collect.

Professor Bagura

Buggler
Buggler
Buggler
Buggler
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The big bad guy himself, and a rare non-Bomber keshi. My copy of Bagura is missing his cape; I will update this entry should I obtain a complete figure. It’s notable that his cape collar is a part of the rest of his body and not the cape itself. This might be so that it can wrap around and connect to the front of his body, which would be hard to pull off with a detachable cape. The hole in his back is smaller than those of most of the later keshi that have attachments, so it won’t accept, say, God Bomber or Bompire’s capes, or any of the Super Bomberman 4 attachments (indeed, regretfully, you cannot have a Professor Bagura wielding Jet Bomber’s jets…  I tried).

One would think that Professor Bagura would be a part of the translucent villains set, alongside his 5 Bad Bombers, but that’s not the case. Maybe they lumped him in with the World Bombers because otherwise they’d only have 9 figures and 10 is a round number? Oh, the mysteries…

As usual, he’s scaled down because he’s so big and tall.

If you saw these guys coming, you'd be pretty Bugglered, ha hah... hah......

If you saw these guys coming, you’d be pretty Bugglered, ha hah… hah……

Louie

Louie
Louie
Louie
Louie
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Sometimes romanized as “Louie”, even though the name “Rui” is clearly a reference to their kangaroo-like appearances (NOTE 10/13/2023: Shockingly we’d later learn the name came from a movie robot and is in fact meant to be “Louie” – maybe that informed the design?), Rui is the last figure in the set. Its inclusion in the set makes sense, due to the focus on the playable characters of the Battle Game – Rui is a staple of Bomberman‘s multiplayer mode. The figure stands about a half a centimeter shorter than the normal keshi, and is ridiculously cute. If you happen to have any of the really tiny figures from the Super Bomberman 4 sets – the ones that are meant to ride atop other creatures or Bombermen – you can sort of put them on Rui’s back. The scaling is coincidentally proper, though you’d need something extra to keep them in place, and I wouldn’t recommend glue or anything equally stupid.

Bomberman doesn't care what he's ridin' as long as he's ridin' dirty.

Bomberman doesn’t care what he’s ridin’ as long as he’s ridin’ dirty.

The colour variants actually sort of fit them.

That’s all for now. Thank you for sticking around through all these pages! I have a whole bunch of other Bomberman keshi standing around on my shelves, but my other sets are either incomplete or are missing attachments… It might be some time before I put forth another one of these articles. Until then, please keep checking in – if you’re into Bomberman so am I, and I talk about it around here a lot!

h/t: Linked artwork comes from the Super Bomberman 3 Japanese manual, scanned by me, and the Super Bomberman Panic Bomber W Japanese manual, scanned by Ragey. Special thanks to a close friend of mine for helping me to complete the vast majority of this set. <3 <3 <3

This article was updated 8/20/2017 to include many more pictures of duplicates, including Professor Bagura, Rui, Cossack Bomber, Metal Bomber, Bomber Kid, Mexican Bomber, Bomber Chun, and Pretty Bomber.

This article was updated again on 11/5/2017 to include more pictures of duplicate Bomberman, Kid, Rui, Cossack, and Pretty, as well as updated information on the Bomberman figure’s supposed identity.

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