Hi, and welcome back to our ongoing catalogue of Bomberman keshi. If you haven’t already, please start at the first post, then check out the list of articles we have on the subject. I’m steadily trying to cover them all, but it’s going to take a while!

Today, I’m focusing on the other half of the keshi from the Super Bomberman 5 series (please check the first article if you haven’t already). There were twenty keshi produced for this line in total, and at the time of this writing, they are still among the rarest to find online. I’ve finally completed my full set of these guys, but it sure took a while!

Unlike the first half of the set, this one is all normal Bombermen and Ruis. Or Rooeys, or… *shudder*… Louies, if you must. From my experiences, the three normal Bomberman figures are among the most common out of this entire set. I imagine this is probably due to greater familiarity, and thus, proper labeling and sorting in online auctions. I could also be completely off the mark.

Something interesting to note about this set is that the keshi are about half of the size of an ordinary Bomberman keshi. The reason for this may be that the set is so large, with twenty unique figures, so manufacturing costs would be mitigated. Another possible reason is that the complex designs they wanted to use would have been easier to produce at a smaller scale. It’s hard to determine the truth of the matter.

Super Bomberman 5  Series

  • Year: Circa 1997
  • Number of figures: 20
  • Figure size: Small (3-4.5cm high, 3-4.5cm wide, 1-3cm deep)
  • Known colours: Blue, purple, white, red

Kerui

Kerui
Kerui
Kerui
Kerui
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In case you’re unfamiliar with Super Bomberman 5, the Ruis in this game have puns in their names – a portmanteau of a Japanese word and the name “Rui”. In this case, “keru” means “to kick”. In the game, this Rui has the power to kick bombs (which functions the same as the Bomb Punch instead of the Bomb Kick power-up, but that’s a whole other discussion).

Why am I showing a photo of two of the same figure in the same colour? Because I can.

I made some negative remarks about the quality of a few of the keshi in the first half of this set, but some of the figures have really nice detailing, and Kerui is one of them. The tuft of hair on top of his head, his inner ears, the jagged marks on the back of his ears, even down to the football/soccer ball and tiny little stripes on his shirt are all there. The bomb under his foot is a bit flat on the bottom to offer support, but even if his tips back, his tail will catch him.

Gyarui

Gyarui
Gyarui
Gyarui
Gyarui
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From “gyaru”. What’s this, another female Bomberman character named for her gender instead of her ability? How shocking. It’s worth noting that if you go with the “Louie” localization, her name could easily be rendered as “Galouie”, with the pun intact.

There’s not a lot to write home about regarding this figure. She kind of leans back a bit, which is strange, but it doesn’t seem to impact her balance – indeed, all of the rest of the Ruis have large surface areas on which to stand, so balance is not much of an issue in this half of the set. I was surprised to find that Gyarui’s eyelashes are actually there, engraved upon her face. They are so tiny, trying to see them in the right light is actually a little headache-inducing (I’m sure it’s in no small part due to the fact that mine is white instead of one of the darker variants).

Hanerui

Hanerui
Hanerui
Hanerui
Hanerui
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From “haneru”, meaning “to jump”.

I’ve only come across a couple of these figures, and now I have them both. The first one I obtained was actually broken, with everything below the spring completely missing. This threw me for a loop for a while because it left the little fella completely unable to stand unassisted. If you do manage to find him, you probably should try to avoid bending him at all, whatsoever. These things are rare.

Hanerui is about the height of a normal Bomberman in this set, though to compensate for this, his body is scaled down to about half a head shorter than a normal Rui. It’s not as striking as the big guys getting scaled down, though, since he’s already meant to be smaller in-game. As a last, awkwardly-shoehorned-in note, I feel like his face is a whole lot cuter on this figure than it is in his official artwork.

Magicarui

Magicarui
Magicarui
Magicarui
Magicarui
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Literally from the word “magical” (magikaru).

Because of his top hat, like Hanerui, he gets squished down so that he’s about the height of a normal Bomberman. I feel like these compensations greatly modified his figure, since he appears more slender in his artwork, and with a more proportionate hat, but the figure still looks really nice. Magicarui lacks the “melting” effect that plagues some of the other figures in this set, even having four fully-formed fingers behind the cards he carries. Interestingly, he’s carrying the cards in his right hand, whereas in his artwork, they’re in his left hand… Or, er, maybe that’s not interesting at all.

Marui

Marui
Marui
Marui
Marui
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From “marui”, meaning “round”.

Because he’s round.

And yes, his entire name is the root word from which it’s derived!

Since his design is rather simplistic, there’s not a lot to say here. The effects of his being scaled down aren’t felt so much as the other characters when he’s lined up with normal-sized characters, though, and it actually looks rather natural. And, again, all the details are there, even down to the tuft of hair on his forehead and the jagged line around the end of his tail.

World Final Tummy-Slapping Competition 2017.

This guy also has a massive base, so he doesn’t topple easily at all.

Nagurui

Nagurui
Nagurui
Nagurui
Nagurui
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From “naguru”, meaning “to hit”.

Unlike Kerui, if he tips back, his tail is positioned in such a way that he actually has a tendency to bounce forward and right himself. He also has the proportionally-smallest snout amongst his peers. Yeah, I’m running out of comments on this guy. This half of the set generally speaks for itself.

Warui

Warui
Warui
Warui
Warui
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From “warui”, meaning “bad”.

You can’t ride him in the game, but you can have him on your shelf! Almost all of his details are there – the only thing he’s missing is that nasty cigar. There are a few oddities on this guy, though. His shades were made to wrap around his face, and so was the fur on his cheeks. It all slicks back in such a way that when Ragey and I saw him for the first time in a low-quality photo, we both wondered if the figurine had been mauled somehow. In person, however, he doesn’t look so bad.

The quirks don’t end there. His forehead tuft has been stylized into a big, flattish spike, and his ears are not just bent in different directions… they’re actually positioned asymmetrically on his head. His right ear is about one ear’s width ahead of his left ear, and it looks really strange if you view him from above.

Lastly, his claws reach down to completely cover his crotch, and let’s just stop talking about this now and move ahead.

Bomberman (Type A)

SB5 Bomberman A
SB5 Bomberman A
SB5 Bomberman A
SB5 Bomberman A
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That was the last of the Ruis, and there are only seven of them in the game, so who rounds out the last three slots in the set? Three. Normal. Bombermen. I suppose I can’t entirely fault them, considering how big this set is and how many unique characters they’d already used, but the game did also feature Honey and Kotetsu, and that would have solved the dilemma with much more satisfaction, if you ask me. But, oh well.

You can tell why I said these ones are easier to find.

It’s Bomberman! What more can I say? I would assume that one is White, one is Black, and one is the mocking attempt at a secret unlockable character, Gold, but given that I’ve seen the officially painted version of Bomberman from the Super Bomberman 3 set, and he’s blue of all colours, I can’t be certain here.

Bomberman (Type B)

SB5 Bomberman B
SB5 Bomberman B
SB5 Bomberman B
SB5 Bomberman B
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It’s Bomberman, but this time he’s smiling and waving. The pose is uncannily similar to that of the earlier Indy Bomber. Not much else to say here though. Scooch along…

Seriously, I have so many of these.

Bomberman (Type C)

SB5 Bomberman C
SB5 Bomberman C
SB5 Bomberman C
SB5 Bomberman C
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This guy. This guy, this guy, this guy. He’s only barely different from the “A” variety. It’s basically the same Bomberman, just flipped horizontally, with the arms and legs kind of adjusted to make him slightly more unique.

4, 3, 2… I didn’t plan this order of photos. Coincidence or really dumb curse?

But the really strange thing about this Bomberman is that his pose is almost entirely identical to that of a figure in the translucent Super Bomberman 3 set (sorry, I lack the full set – no article to link to!). This tripped me up for a good few months, since he’s at the same scale, and I legitimately believed that there were translucent figures in this set (but there are not).

The SB3 figure on the right has a Misobon or “revenge” ship to ride, not pictured.

Other than that, he’s just more of the same.

That’s all I have for this article! Please check back now and then, as I do intend to showcase even more keshi in the future. At the time of this writing, I’ve actually completed two more sets, so artciles should be forthcoming in the next few weeks, as time permits.

If you like Bomberman, well, so do I! Obviously! Please take a look at my other articles on the subject. Thanks for reading!

h/t: Special thanks to Ragey for helping me find the vast majority of this set. Did you know that you can follow him on Twitter too? What marvelous times in which we live.

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