"Let us take back our symbol!" Hot Toys Comic Masterpiece: FRIEND Preview

20th Century Boys (20世紀少年, Nijusseiki Shōnen) is a science fiction-mystery manga created by Naoki Urasawa. It won the 2001 Kodansha Manga Award in the General category, an Excellence Prize at the 2002 Japan Media Arts Festival, and the 2003 Shogakukan Manga Award in the General category. The series makes many references to rock music as well as a number of 1960s-1970s anime; its title is based on T.Rex's famous song, "20th Century Boy". A live action movie adaptation, directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi, was released in Japan on August 30, 2008, as the first part of a trilogy of films. The second film was released on January 30, 2009, with the final part being released August 2009. [source: wiki]

Friend (ともだち, Tomodachi) is the enigmatic character who draws on the childhood ideas of Kenji and his friends to commit atrocities and gain power over the world. During the course of the story two different characters take on mantle of Friend.

This is Hot Toys 20th Century Boys 1/6th scale Friend Collectible Figure (one of the three exclusive items for sale during the event. The other two exclusives have been covered in the previous posts). The Friend figure is limited to 2,000 pieces sold exclusively in Japan during Hot Toys 10th anniversary event “THE 1/6TH SCALE RENAISSANCE DECADE” in Tokyo during Christmas 2010 (Dec 24-26).

The 1/6th scale Friend collectible specially features: Authentic and detailed realization of the Friend character from manga “20th Century Boys”, personally approved by artist Naoki Urasawa, Newly developed head sculpts, including the Friend’s infamous masked logo head, TrueType body with 30 points of articulation, Approximately 30 cm tall

In the manga universe timeline, apparently FRIEND had bent a spoon with his mind

In 1974 Yuri Gellar, a self-claimed psychic, visited Japan. He bent a spoon with his psychic powers on national TV, resulting in the nation-wide ESP boom. Many kids at the time tried to bend spoons, without success. Successful cases were later revealed to be some kind of trickery.

Weapons: One (1) laser gun, One (1) robot remote controller

Costume: One (1) set of grey-colored suit, white shirt and red tie, One (1) pair of black shoes
Accessories: Two (2) interchangeable heads including one (1) Fukube character head and one (1) Katsumata symbolic head, Two (2) masks including one (1) “Ninja Hattori-Kun” mask and one (1) “National Kid” mask, One (1) bent spoon, One (1) “Space Special Investigation Corps” badge, Two (2) books including one (1) Book Of Prophecies and one (1) New Book Of Prophecies, both made of authentic paper and wires, with original Japanese contents, One (1) “Weekly Big Comic Spirits” magazine, featuring parts of the “20th Century Boys” story in Japanese, Figure stand with Friend nameplate and manga title in Japanese

Four (4) pairs of interchangeable palms including Two (2) pairs of relaxed palms, One (1) pair of palms with pointing forefingers, One (1) piece of left palm for holding gun, One (1) piece of right palm for holding spoon. Each head sculpt piece is specially hand-painted