Bandai reveals Mojibakeru ... kanji that transform into animals?

2:00 PM on 05.06.2010   |   Brian Szabelski

Nope, you didn't read that wrong. First spotted over at Danny Choo, Bandai are releasing a series of transforming characters called Mojibakeru (a combination of moji, or "character", and bakeru, or "to change into" in Japanese). As you can tell, they transform from the kanji to the creature each one represents. The first six are "Inu" (dog), "Sakana" (fish), "Ryu" (dragon), "Uma" (horse), "Tora" (tiger) and "Tori" (bird). Each comes in three colors, which should give us 18 versions.The series launches on May 17 in Japan.

They're all fairly inexpensive, too, at only 105 yen a piece, which is just over US$1. Seems like the perfect thing for the younger crowd, but I'm wondering: are any of you interested in this series? I might end up picking up one from somewhere just to see what they're like.