Video game figurines take a walk on Pinky Street

The Pinky St. figurines have grown quite popular in Japan due to the adorable character designs, customization options and interchangeable parts. They've even inspired PS2 (Mahoroba Stories) and DS games (Pinky St. Kira Kira Music Hour, Pinky St. Kira Kira Music Night). Some of the most popular Pinky St. releases, however, are versions of popular video game characters.

Pinky St. character releases usually are grouped into one of two different groups. The first group is referred to as P:cos, and includes a previous Pinky St. figure head on a special edition costume from a famous anime or video game franchise. The second group is P:chara, and are brand new characters with unique heads and body parts for that specific character.

Quite a few famous characters from games have appeared as Pinky figures. For example. there was a special King of Fighters and Street Fighters P:chara releases. There were four characters, with two in each package. The King of Fighters pack included Mai Shiranui and Athena Asamiya, while the Street Fighter pack included Chun-Li and Sakura Kasugano. There was also a Wild ARMS: The Vth Vanguard P:chara release that included Rebecca Streisand and Avril Vent Fleur with their game costumes and weapons.

The most popular Pinky St video game figures were the ones inspired by Monster Hunter. There were three special P:chara characters created, Kosu Hunter Mon-chan, Bone Hunter Poon, and Sword Hunter Leia. Each character was dressed specifically for their profession in Monster Hunter-style outfits, and came with weapons and accessories you would find in the game.

There are also a few releases which technically are anime inspired Pinky figures, but can fall into the video game Pinky St. catagory since those series also inspired games. In 2008, four Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Pinkys of Haruhi Suzumiya, Yuki Nagato, Mikuru Asahina and Tsuruya. Previously, a Sakura Wars Pinky of Sakura Shinguji and a Tsukihime Arc (Melty Blood) Pinky of Arcueid Brunestud were also released.

The three Neon Genesis Evangelion Pinky St. releases are also worth mentioning. The first release was a P:cos release of both Rei and Asuka. Both were in their jumpsuits and came with backpacks and little angels they could hold. The second release were two limited edition P:cos sets of the characters with the original jumpsuits and their school uniforms. The third release were P:chara Pinkys, where each character was sold separately and came with extra outfits from the series.

There have also been Pinky St. releases featuring video game/program outfits. There was a Space Invaders set of four different characters, where each had an outfit with a Space Invader alien on it and came with a related pin. There was also a series of four Post Pet Pinkys. Each one had a Post Pet shirt, bear ear headbands, a teddy bear toy and a pin.

Images courtesy of Jenni and Baby Sue/Vance Project.