Let’s take a look at the colorful world of Keshigomu Star Wars Characters and Vehicles first released from Japan in 1978!
Keshigomu means “rubber eraser” and they have been a very popular area of collecting in Japan since the 1970s. There are countless lines from almost every imaginable franchise. So, it’s no wonder that there were multiple series keshi (as the word is usually shortened colloquially) of Star Wars characters and vehicles when the film was first released in Japan in 1978.
We will only discuss one series now, but later installments will deal with the others. If you can’t wait that long, there is still time to book a flight an attend Star Wars Celebration Japan in Tokyo where I will be on a panel entitled “The Colorful World of Keshigomu” on April 19 from 12:30 to 1pm. Also, the Rancho Obi-Wan booth at Celebration Japan will showcase some of these interesting and fun collectibles so stop by to see them.
People (especially kids) love loopholes in the rules and that, I have been told, is the impetuous for the rise in popularity of Keshigomu. An obvious rule is you can’t bring toys to school. But what if you were only bringing an eraser to class? No problem. What if that eraser just happened to look like your favorite cartoon character or a starship? Now you’ve managed to fight the system and have a fun way to escape the tedium of preparing for the rest of your life. Don’t be fooled that any actual erasing took place with these toys [err..] legitimate school supplies.
Keshi are inexpensive and can be purchased in many ways from capsule machines (what we would call gumball machines) to kiosks and even premiums in food promotions. The first line we will discuss is from a company called Maruka Toy Company. These small size erasers (not toys) were sold in 50-piece bags. I don’t know about you but I don’t think I have used up 50 erasers in my entire life. These bags were filled with random Star Wars vehicles and characters roughly an inch and a half tall in a rainbow of colors. Each color was available in opaque and translucent. So, you can see that completing a full set can be quite a challenge. And we all know collectors like a challenge. The small Maruka series consists of the Millennium Falcon, Landspeeder, X-Wing, Y-Wing, TIE Fighter, the Escape Pod (looking more like a Soyuz Capsule), and the intrepid droid duo C-3PO & R2-D2 providing the only actual characters in the bags.
If a 50-piece bag wasn’t in a young kid’s budget or they were a budding gambler, they could instead choose to purchase the keshi in sealed paper bags that each contained five random erasers (not toys) from the line. Interestingly, it seems that a Star Destroyer was available only in these blind bags. In addition to the five colorful vehicles or droids, there was a piece of paper letting the buyer know if they were a winner or loser. If they were a loser, all the young student could do was hang their head in shame and exit the store. But if they were a winner they were treated to a free exclusive keshi of either Darth Vader or R2-D2 (slightly different than the plain Artoo found in regular packs). Four different images can be found on the paper blind bags: Darth Vader or the Droids (shown here) plus the Space Battle photo and the Japanese version of the Hildebrandt art.
You might think surely that is enough keshi for one movie, but, as they say in Japan “Au contraire mon frère.” This is just the beginning. But you will have to wait patiently for the next installment.
As a postscript, when Gus Lopez and I wrote our eponymous price guide “Gus and Duncan’s Comprehensive Guide to Star Wars Collectibles”, we listed the 50-piece bag of the small Maruka keshi in the Toy chapter. But don’t tell any Japanese teachers or the jig will be up and the loophole will be closed.