Furuta

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Furuta is a Japanese company that produces candy and toy models, a combination not uncommon in Japan as many candy companies traditionally have included toys with their products as enticers, often originally packaged in such a way that they can be dispensed from vending machines. Bandai was the company which coined the term "Gashapon" for these product combinations. Though being a trade mark, the term has become a generic term for all manufacturers of these product combinations in Japan. More recently, the term has also come to signify "blind box" trading figures, meaning a line of small scale toys, figurines or models, sold in the same box with the intent that many packages have to be bought in order to complete a series, with the option of trading with like minded collectors. Often, a rare item (or "secret"" item) is included in the series to boost sales. This method of marketing has a strong resemblance with the trading cards phenomenon. Typically, a "Gashapon" line is an one-off, released only once, turning the more popular ones quickly into collector's items.

Furuta, being one of the larger companies in this field, markets gashapon in both senses of its meaning and has a very wide subject variety, ranging from simple children's toys to highly detailed scale models both covering real world subjects as well as subjects from the realms of imagination.

Association With Star Trek

Futura blind boxes

Volume 1	Volume 2	Volume 3α	Volume 3β

In 2003 Furuta delved into the Star Trek universe with the release of small scale injection molded plastic models of starships and space stations with the first volume of "Federation and Alien Ships Collection" followed by volumes 2 and 3 in 2004 and 2006 respectively. What made these collections remarkable was, that aside from the well established ships, Furuta also included ships that were hardly touched upon by other companies, at least the licensed ones, like the Template:ShipClass, Template:ShipClass, Template:ShipClass and the Species 8472 bioship. The models were pre-painted and surprisingly detailed for their size, requiring a marginal amount of constructing as they were "snap-fit" models, meaning that no glue was needed. At the time, Furuta's line was released at a larger scale than its contemporary competitor Romando, which also released a gashapon Star Trek line around the same time.

Furuta Federation And Alien Ships Collection

Federation and Alien Ships Collection, Volume 1, 2003
Item	Scale
Deep Space 9	1:15700	File:Furuta Model Vol.1 Species 8472 Bioship 2003.jpg
Template:ShipClass	1:4000
Klingon Bird-of-Prey	1:1325
Species 8472 bioship	1:437
USS Defiant	1:1250
USS Enterprise-A	1:2400
USS Equinox	1:1625
USS Reliant	1:2125
USS Stargazer	1:2800
Template:ShipClass	1:4200
Template:ShipClass (Secret item)	n/a

Federation and Alien Ships Collection, Volume 2, 2004
Template:ShipClass	1:4425
Jem'Hadar attack ship	1:1250
USS Enterprise (original series version)	1:2175
USS Enterprise-B	1:3200
USS Enterprise-C	1:4875
USS Enterprise-D	1:6300
USS Enterprise-D (with third nacelle)	1:6300
USS Farragut	1:5775
USS Prometheus	1:2975
USS Voyager	1:2700
USS Enterprise-E (Secret item)	1:5125

Federation and Alien Ships Collection, Volume 3α, 2006
Galileo	n/a
Phoenix	1:263
USS Excelsior	n/a
USS Grissom	1:2000
Spock	n/a

Federation and Alien Ships Collection, Volume 3β, 2006
Borg cube	n/a
Kazon raider	1:2105
USS Enterprise-refit	n/a
USS Pasteur	n/a
USS Rio Grande	1:306
Borg Cube & sphere Special item; Cube lighted; late addition after Vol.3 was already marketed	n/a