Stumbled upon these two little babies in my room when I was doing some house keeping; Studio Ghibli “matchboxes”. They came as bonus items with some Ghibli dvds I bought in the past and I must have stashed them away somewhere still shrinkwrapped and completely forgotten about their existence…until now. What treasures lay hidden inside these nifty matchboxes ?
A diorama ! Packed snugly inside the matchbox is a beautifully sculpted replica of Totoro’s cave, the lush green vegetation bringing to mind Kazuo Oga’s amazing background art – read more about “The guy who painted Totoro’s forest”.
(Below) Totoro ( sized no bigger than a pea ) sleeps comfortably in his verdant burrow.
And for the Ponyo matchbox…
A 3D reproduction of the official Ponyo on the Cliff poster. (see below) Lovely ! Speaking of Ponyo, don’t forget to visit the Art of Ponyo exhibition now on at the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka.
These matchboxes were produced as gifts and are not for sale in stores, but if you’re lucky you might find someone on Ebay selling it.
Ghibli merchandise like figures, dioramas and plush toys are always desirable items to have – For me I’ve had my eyes on a Cominica Princess Mononoke figure ( San riding on a wolf god ) for years but I know I won’t have any space to display it in my tiny room.
What about you guys ? Own any Ghibli anime figure/diorama ?
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The View From Totoro’s Cat Bus – Ghibli Museum Exhibition
Studio Ghibli Structures Exhibition
Ghibli Museum Illustrated Postcards By Yoshida Noboru
Studio Ghibli Layout Designs Exhibition Part I
Studio Ghibli Layout Designs Exhibition Part II
June 17th, 2009 at 12:12 am
Oh my days…my girlfriend has been wanting to get her hands on these for a while – she may well be in touch 😉
June 17th, 2009 at 4:12 am
Oh, oh, I’m interested! I only have soft Ghibli plushes. I’ve been planning to get the Porco Rosso airplane model for a while.
June 17th, 2009 at 4:41 am
I got a nice plush of “catbus”, and some great artbooks of “Hauru no Ugoku Shiro” and “Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi”, some nice postcards of “Totoro” and i think it is… but sure thing i´ll return for more to Mitaka!
The driver in my tour bus in tokio also put a small catbus rear his window, so cute the little plush looks. I think is for luck! XD
June 18th, 2009 at 12:51 am
I own Totoro plushies of all three Totoros, and one of Catbus. I also have a Totoro smile cap in grey.
Perhaps my favorite item I’ve gotten related to Totoro was a little round tin with Totoros and an acorn design on it. I bought it at Otakon, my local anime convention, and at the time I had no idea what I’d do with it, just that it was a cute little tin. Later on when my friends and I sat down, I took it out and took the packaging off and heard a rattling inside. I opened the tin, and much to my surprise, there was a keychain/cell phone charm inside that has Catbus’ profile on it. It’s silver and blue in color, and when I took a closer look at the packaging, you could get one of a few charms, being O Totoro, Catbus, the bust stop sign, and a few others. I was just so happy that I got Catbus, since he’s my favorite character in the movie. I would have been just as happy to get Totoro, of course. 🙂
June 18th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
That Totoro one is awesome, though I’m not a fan of Ponyo. I finally made it out to the Ghibli museum in Tokyo a few weeks ago too, which was wonderful. Though, I did feel kind of embarrassed when I walked straight out of a tiny doorway and wandered into the ladies toilets thinking “what kind of interesting room is this?” only to be shooed out by some shocked foreign girls. They really ought to put a bigger sign up~ Also, not being able to take photos inside was a little annoying. That, and my gf is about 20 years over the age limit for playing on the giant Catbus….
June 18th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Tim – I’ll be sure to look out for her mail. :]
Otto – Airplanes ! My fav is still the fighter plane in Nausicaa, with the Ohmu cockpit.
rulascalaca – Wow, big fan there haha !
Samantha – I know just what you mean, all the stuff made by Ghibli are just too desirable !
James – Haha, I’ve been to the museum quite a few times and I still wonder how they manage to keep the giant Catbus clean with all the kids playing with it everyday…the folks cleaning it must have a hard time !
June 19th, 2009 at 6:08 am
I have the tonari no totoro figure calendar…Totoro with the bus stop stand…I wish i had the nausiccaa figures though
June 20th, 2009 at 6:58 am
Sometimes visiting your blog feels like torture, all these nice Ghibli products adding up to things on my shopping cart.
June 22nd, 2009 at 6:51 pm
tragic comedy – Haha, I wish I have EVERYTHING !!!
weigy – All for a good cause, I’m sure. :]
April 4th, 2010 at 9:08 am
Kewl <3
December 17th, 2010 at 1:05 am
I’m still learning from you, as I’m trying to reach my goals. I absolutely love reading everything that is posted on your blog.Keep the posts coming. I liked it
September 9th, 2015 at 5:40 am
Hi I found one of these little match boxes the little baby one in water I don’t where I got it from but I’m sure it was from an estate sale a few years ago I threw it away is it worth something?