VTS Toys

VTS Toys, also seen as Virtual Toys, numbers its figures VM, and the numbers go back a long way. The early ones belong to film: VM-001 is John Hartigan of Sin City, and Rick O'Connell, Lucius Fox, the Punisher, Judge Dredd and Max Rockatansky follow. VTS figures usually arrive under descriptive names and let the head sculpt and costume say who they are: Furiosa was Wasteland Ranger, Ethan Hunt was Agent Hunter.

The middle years belonged to video games. The Division became a run of Darkzone Agents, and the line went on through Watch Dogs, Bloodborne's Hunter, Sekiro's Wolf, both androids of Detroit: Become Human, and Arthur Morgan of Red Dead Redemption 2. Cloud Strife and Zack Fair of Final Fantasy VII have each had more than one go.

The studio's biggest statement was Ghost of Battlefield, its take on Jin Sakai from Ghost of Tsushima. VTS billed it as its annual flagship, and it was the first VTS figure to use metal as the main material for the armour, with three katanas, a short bow and a shakuhachi in the kit.

Japanese screen heroes followed. Koseidon, the 1978 Tsuburaya tokusatsu series, got its own run of Super Kosei and Godmesuer figures, alongside Daigo of Ultraman Tiga, Kenshin Himura from the live-action Rurouni Kenshin films and the Shadow Rider of Shin Kamen Rider. Many VTS releases come in a standard and a DX edition, so check which one a listing actually is before you buy.