And we’re the ones auctioning it off.  Check out the listing here. 

Up until 2013, the last edition of a Dragon Ball Z film to be created was Movie #13: Wrath of the Gods.  The movie released in 1995, capping off an incredible run for Z, as the series tried to make GT a thing.  The movie depicted a new character, Tapion, who one could mistaken as a knock-off Link from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The ocarina and sword certainly was not a unique choice at the time.  But Dragon Ball Z was still largely unknown to Western audiences. 

As Dragonball Z began to take off on Cartoon Network in the United States, AB Toys in France was already releasing action figures to the European Market.  Many action figures released were of characters Europe had never seen nor heard.  The Freeza saga had only begun to release, so it’s to no surprise that Tapion was an unknown.  AB Toys released an incredibly range of figures from miniatures and large-scale to model kits.  

While many of these AB Toys are available online, the snap-together model kits remain a rarity.  The series only consisted of 5 total figures. But perhaps what makes this Super Guerriers (English translation: Super Warriors) Tapion so unique is the character was never released in another build-a-kit version. Compound that with the fact this was never released outside Europe, which means the United States missed out.

“Now here I am, a thousand years later and nothing’s changed. Still a prisoner outside, looking in.”

Tapion

The Super Guerriers action figures are not the most meticulous model kits (compared to say, Mobile Suit Gundam Model Kits).  I foolishly opened another rare Dragon Ball Z model kit in my collection, Vegetto.  It certainly earned myself a good hour of fun, but through the years and several moves, the figure lost pieces and the rubber clothing began to deteriorate. Hopefully I can find it again as I clear out my old collection.

You will be hard pressed to find anything online about this figure.  Figurerealm.com lacks any mention of these types of figures.  Ebay is a complete desert.  Only Dragonball.fandom.com had this small blurb to say about this figure:

This “Super Guerriers” Model Kit offered by AB is a unique piece and quite a rarity. It is the only snap-together model kit of Tapion and stands at a basic scale. As a snap-together piece, it is on par with those released by Irwin years later. The box mockup has a bubble portraying the contents inside, which depict the character prior to bringing the kit together. Also visible on the boxart is an image of Tapion as a full-body shot. On the packaging topside, Tapion is depicted at a close range along with an image Super Saiyan Vegeta beside him. This is Model Kit number 3 of the Kit Super Guerriers series, which has a total of 5 different pieces in the full set.

Check out the listing here.