Furuta

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Furuta is a Japanese company which produced a Star Trek "gashapon" line called the "Federation And Alien Ships Collection" and was released in three volumes between 2003 and 2006. Furuta also released a gashapon line of enamel pins in 2006 which featured twenty different insignia from the Star Trek franchise and was called the "Star Trek Pins Collection".

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 their release of first volume of the Federation and Alien Ships Collection. Volumes Two and Three followed in 2004 and 2006 respectively. What made these collections remarkable was that aside from well-established ships, Furuta also produced ships that were rarely touched upon by other licensed companies including the Template:ShipClass, Template:ShipClass, Template:ShipClass and the Species 8472 bioship.

These models were pre-painted and surprisingly detailed for their size and required a small amount of assembly as they were "snap-fit" models and required no glue for assembly. Furuta's line was sized larger than its contemporary competitor Romando, which also released a gashapon Star Trek line at around the same time. Konami and F-Toys also released Star Trek gashapon lines in later years.

Gashapon

Bandai is the company which trademarked the term "gashapon" for the combining of candy and toy models into a single package. The term "gashapon" has become very common in Japan as a generic term for all manufacturers of these "candy toys". More recently, the term "gashapon" has also come to signify "blind box" trading figures, referring to a line of small-scale toys, figurines or models that are sold in identical sealed boxes. This means that many gashapon packages must be purchased in order to complete a toy series.

The combining of candy and toy models is now common in Japan as many candy companies traditionally have included toys with their products as enticers, often packaged in such a way that they can be dispensed from vending machines. "Gashapon" gets its name from the sound the box makes when falling down as the vending machine dispenses it. In the case of some companies, the candy is included so that their toys can be sold on supermarket shelves.

Rarer "secret" or "chase" items are often included in a series to boost sales and are produced in smaller quantities than the regular items in the series. This method of collector-focused marketing has a strong resemblance to trading cards sales methods. Typically, a "gashapon" line is a singular unrepeated release which can cause the more sought-after releases to become highly valued collector's items.

Futura blind boxes

Volume 1	Volume 2	Volume 3α	Volume 3β

Releases

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
Future USS Enterprise-D	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 released	n/a