Tokyo Mint has announced the second offering in its series of high quality resin figures of the heroines from the popular Love Hina anime and manga series.  The Shinobu Maehara Bath Towel Statue, a fully painted, 1/8-scale statue will be released in a limited North American edition of 800 at a MSRP of $99 in May of 2003.  Because of the long lead time necessary for manufacturing, distributors and some retailers will begin taking orders in January.

 

The first statue in the Tokyo Mint Love Hina series, the Naru Narusegawa Bikini Statue, has just shipped but is sold out at the wholesale level.  Love Hina, which is based on the manga series created by Akamatsu Ken and was made into a popular anime series produced by Xebec in 2000, has become one of the hottest manga/anime series in the U.S. during 2002.  Tokyopop's Love Hina manga collections are consistently in the Book Scan top ten list of graphic novels sold in the bookstore market, while the anime series has been a bona fide hit for Bandai.

 
There's a larger edition of this second statue, but demand is also expected to increase due to the lower price and wider distribution.  Tokyo Mint President Milton Griepp explains, 'Since we were just beginning to establish distribution for the line (with the first statue), a number of distributors have told us that they'll begin carrying our line with our second statue, and we expect even heavier demand for future releases.'