The Striped Clear Carp figure or Crystal Killer Fish Black Marble Ver. (クリスタルキラーフィッシュ 黒マーブルver.), the name its known for by Japanese collectors is considered one of the most rare Battle Beasts. And this is for a reason because it was only available in Japan as a Punch-Box Prize item for a limited period of time.
How to obtain?
In order to obtain the Striped Clear Carp back in the days you had to be very lucky because unlike the relatively high odds for any of the other known Premium Battle Beasts the odds on this figure were very low. How come…? Well this figure was, if you´re lucky, hidden in one of the slots from the Japanese Punch-Box. This Punch-box, which should receive it´s own page here on the Beastformers Blog in time, was a ¨simple¨ but nicely designed box cover that held 24 slots (4 rows of 6) which could be punched through. The Punch-box could be found in Japanese toy shops that sold the Beastformers (Battle Beasts) on the counter and you could buy the chance to punch through a slot; 1回¥200 (1 Try 200 YEN). Underneath each, closed, slot you could find a Beastformers item ranging from a single boxed beast to a rare premium item like the normal Clear Carp, one of the rare drills (Maroon/Blue) with a Laser Beast OR the Striped Clear Carp! But as mentioned the odds of actually finding a Striped Clear Carp in one of the slots of the Punch-Box were limited because even though there were 24 slots only a very limited percentage held a rare item. And based on the information within the BB Community about the refill boxes that were distributed by TAKARA, together with new unpunched Punch-Box covers, the ratio of actual Striped Clear Carps was very low. There were Refill boxes found with the original content that contained only 3 Clear Carps and NO Striped Clear Carp at all while the boxes found with a Striped Clear Carp inside only held one of it.
The Punch-Box
A great piece of Beastformers History without a doubt because anyone can relate to and imagine having a chance to punch through one of the slots with the hope to find your holy grail Battle Beasts item below. There is a lot to be told about this box but since it´s not ¨ONLY¨ housing the Striped Clear Carp and it does not add anything to the Striped Clear Carp as a figure it´s only briefly shared for now. As mentioned above this piece of history does receive its own page here on the Beastformers Blog in time but until the translation work and research on this Punch-Box is done this is it for now.
A lucky Punch, the STRIPED CLEAR CARP!
When the spirits of the Beastformers were positive and you had lucky odds and did find a Striped Clear Carp after your punch this is what you found. (See image left)
A clear wrapper, this is the way how all of the rare items were packed inside the Punch-Box, containing the Striped Clear Carp figure a bag of Battle Beasts weapons and a little booklet showing some information and products of the Beastformers line.
It might look a little cheap the way it´s packed but the figure inside is clearly a Prize item!
Here is a little slide show of what´s inside the little wrapper.
The Story of the Striped Clear Carp
This is were the mysterious Striped Clear Carp becomes maybe even more mysterious because so far there´s literally nothing found about this figure. It has no ID Card it´s not mentioned or referred to in any of the Beastformers publications or story lines or whatever. So whereas all of the other Premiums which either came in a boxed set or as a Mail-Away item had a whole story line or promotion campaign surrounding it remains blank for this figure. Which is a little weird considering the well thought out release strategy for most of the items within this line by TAKARA but it might also point towards another interesting thing.
Because as shared in the 1st Beastformers Stories: The Myth (?) of the Soy Sauce Clear (Striped) Carp here on the Beastformers Blog it is clear that for the production of the Striped Clear Carp normal Clear Carps were used. Therefore it could have been the case that the Striped Clear Carp was born out of a mistake in numbers with an order of Clear Carps and a combination of the marbling effect they used for the Stone Cobra. Because unlike the fact the normal Clear Carps were part of the Punch-Box set as well they´re obviously also sold via the Clear Carp boxed set. And at the numbers they might´ve been available in knowing one Punch-Box could held a number of Clear Carps as well it might not have been the premium Beasts they intended. So in order to give it a special touch making an even more premium figure they might´ve decided to create the Striped Clear Carp as a sort of impulse move explaining why there is nothing found about this figure other than the fact it exists.
It probably remains a mystery surrounding this mysterious beast the Striped Clear Carp.
Each Striped Clear Carp is unique
One of the nice things about this premium Battle Beast is that each figure is a unique piece on its own based on the way how the striping effect has been applied onto the figure. In the base the Striped Clear Carp is a ¨normal¨ Clear Carp as explained. But a unique striping effect has been applied by dipping it into a ¨bath¨ which has a film layer of special paint on top of it. If you want to know more about this process have a look at the term: Hydro Dipping. This process results in the fact that after the figure has been pulled out, it´s not completely submerged so the bottom of your Striped Clear Carp will always show the transparent base color and maybe the original sticker, a unique stripe pattern is covering the figure. Unique because the way how this film layer attaches to the figure in combination with the movement is impossible to repeat in the exact same way. Making each Striped Clear Carp unique.
The images above from the Striped Clear Carps within the Beastformers Collection clearly show that each figure has a unique way of striping. Some are found with barely no stripes at all while others have a much darker looking appearance. This diversity is awesome but it also makes collecting Striped Clear Carps quite hard as a perfectionist collector because there are always others out there of which you think they might have a more awesome stripe pattern. And unlike other Battle Beasts Variations which are less random these remain unique so it´ll be a challenge to find the ones you like although it is obviously already a challenge to find just the Striped Clear Carp in general as explained above, making it a worthy Premium Beast…
Although some questions remain, and will probably never be solved in the case of this figure, this is the first time the whole story has been published this complete so it will hopefully give you a better understanding of the history of this Beast.
The Beastformers Team
Beastformers Blog 