Digimon toys and where collectors find them
Nearly every Digimon toy worth owning comes from Bandai, and the serious pieces ship through Premium Bandai, Japanese hobby importers and the secondhand market rather than big-box shelves. We have been raising virtual pets since the 1997 Digital Monster and building Figure-rise kits since the first Omegamon, so this guide covers the seven lines collectors actually chase and the channels where each one turns up.
Who makes Digimon toys in the first place
The answer is simpler than the storefront listings suggest. Bandai created the original Digital Monster virtual pet in Japan in 1997, and the company has held the toy rights to the Digimon franchise ever since. Within the Bandai Namco group, the work is split: the Bandai toy division handles virtual pets, Digivice replicas and the Vital Bracelet, while Bandai Spirits produces the model kits and premium action figures under names such as Figure-rise Standard and Tamashii Nations.
In North America, those products reach us through Bandai America and Bandai Namco Toys & Collectibles America, the latter having absorbed the old Bluefin distribution business that long handled Tamashii Nations imports. A handful of licensed partners fill the gaps. MegaHouse, also part of the group, makes the Precious G.E.M. statues, and various plush and apparel licensees produce softer merchandise.
Hasbro Pulse deserves a word because it keeps appearing in Digimon toy searches, which confuses newer collectors. Hasbro has never been the Digimon licensee. Pulse is Hasbro’s direct-to-consumer store, and it carries select lines from other manufacturers alongside Transformers and Marvel Legends. When a Digimon listing appears there, it is a Bandai product sitting on a Hasbro storefront, so judge it on price and shipping like any other retailer rather than as a sign of a new toy maker entering the fandom.
The seven lines collectors hunt
1. Virtual pets: Digital Monster, Pendulum and the Color editions
The virtual pet is the root of the whole hobby. Before the anime, before the card game, there was a grey plastic egg with three buttons and a Botamon on the screen. Collectors split the category into vintage units and modern reissues.
Vintage means the Japanese Digital Monster Ver.1 through Ver.5 and the Pendulum series that followed, plus the English-language Bandai America releases of the late 1990s. Working originals with intact screens and clean battery contacts are the prize, and boxed examples sell for far more than loose units.
Modern reissues make the category approachable. Bandai marked the 20th anniversary with the Digital Monster Ver.20th in 2017, which crammed every Ver.1 through Ver.5 roster into one shell and added new evolutions, and Bandai America released an English edition in 2019. The Pendulum Z line followed in 2020, and from 2023 the Color editions arrived: Digital Monster Color, Pendulum Color and, in 2024, the Digivice -25th Color Evolution-, each replacing the old liquid crystal with a backlit colour screen while keeping the original raising rules.
For virtual pets, the medium matters when we talk about evolution. Agumon reaches Greymon on a Ver.1 unit through care conditions tracked by the device, not through the Crest and Digivice logic of the anime. If you want the background on how those systems differ, our piece on digimon evolution breaks it down per medium.
Agumon is the natural first purchase because every Digital Monster and Digivice reissue includes him. On the Ver.1 roster he sits in the same slot as Betamon, and which one you raise from Koromon depends on how carefully you handle the In-Training stage.
2. Digivice replicas
Every anime series since Digimon Adventure in 1999 shipped with a toy version of its signature device, and Bandai has reissued most of them for anniversaries. The lineup by series, naming the device each show used:
| Series | Device (Japanese name) | Toy format |
|---|---|---|
| Digimon Adventure (1999) | Digivice | Raising game with pedometer |
| Digimon Adventure 02 (2000) | D-3 | Raising game, Armor evolution |
| Digimon Tamers (2001) | D-Power (D-Ark) | Card slash with physical cards |
| Digimon Frontier (2002) | D-Tector (D-Scanner) | Spirit evolution scanner |
| Digimon Data Squad (2006) | Digivice iC and Burst | Raising with DNA charge |
| Digimon Fusion (2010) | Fusion Loader (Xros Loader) | Colour screen, Xros combos |
| Digimon Adventure: (2020) | Digivice: | Updated raising game |
The anniversary versions are where collectors concentrate. The Digivice Ver.15th in 2015 reproduced the Adventure device with a full roster, the Digivice Ver. Complete around the 20th anniversary of the show bundled the Adventure and 02 rosters together, and the 2024 Color Evolution brought the same device to a colour display. Tamers fans chase the D-Ark reissues hardest because the card-slash mechanic needs the original cards to work, and complete sets are scarce.
3. Vital Bracelet
Launched in Japan in March 2021, with Bandai America offering Japanese-version pre-orders through Premium Bandai USA that year before the localized Vital Hero reached North American retail in July 2022, the Vital Bracelet reinvented the virtual pet as a wearable. The device reads your steps and heart rate, and those readings feed a stat called Vitals that pushes your partner toward evolution. Rosters arrive on small cartridges called Dim cards, each one covering a single line such as the Agumon or Guilmon branch, and the Vital Bracelet BE in 2023 added a sharper screen and Bluetooth sync to a phone app.
Collectors buy the Dim cards as much as the bracelet, since many were produced in short runs tied to specific shows and events. The Ghost Game cards and the Digimon Adventure 02 anniversary cards are the ones we see asked about most.
How to get an evolved Digimon on Vital Bracelet
- Insert a Dim card and register the starting Digimon.
- Wear the bracelet daily so steps and heart rate build Vitals.
- Start battles from the menu and win to collect trophies.
- Hit the Vitals and trophy thresholds the device tracks for the next stage.
- Swap in a new Dim to raise a different line without losing progress.
Exact thresholds differ per Dim card, so treat the printed roster sheet as the authority for your card rather than a guide written for another one.
4. Figure-rise Standard model kits
Bandai Spirits turned Digimon into snap-fit plastic model kits, and this line is the single best entry point for a collector on a budget. No glue is required, the parts are moulded in colour and the Amplified sub-line adds articulation and size on the heavy hitters. Confirmed Amplified releases include Omegamon (Omnimon), WarGreymon, MetalGarurumon, Dukemon (Gallantmon), Beelzemon, Imperialdramon Fighter Mode, Alphamon, Jesmon and Diaboromon, with Standard kits covering partners such as Agumon, Gabumon and Angemon.
Omnimon (Omegamon) was the first Amplified kit and remains the flagship. In the anime he forms from WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon through DNA digivolution, and the kit mirrors that by bundling the Grey Sword and Garuru Cannon arms, which is why it is the one we recommend building first.
Model kits also expose a quirk of the hobby: Japanese and Western releases carry different box art and sometimes different names. The Dukemon box in Japan is the Gallantmon box in North America, and listings on import sites will use whichever name the seller copied. Search both.
5. Action figures: S.H.Figuarts, D-Arts and Digivolving Spirits
Tamashii Nations covers the premium end. The D-Arts line of the early 2010s produced die-cast-accented figures of WarGreymon, Omegamon, Dukemon and Beelzemon that now command strong secondhand prices. S.H.Figuarts picked up the baton with new WarGreymon and Omegamon sculpts, articulated Agumon and Gabumon, and human characters such as Tai and Matt from Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna.
WarGreymon is the most-produced Mega across every figure line, which makes him both easy to find and tricky to buy well: there are D-Arts, S.H.Figuarts, Figure-rise, Digivolving Spirits and MegaHouse versions, each at a different scale.
Digivolving Spirits, which ran from 2017 to 2019, is the line we point nostalgic collectors toward. Each figure transforms from a Rookie into its evolved form through a sequence of folds and part swaps, and the die-cast weight gives them real shelf presence. The pairings follow the anime partners:
| Rookie form | Evolved form | Level of evolved form |
|---|---|---|
| Agumon | WarGreymon | Mega |
| Gabumon | MetalGarurumon | Mega |
| Keramon | Diaboromon | Mega |
| Gatomon (Tailmon) | Angewomon | Ultimate |
| Dorumon | Alphamon | Mega |
| Patamon | MagnaAngemon (HolyAngemon) | Ultimate |
| Guilmon | Gallantmon (Dukemon) | Mega |
Note the level column. Angewomon and MagnaAngemon are Ultimate in the English system (Perfect in Japan), while the rest are Mega (Ultimate in Japan), and the line skipped the Champion stage entirely to keep the transformation sequence manageable.
The older Bandai America Digivolving figures from the early 2000s are a separate, cheaper line in plastic. They transform Agumon through Greymon to MetalGreymon in stages and show up constantly at flea markets, often missing a tail or an arm, so inspect before paying.
6. Plush and preschool-grade toys
Plush is where the Digimon franchise reaches people who never watched the show. Bandai, Banpresto and a run of licensed plush makers have produced Agumon, Gabumon, Patamon and Gatomon in sizes from keychain to pillow. The collectible tier is the Japanese crane-game prizes and the anniversary plush sold through Premium Bandai; the mass-market tier is whatever a department store carries during an anime push.
Preschool-grade toys from the 1999 to 2002 boom, such as the chunky action figures with button-activated attacks and the Tamers card-launcher toys, are rising on the secondhand market. Condition is everything with these because the paint rubs easily and the electronics corrode.
7. Digimon merch beyond the toy aisle
Collectors rarely stop at figures. The Digimon Card Game, launched by Bandai in 2020, runs on set codes and alternate-art rarities that behave like collectibles, and our digimon tcg explainer covers how that market works. Apparel, acrylic stands, Ichiban Kuji lottery prizes and the art books tied to the games all sit under the Digimon merchandise umbrella, and Premium Bandai bundles many of them with virtual pet launches. The game tie-ins matter too: digimon story time stranger arrived with a wave of merchandise featuring its new designs, and those items tend to be produced once and never reprinted.
Where collectors find Digimon toys
The main problem is not scarcity so much as fragmentation. No single store stocks the full range, so we treat the hunt as a set of channels, each suited to a particular kind of purchase.
| Channel | Best for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Premium Bandai (Japan and USA) | Virtual pets, Digivice reissues, exclusives | Preorder windows close fast |
| Japanese hobby importers | Figure-rise kits, S.H.Figuarts, plush | Shipping and import duty |
| Amazon and big-box stores | Current Vital Bracelet, mass-market plush | Third-party sellers marking up |
| eBay and Mercari | Vintage pets, D-Arts, out-of-print kits | Fakes and condition claims |
| Mandarake and Japanese secondhand | Boxed vintage, rare Dim cards | Grading language differs |
| Independent toy and hobby shops | Kits in hand, community tips | Limited Digimon depth |
| Conventions and swap meets | Loose vintage, haggling | No returns |
Premium Bandai
This is the source of truth for the virtual pet side. New Digital Monster and Digivice editions open for preorder here first, and many never reach general retail at all. The Japanese store ships through forwarding services; Premium Bandai USA ships domestically but carries a narrower catalogue. Our rule is simple: if a device is announced, set a calendar alert for the preorder date, because the first window sells out and the secondary price doubles within a week.
Japanese hobby importers
AmiAmi, HobbyLink Japan and similar retailers list Figure-rise and Tamashii Nations products at close to Japanese retail, and preorders through them are the cheapest way to secure a Figuarts figure. Expect shipping costs to dominate on heavy model kits, and consolidate orders so one parcel carries several boxes. Bandai Spirits exclusives sold only through the Tamashii Web Shop in Japan need a proxy service, which adds a fee but is the only legitimate route.
Secondhand markets eBay dominates for vintage virtual pets and discontinued figures in the West, with Mercari close behind for domestic bargains. For Japanese stock, Mandarake and Surugaya list boxed items with honest condition notes, though the grading vocabulary takes practice to read. Prices on D-Arts figures and first-run Digivolving Spirits have climbed steadily since production ended, so buy the one you want rather than waiting for a dip that has not arrived in years.
Independent toy stores
Local shops are underrated. Stores like The Toy Maven in Dallas’s Park Cities area turn up in Digimon searches because they carry Bandai kits and plush alongside the usual brands, and a good independent store will order a Figure-rise kit for you through its distributor without a markup. Hobby shops that stock Gundam are even better bets, since the same Bandai Spirits distribution feeds both lines and the staff can tell a reissue from a first run on sight.
Conventions and swap meets
Anime conventions remain the best place to handle vintage toys before paying. Dealers bring loose Digivices, boxed Pendulums and boxes of early-2000s figures, and prices are negotiable late on the final day. Bring batteries so you can test any virtual pet on the spot, and bring a loupe for screen checks.
Spotting fakes, reprints and bad listings
Counterfeit Digimon toys are a growing problem, concentrated on the items with the highest resale values. Three categories deserve scrutiny.
Virtual pets are faked most often. Knockoff Digital Monster shells have been sold since the 1990s, and modern copies of the Ver.20th exist with mushy buttons and wrong fonts on the screen. Genuine units carry Bandai moulding on the back and a sharp, evenly spaced pixel grid.
Figures and kits are harder to fake convincingly, but bootleg S.H.Figuarts WarGreymon figures circulate with soft paint edges and loose joints. Price is the tell: a new-in-box Figuarts at half the import cost is a fake until proven otherwise.
Reprints are a different issue. Bandai reruns popular Figure-rise kits, and a reprint is a legitimate product, but a seller describing one as “first edition” is padding the price. The box carries a production date code, and reprints also tend to update the Bandai Spirits logo.
Tamer tip
Before buying any vintage virtual pet, ask the seller for a photo with the battery tab pulled and the screen lit. A device that boots to the egg with crisp pixels is worth paying for; one with faded segments or a dead speaker is a shell, and shells are cheap.
Building a collection that holds its value
We advise new collectors to skip breadth and pick a lane. Someone who loves Digimon Adventure can assemble the Adventure Digivice reissues, the eight Digivolving Spirits partners and the Figure-rise Omegamon into a focused shelf that tells a story, and focused collections resell as sets at a premium. Chasing every WarGreymon across every line produces a crowded cabinet and a lot of duplicated content.
Condition discipline matters more than rarity. Keep boxes, store virtual pets without batteries to avoid leakage, and keep model kits out of direct sunlight because the coloured plastic fades. A boxed Ver.20th with its inserts outsells a loose one by a wide margin, and that gap widens every year.
Finally, watch the release calendar. Bandai tends to align toy waves with anniversaries and new media, so the arrival of a new game or series usually signals a run of Digivices, Dim cards and kits. The anime side feeds this directly, and collectors who follow where each series streams, through digimon hulu listings and the like, tend to spot the tie-in merchandise announcements first.
FAQ
Who makes Digimon toys?
Bandai, through its toy division for virtual pets and Digivices and through Bandai Spirits for model kits and S.H.Figuarts. MegaHouse makes the Precious G.E.M. statues. Hasbro does not make Digimon toys; Hasbro Pulse occasionally lists Bandai products as a retailer.
What is the best first Digimon toy for a collector?
A Figure-rise Standard Amplified Omegamon for the figure side, or a Digital Monster Color for the virtual pet side. Both are current, affordable relative to vintage pieces and represent the two halves of the hobby well.
Are the old 1990s Digimon virtual pets still worth buying?
Yes, with testing. A working Ver.1 through Ver.5 or an original Pendulum is a genuine piece of toy history, and prices have risen steadily. Always confirm the screen lights and the buttons respond before paying, since dead units are common.
Where do Digimon collectors buy from Japan?
Premium Bandai for virtual pets and exclusives, importers such as AmiAmi and HobbyLink Japan for kits and figures, and Mandarake for secondhand boxed items. Proxy services cover anything restricted to Japanese addresses.
Do Digimon toys follow the anime evolution lines?
Partly. Figure lines such as Digivolving Spirits pair anime partners with their anime Megas, while virtual pets use their own evolution charts based on care conditions, and those charts differ from the show. Check which medium a toy’s roster follows before assuming a line.