🛸 On July 10, 1966, a giant of light first appeared on Japanese television. Sixty years later, on September 19, 2026, Bandai is reviving two iconic "transformation items" in commemorative packaging. The Beta Capsule, born in 1966. The Spark Lence, born in 1996. Two devices, thirty years apart, finally sharing the same anniversary box.

What Bandai Is Actually Reviving

On September 19, 2026, two new products go on sale: the SUPER BEST DX Beta Capsule (¥5,500 / about $35) and the SUPER BEST DX Spark Lence (¥6,050 / about $39).

The Beta Capsule is the pen-shaped device used by Officer Hayata in the original 1966 Ultraman series. Hayata, a member of the Science Special Search Party, would raise the slim capsule above his head, press the switch, and transform into the giant red-and-silver hero from Nebula M78. That pose — arm raised, capsule held high — became the foundational image of Japanese tokusatsu (live-action special-effects superhero shows).

The Spark Lence is the stick-shaped device from 1996's Ultraman Tiga, the first show in the Heisei-era Ultraman lineup. Tiga reimagined Ultraman as an ancient mythological warrior reawakened in the present day, and the Spark Lence became the visual centerpiece of that reinvention.

Both devices light up and play voice samples — transformation sequences and special-attack cries — when you press the button. Each comes with a 60th anniversary "chronicle visual sheet" and ships in commemorative packaging.

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Why These Two Items, Together

The choice of the original Beta Capsule paired with Tiga's Spark Lence isn't random. It's generational marketing.

The original Ultraman aired when today's 60- and 70-year-olds were children. The Hayata transformation pose — capsule raised overhead — was something every Japanese kid mimicked in playgrounds. It became part of the country's pop-culture muscle memory.

Ultraman Tiga, by contrast, aired in 1996. It was the formative Ultraman for Japanese viewers who are now in their 30s and 40s. Tiga was the first "Heisei Ultraman" and marked the franchise's pivot from being purely kids' entertainment to something families could watch together — heavier on SF concepts and dramatic storytelling.

So when Bandai pairs these two devices in the same anniversary release, the implicit pitch is clear: buy one for yourself and one for your dad (or vice versa). One device for the generation that watched the original; one for their children who watched Tiga thirty years later. It's the kind of nostalgia stacking that Japan's long-running franchises do better than almost anyone.

Ultraman Is Genuinely Becoming a Global Phenomenon

If you've casually wondered "is Ultraman actually known outside Japan?" — the answer in 2026 is different from what it would have been five years ago.

In June 2024, Netflix released Ultraman: Rising, an animated feature in which a baseball star named Ken Sato inherits the Ultraman legacy. It cracked Netflix's global top rankings and pulled in audiences who had never engaged with the franchise before. North American awareness of Ultraman jumped sharply in its wake.

Tsuburaya Productions, the studio behind the franchise, capitalized on the moment. In autumn 2025, the company brought Ultraman LIVE Presented by Bandai Namco to the American Dream mall in New Jersey for a two-weekend stage show run. New York's Japan Society hosted exclusive screenings and meet-and-greets. There was even a tie-up menu with the Kyuramen ramen chain. Some media outlets called it an "East Coast takeover," and they weren't really exaggerating.

In China, the 60th anniversary has been treated as a major cultural event. A themed exhibition launched in Shanghai. Tsuburaya president Masayuki Nagatake told China's CGTN that the company's decades-long partnership with Chinese collaborators reflects Ultraman's role as a symbol of Japan-China cultural exchange, built around the franchise's themes of "courage, hope and kindness."

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Can Overseas Fans Actually Buy These?

The SUPER BEST line is technically a "children's toy" DX line, marketed primarily through Japanese mass retailers and toy stores. Bandai's official site explicitly notes that overseas distribution methods vary by region — meaning there's no guaranteed global retail rollout for these specific items.

The good news for collectors abroad: Bandai's high-end adult collector brand, TAMASHII NATIONS, has been pushing aggressively into the US market. There's a flagship TAMASHII NATIONS STORE NEW YORK, and the brand has already announced a stack of 60th anniversary commemorative figures aimed at international buyers — including the S.H.Figuarts (SHINKOCCHOU SEIHOU) ULTRAMAN 60th Anniversary Edition, an Alien Baltan 60th Anniversary Edition, and a Zetton 60th Anniversary Edition.

So the path looks like this: if you want premium adult collector pieces, Tamashii Nations is increasingly available in person and online overseas. If you specifically want the SUPER BEST Beta Capsule or Spark Lence — the more affordable DX toy versions — you'll likely need to use Japanese proxy services, or hobby importers like Kappa Hobby and Japan Figure that ship Bandai goods internationally.

"Transformation Items" Are a Genre Almost Unique to Japan

It's worth stepping back and noticing how unusual this product category actually is.

Western superheroes mostly transform without a device. Superman changes clothes. Spider-Man pulls on a mask. Batman just changes outfits. The vast majority of Marvel and DC heroes don't need a physical "switch" to activate their powers.

Japanese tokusatsu, by contrast, is built around the henshin item — the transformation device. Ultraman's Beta Capsule. Kamen Rider's belt. Super Sentai's morphers. Kids watch the show, mimic the pose, beg their parents for the toy, and then — twenty or thirty years later — buy the high-end reissue to make up for the one they couldn't afford as a child.

Bandai's strategy of "selling the same nostalgia object again, thirty years later, with better tech inside" is something Japan's tokusatsu industry has perfected. The SUPER BEST line is exactly that strategy in action.

A quick personal aside, if you'll indulge me. The first "transformation set" I ever owned wasn't Ultraman at all — it was Perman, the red-caped flying hero from Fujiko F. Fujio's 1967 manga and anime. A cape, a "P" badge, and a slightly unremarkable little helmet. An aunt gave it to me as a kid. The pose is different from Ultraman's, sure, but the experience — putting something on and pretending to transform — was identical. At some point, every Japanese parent buys their kid a henshin set. The kid runs around the house in it. Eventually they outgrow it. And then, thirty years later, Bandai re-releases a different henshin device that the kid couldn't afford back then, and the adult that kid grew into ends up buying it anyway. It's a small thing, but it says something about how widely Japanese tokusatsu and anime have distributed the "transformation experience" to children — and how long they've kept that pipeline running as an actual product business.

Part of a Bigger 60th Anniversary Push

These two products are one piece of Tsuburaya's broader Ultraman Series 60th Anniversary Project, running from July 2025 through early 2028 — roughly two and a half years of programming. The project umbrella covers a new 60th anniversary TV series, live stage shows, digital content, a globally released smartphone game, and a constant drumbeat of merchandise drops.

The core message of the anniversary is "with U" — a wordplay covering both "with You" and "with Ultraman." There's an active social campaign asking fans worldwide to share memories under the hashtag #MyUltramanMemory.

The Beta Capsule and Spark Lence aren't the centerpiece of all this. But pairing the founding device of the franchise with the device that revived it thirty years later, in the same anniversary box, is a small symbolic gesture about what the 60th is really commemorating.

What's it like in your country?

Did you grow up watching Ultraman? Or did Ultraman: Rising on Netflix introduce you to the franchise? In your country, how easy is it to actually find 60th anniversary merchandise — are Tamashii Nations products on local shelves, or do you have to import everything? Drop a comment.