The All Star Collection, and how its numbering works

Search for a Sanei plush and you will hit product names like PP16 Pikachu or KP01 Kirby. Those prefixes are not decoration. They are the spine of how the whole catalog is organised, and once you can read them, finding a specific figure gets considerably easier.

What the prefixes mean

PP is the Pokemon line, short for Pocket Monsters. Numbering runs roughly in release order, so a low number means an early release.
KP covers Kirby figures from the Adventure series, including the copy ability variants.
AC is used across the Super Mario range, mostly for the wider roster beyond the lead characters.
Other series carry their own short prefixes, such as STH for Sonic the Hedgehog and FP for the Fire Emblem figures.

Why the code beats the name

Character names are ambiguous in this catalog. Pikachu has been produced at several sizes across several years, with small revisions to the face between runs. A listing that says Pikachu Plush tells you almost nothing. A listing that says PP16 tells you precisely which figure is in the box.

This matters most when you are filling a gap in a set, or when you already own a figure and want the same run for a matching pair. It matters not at all if you just want a soft Pikachu, in which case any of them will do the job.

How the line is produced

Sanei Boeki works under licence from the rights holders of each series. That arrangement is why the figures track the official character art so closely: the designs go through approval against the same reference sheets the games use. It also explains why the lineup rotates. Licences run for terms, and when a term lapses the figures stop being made until it is renewed.

The practical consequence for a buyer is that availability is genuinely unpredictable. A character can be everywhere for two years, vanish, and reappear four years later in a slightly revised form. Nothing about a figure being hard to find today means it will stay that way.

Waves and reissues

New characters arrive in waves rather than continuously, usually pegged to a game release or an anniversary. Reissues of popular figures are common and are not marketed as reissues, so the only way to tell a 2016 run from a 2023 run is the code and, sometimes, small differences in the tag design.

Collectors track this closely. Casual buyers do not need to, with one exception: if you are buying two figures intended to sit together, order them at the same time from the same seller. Mixing runs is where mismatched fabric shades show up.

What is not in the line

The All Star Collection is standard sized shelf plush. Sanei also produces oversized pieces, cushions and keychain sized figures under separate naming, and those are not built to the same scale conventions. If a listing mentions a size in centimetres well outside the usual range, it is probably from one of those other ranges rather than the main collection.