HobbyLink Japan Anime Figure & Gunpla Catalog Scraper

Extract product catalog data from HobbyLink Japan (hlj.com) — the world's largest English-language Japanese hobby retailer. Scrape Gunpla model kits, anime PVC figures, scale models, and other Japanese hobby products including prices in JPY, release dates, pre-order status, JAN barcodes, manufacturer, series, and image URLs.

What it does

This actor crawls HLJ's search results pages and individual product detail pages, extracting structured data from the embedded JSON-LD and product detail tables. It supports four operating modes to cover different data collection workflows:

• New releases — the latest upcoming products sorted by newest first
• Pre-order status — all currently open pre-orders across the full catalog
• Category backfill — full walk of one or more categories (Gundam, Figures, Scale Models, etc.)
• SKU IDs — targeted fetch of specific HLJ item codes you already know

Example use cases:

• Track new Gundam kit announcements and pre-order openings for collector communities
• Monitor price and availability changes on anime figure pre-orders for arbitrage signals
• Build a searchable database of the HLJ catalog for a price comparison or fan site
• Bulk-refresh availability status on a list of tracked SKUs

Input

Field	Type	Description
mode	String	Scraping mode: new_releases_weekly, preorder_status, category_backfill, or sku_ids
categories	Array	Category names for category_backfill mode (e.g. ["Gundam", "Figures"]). Empty = all categories.
sku_ids	Array	HLJ item codes for sku_ids mode (e.g. ["BANH844555", "GSCA88920"])
maxItems	Integer	Maximum number of product records to extract. Use 0 for unlimited.

Example input — new releases:

{
  "mode": "new_releases_weekly",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example input — Gundam category backfill:

{
  "mode": "category_backfill",
  "categories": ["Gundam"],
  "maxItems": 500
}

Example input — specific SKUs:

{
  "mode": "sku_ids",
  "sku_ids": ["BANH844555", "GSCA89120"],
  "maxItems": 10
}

Output

Each record in the dataset represents one HLJ product:

Field	Description
hlj_id	HLJ item code (e.g. BANH844555) — unique product identifier
product_name_en	Full English product name as listed on HLJ (includes scale prefix, e.g. "1/144 HGAW Gundam Ashtaron")
product_name_jp	Japanese product name (null in current build — EN locale only)
manufacturer	Brand name (Bandai, Good Smile Company, Kotobukiya, Megahouse, etc.)
series	Franchise or series (Gundam X, Demon Slayer, Re:Zero, etc.)
scale	Scale notation (1/144, 1/100, 1/8, etc.) — null for non-scale items
category	HLJ primary category (Gundam, Figures, Scale Models, etc.)
subcategory	HLJ sub-category / item type (High Grade Kits, Completed Models, etc.)
release_status	Normalized status: in_stock, pre_order, backorder, discontinued, sold_out
release_date	Release date string as shown on HLJ (YYYY/MM/DD format)
jp_release_date	JP street date when distinct from release_date (null when same)
international_release_date	International release date when distinct (null when same)
price_jpy	Price in Japanese Yen
price_usd	Price in USD (null — HLJ's EN site shows JPY only; USD toggle requires session cookie)
sale_price_usd	Sale/discounted USD price (null if not on sale)
msrp_jpy	Manufacturer suggested retail price in JPY (same as price_jpy for most items)
quantity_available	Units in stock (null when not displayed)
is_exclusive	True when item is marked as HLJ exclusive or event exclusive
is_first_release	True when item is a first-edition release with bonus content
material	Primary material (null — not consistently shown in HTML)
jan_barcode	JAN / EAN-13 barcode (from JSON-LD gtin13 or product details list)
image_urls	Comma-separated list of full-resolution product image URLs
description	Product description from meta tag
hlj_url	Canonical HLJ product page URL
manufacturer_url	HLJ search URL filtered to this manufacturer's products

Example output record:

{
  "hlj_id": "BANH844555",
  "product_name_en": "1/144 HGAW Gundam Ashtaron",
  "product_name_jp": null,
  "manufacturer": "Bandai",
  "series": "Gundam X",
  "scale": "1/144",
  "category": "Gundam",
  "subcategory": "High Grade Kits",
  "release_status": "pre_order",
  "release_date": "2026/11/30",
  "jp_release_date": null,
  "international_release_date": null,
  "price_jpy": 3600,
  "price_usd": null,
  "sale_price_usd": null,
  "msrp_jpy": 3600,
  "quantity_available": null,
  "is_exclusive": false,
  "is_first_release": false,
  "material": null,
  "jan_barcode": "4580886844555",
  "image_urls": "https://www.hlj.com/productimages/ban/banh844555_0.jpg,https://www.hlj.com/productimages/ban/banh844555_2.jpg",
  "description": "This is a posable, high-grade or better injection-plastic kit of an item from the Gundam universe.",
  "hlj_url": "https://www.hlj.com/1-144-scale-hgaw-gundam-ashtaron-banh844555",
  "manufacturer_url": "https://www.hlj.com/search/?q=*&Manufacturer=Bandai"
}

Notes

• HLJ's catalog spans Gunpla (Gundam model kits), anime PVC figures, action figures, scale models, trains, and more. The category and subcategory fields map directly to HLJ's own classification system.
• Pre-order items on HLJ often sell out within days or hours of announcement. Run in new_releases_weekly mode daily or weekly to catch new pre-order openings.
• The price_jpy is the authoritative price from JSON-LD embedded data. HLJ does not display USD prices on individual product pages without a currency-switching session cookie.
• jan_barcode (JAN = Japanese Article Number, equivalent to EAN-13) can be used to cross-reference products with other hobby databases, manufacturer databases, and price trackers.
• For large backfills (full catalog), set maxItems: 0 and expect thousands of records across multiple pages per category.