40-year-old Toriyama illustration unearthed showing unpublished adventure of Goku and Bulma

As fans of ‘Dragon Ball’ will remember, the early days of Goku followed the “road movie” style through a journey with Bulma in search of the Dragon Balls. An era that was as charismatic as it was endearing, leaving us with unforgettable moments and vehicle designs in the purest Toriyama style. This is evidenced by this illustration that Shueisha recovered from the archives of Akira Toriyama himself, an almost 40-year-old artwork in which we see Bulma at the wheel of a peculiar retro-style car with Goku and Oolong, with a face of circumstance due to the speed at which the young adventurer circulates.

A rare Dragon Ball picture from the 80s

So, this image shared by the official ‘Dragon Ball’ website comes from a 1986 issue of Weekly Shonen Jump, the magazine that originally published Akira Toriyama’s series. As described on the site, it is a “road movie” style scene of Bulma at the wheel of a retro-style minicar, the type of vehicles that appeared in the early arcs of the series, including the fantastic glass-domed Capsule Corporation motorcycle.

Full screen

And besides the fact that Goku quickly learns to use his Flying Nimbus to travel long distances, Bulma has always been there to help her friends with her gadgets and gizmos, whether in the form of houses or portable houses, or all kinds of land, air, or underwater vehicles, or even hybrids. Remember also that she designed the time machine that brought her son Trunks from the future to the present to defeat Mecha Frieza and bring Goku a medicine to cure his fatal heart disease.

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