This candy comes with eye candy too.
Every year, I seem to come across one or two products that have a tie-in with some idol group. I think Baby Star Ramen, the product you see in this post, is responsible for most of them. This bag has a tie-in with what I can only gather is a modeling agency. cent. FORCE has a website, all in Japanese, profiling several attractive women. Their descriptions list television jobs they have or used to have, usually as newscasters or weather persons. So this is quite an interesting tie-in.
Attached to the back is a pack with a single card, similar to Calbee's baseball card distribution method. According to the bag, there are 20 cards in total, and this pack has one random card.
Here's my card. There are two personalities shown, Sachi Takahashi and Sora Nishimori. Glancing at the cent Force website, It looks like Sachi is no longer with the agency.
Sora is, though.
The backs have handwritten messages from the ladies. Or, printed handwritten messages.
Finally, the snacks. If you've never had dried ramen, it's an interesting treat. It's generally soy sauce-flavored, so it's a lightly sweetened and salty crunchy snack, similar to chips with a unique flavor. If you visit Japan or even swing by a Japanese supermarket, you should be able to find ramen snacks pretty cheaply - this tie-in product cost me about $1, I think, but small snack-sized bags can be found here for around 25-30 yen each.
This particular product is long-gone from shelves, but now I'm thinking that it would be neat to have a full set.
I really should hit the Japanese market up in Arlington Heights and see if any oddball snack food/card combinations could be found.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mitsuwa.com/restaurants-shops/
Good luck - I've never seen cards in Japanese markets in SF. But you might have some luck at anime or snack shops there. What I have seen are flavored Kit Kats and a good variety of Hi-Chew.
DeleteNothing like using the ladies to attract guys like us to buy ramen. It works though. If I saw this at my local Japanese market, I'd buy them up. Happy Hump Day!
ReplyDeleteWhat you have to be careful of are snack bags with pictures of ladies that have no cards inside. Unless you just want to keep the bag anyway...
DeleteThose snacks are yummy!! Love the cards too!
ReplyDeleteIf they were a good bit cheaper (let's face it, these ladies aren't exactly superstars) I'd probably chase a full set. Two or three cards per bag probably would have convinced me to go after them all.
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