About five years ago, a smartphone game was released in Japan called Tsum Tsum. Little, ball-shaped Disney characters fall from the top screen, and by connecting chains of them together, you can clear them off, earning points and coins.
The game's backstory is that the Tsum Tsum toys fell off the shelf and you have to clear them off to open the store. Around the same time as the game's release, small plush toys that the game represents started hitting actual Disney shelves. The toys and the game are both very popular here and in other countries; a global version of Tsum Tsum was released a few years ago and a short-lived Marvel Tsum Tsum spin-off game ended a few months ago.
To be honest, the Marvel game took the same basic premise but changed a lot of the gameplay, adding missions of some kind. I never really understood exactly what that was supposed to be, and the game was much more difficult to play overall as the tsums were smaller and the play area was smaller as well. I'm not surprised it's gone.
Anyway, Disney Tsum Tsum remains highly popular, and in Japan there is a huge range of merchandise using the characters. You can even buy cookware with Tsum Tsums on it!
I play the original Japanese game - I've been playing since almost the beginning. And the card collector in me can't help but be interested in these collectible stickers. I've discovered three series so far, and I believe this is the first.
This particular set has no card numbers, where the other two series I'm aware of do have numbers. In fact, the stickers have no copyright information or other details at all, other than the Tsum Tsum logo. They were sold in taba packs, with two stickers per pack, and I am pretty sure they were made by Ensky. Ensky is the manufacturer of several non-sport products including stickers like these and regular trading cards, for everything from Disney to AKB48.
The fronts have color artwork of Tsum Tsum characters, with most of them being from early characters in the Tsum Tsum game. There are some characters that didn't make it into the game until much later. Given the timing of the other two series, I'm guessing this was released in 2014 or 2015. If this is actually a later series, it would have been released in 2016. Backs have gray scale versions of the front images.
Because there are no card numbers and I didn't have any information from the taba pack, I can't be certain about the set specifics. I have 45 different stickers, below, which might be a full set. Or there could be 60. Or 46. Who knows?
I didn't see any stickers from Collection 2 in this lot, and I'm pretty sure Collection 1 is also entirely unique. It's hard to tell for sure without spending a few hours checking, as many images are similar. But I believe this to be "Collection 0".
So, yes, here are the scans for my "full" set of Disney Tsum Tsum Seal Collection stickers.
I had no idea what Tsum Tsum was, but I have a tote bag of it that came as a freebie with milk!
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of freebies here too, as well as actual merchandise in shops. Most Japanese people know what Tsum Tsum is, even if they don't play the game or have any of the stuff.
DeleteI'm embarrassed to admit this... but I own 10 to 15 Tsum Tsums (mostly Star Wars). My ex is addicted to collecting them and she buys them for me from time to time.
ReplyDeleteI have a few little plastic tsums I got from crane games, and I have a tsum tsum key chain right now. There are a few other little things around my house, I'm sure, but I don't have any actual tsums.
DeleteThere's nothing wrong with enjoying cuteness, or Disney. They probably stack better than Star Wars figures, too.