One 2018 Goal Done! Figures In Hand!

Last year, I hit my goals hard early in the year. And throughout the year. And at the end of the year.

This year, I'm trying to not be lazy, and be as successful as 2017 in reaching my goals. But last year, several of my goals could be knocked out pretty quickly; this year, it's not so easy. That's fine - I designed a lot of it that way.

My New Year's vacation wasn't very pleasant thanks to a cold and more importantly an infection, but all the home-time means that I could work on my to-do list.

While the to-do list isn't completely finished, I've verified my Japanese MLBer and NPB Foreigner lists. And I've even been keeping it updated with the most-recent signings (tentatively, of course - there's no guarantee even Shohei Ohtani will ever play an MLB game until they actually step on the field). 

I also spent an afternoon updating my MLB and MiLB type collection lists as accurately as possible from Trading Card Database's listings.

That's all good, of course, but most of my goals focus on milestones in my collections. And one area that is seriously lacking is  figurines for my player collections. I have 32 player collections, and I started the year with 14 figures - less than half. Okay, Geoff Geary has no figurine and probably never will. But it's still less than half.

So one of my goals for this year was to obtain three figures. And if you read the title of this post, you'll know I've met that goal.

 Yeah. I stole these images from eBay. But these are the auctions I got, so whatever. I got both of these figures on New Year's Day, kicking off the year with a bang. The Altuve is an Import Dragon figure, while King Felix is a McFarlane.

 I've picked up a few MLB figures around Japan. A few fit into my type collection (yes, SLUs and McFarlanes are in my type collection), while others are just fun novelties. But I found an Albert Pujols bobblehead at an anime shop in Osaka, and a local secondhand shop is where I found my Bobby Cox bobblehead. I've also been keeping my eyes on Yahoo! Japan Auctions lately, looking for cheap figures. And timing was right that I could pick up this Tom Glavine SLU at a decent price to finish off my goal. The auction was won back on the fourth, but I received it earlier this week.

While we're talking about figures, this SLU pair was found at a secondhand shop that focuses on anime merchandise. I didn't really need a Jeter/Ichiro figure, and this package is big, but it's a cool figure and will eventually look nice sitting displayed on a shelf... if I ever have a shelf for it to be displayed on. And I have to figure out how to get all this stuff I'm collecting in Japan... home. (The Altuve and Hernandez figures were sent to my mom's house in the US.)

Can You Feel the Force?

There's a pun in that title. And no, it's not quite as obvious as you might think.

As Zippy Zappy and I were heading back to the train station, we stopped at a convenience store for some drinks for his ride home. I wasn't planning on buying anything, but then I saw these:

 Star Wars coffee cans with plastic lids! There's C-3PO, R2-D2, Yoda, Darth Vader, Boba Fett, and a stormtrooper!

 Those plastic domes pop off the can so you can drink the coffee (I haven't tried it yet, by the way), but they also hold a secret.

Hidden inside each dome is a tiny figurine! I didn't want to take them out of their plastic wrappers, so I just pulled out Mr. Gold Robot here so you could see what it looks like. It's pretty small, about as tall as those old 7-11 Slurpee baseball discs I used to get as a kid. (Mmm. Slurpees.)

As you can see, I grabbed all six types, because I've learned that if you wait to buy any promotional item, it might be completely sold out by the very next day. There's a small paper insert with images of all six figurines;

There's not much detail to them - better than a 3D printer, but they're just molded plastic. I'm not complaining, though - unless the coffee sucks.

Until next time...

Fuchiko's Back to Hang Around Some More

I had a successful day at the UFO Catcher on Wednesday, coming back with six more Fuchikos after lunch! Some of these are the same style I already have, but the more, the merrier, right?

Panty shot unintentional. It's kind of hard to get my iPhone to focus properly on these.

Another bikini version. I think this is a repeat.

This, too, is probably my second one. She hangs by her twin tails (double pony tail).

See what I mean about focus? This yellow Fuchiko sits facing the inside of the glass instead of the outside.

Go Japan! Though I think I have this one already, too.

Last but not least, I finally got this green lady to balance properly on the rim of the glass. The empty glass I had been using for the other Fuchiko figures wasn't wide enough, so I put her on my Jack and Coke. Luckily she never tried swimming!

This is probably the end of Fuchiko for a while. I might try to get something else next time!

Star Wars Choco Eggs!

 There are a ton of movie tie-ins here in Japan for the new Star Wars film. American collectors usually have access to big things: action figures and toys, for example. But in a nation where space is seriously limited, collectors turn to smaller things.

[Okay, so the anime figurine business is pretty big here. And there are some giant stuffed toys to be won from the UFO catcher games. But for the everyday collector or just casual fan, things need to be small.]

You can find some interesting Star Wars things everywhere you look. Many are functional, like pencil cases, bags, smart phone accessories, clothing, and stuffed toys (they can be pillows too, right?). And there are plenty of plush toys that can be attached to bags. For true collectors, there are the Bikkuriman stickers, and what you see above.

Furuta is a chocolate company that frequently issues series of tiny figurines sold inside chocolate eggs. They are called, unsurprisingly, "Choco Eggs".  I decided to go after a set of these little figures full-out, and found a good deal on two boxes of 10 eggs each. That's 20 total figures, plus a few more I had bought before this.

 Inside the box is exactly what you'd expect: a foil-wrapped chocolate in the shape and about the same size as a large egg.

 Break open the chocolate and there's a small plastic capsule inside. The chocolate egg itself is white on the inside, but I don't know if it's "white chocolate" or just white milk chocolate. It doesn't taste like white chocolate. Anyway..

 Opening the plastic capsule gives you an unassembled figurine plus a small checklist.

 The figure above is Boba Fett!

 Can you guess who this is? You can see part of the checklist here, though it's all in Japanese.

 Han Solo!

 And here's Luke!

 And a Storm Trooper!

There are a total of 14 figures in the series, which appears to be the norm for Furuta's Choco Eggs. One figure is a secret, which is also rare.

 I now have the full set, though I was one figure short with the two boxes. Darth Maul was picked up off of Yahoo Auctions. So yes, I did get one of the secret figurines.

 The Millennium Falcon is the secret figure, which you see in the front.

 I love these figurines. They're tiny but detailed enough to be interesting. And they aren't too hard to find!

Most Choco Egg series lately have been Disney figures - soon after Star Wars sold out, the sixth Disney figure set was released. I found a bunch of figures at a thrift shop a couple weeks ago but I still haven't looked at them to see exactly what I have... and I have to find a list to see everything that's available.

FYI, individual eggs cost about 180 yen each with tax. I don't know of any current series being sold in stores, because the Disney eggs sold out very fast. But when they're on sale, you can find them at snack shops, convenience stores, and supermarkets.

A Bevy of Starting Lineups

It never rains, but what it pours.

Last year, I managed to find only one figure to add to my collection: an Albert Pujols bobblehead I found at a small shop in Osaka. I still have a dozen-plus more figurines on my want list for my player collections, but I've been avoiding eBay due to high shipping fees. Sunday, I picked up four Starting Lineup figures to go along with the two Topps ... things ... that I got on New Year's Day.

This Timeless Legends figure is in a virtually-destroyed box, and I didn't realize it but the card is damaged too. I'm a little disappointed in myself for actually buying this - I should have just left it behind. But I can upgrade in the future and maybe add more from the set, too.

Hasbro got rid of the Kenner name in 2000, so figures from 2000 and 2001 were issued under the Hasbro name. Also in 2001, the toy company improved their figure quality in a bid to match MacFarlane. Note the "Bigger Figures" and "More Realism" tag near the top. These do look much better than the figures of the late '80s and 1990s, but it wouldn't be enough. 2001 was the last year for Starting Lineup.

Barry Bonds heads into my player collection.

Here are two more 2001 figures. The Pokey Reese is from the regular series, while Jorge Posada was in the Extended Series.

My final figure is this 2000 Scott Williamson from the Extended Series. You can see the difference in quality and size here. The packaging is all the same size.

These three figures are entered into my type collection. 

The Comaneci figure was bought at that thrift shop where I got the two jerseys I posted about yesterday. They had a couple baseball bobbleheads and figures too, but those were overpriced and out of my budget anyway.

The four baseball figures were part of a Yahoo Auctions group of purchases from one seller. Combined with shipping, I think I spent under 1000 yen (less than $10)! And these figures are in really good shape.

Who knows? Maybe this will be a lucky year and I'll be able to add several figures to my collection!

A Japanese Baseball Figurine for McFarlane Fans

I've picked up a few bobbleheads and other action figures of baseball players while living here in Japan. Some have been MLB issues, and others NPB. This is my first Gamemakers figure.

I have a few McFarlanes in the US, and I have a Tony Gwynn figure that I bought a few months ago here in Japan. And McFarlane makes great toys. But this is Japan, a country whose economy is partly based on the sale of high-quality figures. So when the Chiba Lotte Marines want to sell figurines in their store, they're going to do things at least as good as McFarlane does.

The attention to detail is remarkable, and this may be more realistic than McFarlanes! It's limited to 1500 figures, and inside there's a nice base for Nishioka to stand on. It's a pretty nice figurine that'll eventually need a nice home in which to be displayed!

Disney Film Collection Gachapon Figurines

Last year, a six-series set of Disney animated film figurines was released and distributed through the gacha-gacha vending machines. Each figurine comes with a "film cell" frame. With seven figures in each of the six series, there are 42 total figurines to collect. As of this writing, I am missing only one - Alice from Alice in Wonderland, from the third series. I thought I had a full set but I might be mistaken as I can't seem to find Alice.

I won't be able to show them all to you assembled, because for now I'm keeping them inside their packages. But each figurine comes with a long slip of paper that, among other things, advertises all the different versions in that series. So you can see what they look like by enlarging the photos below. Note that if you right-click on an image and open it in a new tab, you can usually zoom in even closer than just clicking on the image normally.

I've been on vacation for the past week, so this and all the other posts from the past 9 or so days were all written at once! Marathon post writing is exhausting...

Cool Pickups. No Cards.

I've been in Japan over two years now, and while I had arrived only a couple months before this video came out, I'd already heard many of these already.

Two years later, it's even funnier.

Before coming to Japan, I tried to include a funny video or photo in many of my posts, and now I'm going to try to do that again to some of my offerings. Hopefully I haven't used any of them before - I have some left from 2011 that I might not have posted.

I don't have any cards for today's post. Instead, I thought I'd share some of the other goodies I added to my collection this evening. You see, I love pop culture. In America I kept up with (though not necessarily followed) trends in music and movies, even fashion. It's a by-product of a love of entertainment and teaching anyone over the age of 12.

Since coming to Japan, I haven't been exposed to most of what's going on in the States, but I've absorbed some of the Japanese popular culture and I'm certainly aware of many of the popular movies and music that's come out. American movies are pretty popular here, and finding American-based items in Japan isn't hard. Some of it is pretty exclusive to Japan, too!

Most of what I grab comes from the capsule toy machines or crane games (UFO Catchers). Everything else is seriously overpriced. But two things I found today were a real bargain!

I'm not sure what I have from Ghostbusters. I think I used to have an ECTO-1 Hot Wheels car but who knows where that is now. As you can see I picked up a keychain for a little more than $1. I think this might have been a pricing error, because the others were a few dollars each, but I took advantage of the deal.

Just as cheap, and again possibly mis-priced, these key covers from South Park were a pretty cool find. I'd like to see South Park gachapon (capsule machine) toys, but for now Cartman and Kenny will have to do.

By the way, neither of these products appear to be Japanese exclusives.

Speaking of gachapon, I spent 300 yen getting a couple new toys.

At 100 yen, I couldn't resist this zombie. There were several different styles, and all looked pretty neat. I think the cheerleader zombie was based off Britney Spears.

This Bart Simpson head was 200 yen, but I was willing to pay the extra price. I really like the Simpsons, but I would prefer that Futurama and Family Guy have gachapon figures, as I like those shows more.

The Simpsons gachapon came with a paper (most gachagacha do) which shows the full set. I think I'd be happy with any of the Simpsons, though the Homer might be my favorite.

That's it for today's "haul" so stay tuned for something tomorrow!

A Trio of Nagashima Figurines!

 I've seen a bunch of Epoch figurines from around 2007 on sale at a couple of the local Mint stores. I picked up one from each series a while back, but still haven't uploaded those photos. These, on the other hand, got uploaded in my latest batch.

These three are all Shigeo Nagashima figurines. There are three poses available, but there are variations. I'll explain.

 The first figurine I opened of these three boxes is Nagashima giving a speech. I've seen this "image" used on cards before. This is the one I wanted the most, so I was satisfied with my first box!

 The second box contained the exact same figurine. Doh!

 The third figurine box had Nagashima kneeling with his bat. This one has an orange base. He's in his home jersey here too.

The third figure is tough to see on the box, but Nagashima has finished his swing and his helmet is flying off. I'll have pictures of that eventually, too, because the first box I bought a couple months ago contained that figure. And again, that piece has a home jersey.

I mentioned variations. There are eight different figures:

• three "Home" versions.
• two "Visitor" versions. I haven't seen any of these yet.
• three "secret" versions. I believe the neon orange bases are the secret versions, though I haven't done any research to check. But that does mean I have a variation!

I might buy a whole case of these because they're so cheap...