Mr. Excitable Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 Hi all, I haven't been interested in the non-superhero mates but I had to buy a couple of these when I saw them here for 499 yen in the Toys R Us in Shim-Maebashi, Gunma, Japan. Blind-packed SFII and Darkstalkers (or as it's called here: Vampire Savior) Minimates. My photo's leave a little to be desired so I'll tell you as much as I can about them This is the front and back of the box. It's the familiar art-work but features the Vampire Savior logo instead of the Darkstalkers one. The Art Asylum and Diamond logos are bottom right. The little blue star says something along the lines of "14 to collect" I guess. My Japanese is not superb, but I'm fairly sure that's what is says. This is less exciting and very blurry (sorry!). There's a bar-code, recycling info, a recommendation that it's for over 12's and the supplier/importers name and details. It's a company called Blister Direct (webpage is www.blisterdirect.com ). If you go there you can find further details in the Diamond Select section. Amongst other things you can see that they come in a case of 24 boxes. Again, very blurry, sorry! This is the side of the box and shows 7 different characters. I'll try to give you all their Japanese names and their ratios (yes, some are short-packed). Chun Li 1/6 Ryuu 1/6 Don't know his name and can't read the kanji - has an ginger top-knot 1/6 Morigan 1/8 Bega (Japanese doesn't have a sound for "v" so Vega becomes Bega) 1/6 Ririsu (In Japanese the "r" sound is somewhere between "l" and "r") 1/24 Demitori 1/6 So that's 7 characters, but 14 to collect. Each character is also available in their Player 2 outfits. This has been confirmed by the Blister Direct site. And here's the first of the figures I got. Bega in his Player 2 outfit. He comes with a purple energy blast ball. It's Demitori in his Player 2 outfit, looking not unlike an angry Bilbo Baggins. He comes with an orange energy blast thingy. Danny, feel free to use any of this info or these photo's on your site. Also, feel free to give me some tips to help me take less sucky photos. Hope you all like the info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke314pi Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 Thanks for the pics! I am glad to see these are making their way into other markets! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jatta Pake Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 Wow! Big news. We now know why we haven't seen any new Minimates for awhile. AA and DST have been working to enter the Japanese market. Hopefully we will have some new fans join the addiction soon. "Konichiwa! Hajime mashite!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBT! Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 Nice find, and probably a very good market for minimates I assume if it's successfull then we'll see different brands of mini done this way? oh and WElcome aboard mr E. T. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdyCarter Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 Oh my! I've got to get me some of these! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boyd Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 I'm with Ady - those look pretty neat, and would look better in my collection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nestlé Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 Also, note that those 2 are exclusives here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdyCarter Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 BTW, In Japan Vega is the name for M. Bison before anyone gets excited Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shanester Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 Wow, very cool. THANKS for hooking us up Mr. E. You rock! Kudos to AA/DST as well. Great marketing victory, I would say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdyCarter Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 They're marketed as "Street Fighter - MiniMates Round 1:" Each box holds 24. Chun Li 1/6 Ryu 1/6 Akuma 1/6 Morigan 1/8 M.Bison 1/6 Lillith 1/24 Demitri 1/6 So the chase is still a chase Official retail price is 600Yen (inc tax) which is around $5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fujis Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 Thanks for the news, Mr. Excitable! I hope these do well in Japan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 Wow wow wow! This is exactly the sort of thing needed to bring Minimates up in other countries. Massive kudos to them for doing that. Konishiwa Mr Excitable he said Del Boy style! Great detective work my friend, I bet you were amazed seeing those. "OMG Minimates, here!" I'm sure if you picked up a few for people they'd appreciate it, certainly the packaging completists among us. I'll PM you myself in a mo Finally, the key with taking non-blurry pics is to make sure the camera is a sufficient distance away. Stuff comes out in such high resolution these days that you don't need to be close to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdyCarter Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 Lik Sang Huzzah a retailer! With awesomely cheap shipping, yays! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBT! Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 Lik Sang Huzzah a retailer! With awesomely cheap shipping, yays! Lik San have been around forever so are trust worthy too Just dont ask how I know T. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Excitable Posted July 6, 2006 Author Share Posted July 6, 2006 Glad you're excited! I was really surprised and happy to see them. As for other minimates being released here... I wouldn't hold your breath. Super-hero stuff is a very niche market here, so it may not be worth their while to release them. Speed Racer might get a release, but it's not that popular either. BSG might be the one to watch. There are already some BSG ship models on sale in blind-boxes, so there is a market. I'm just not sure how big it is. Lik Sang is a great retailer and they have excellent shipping too. I'm going to buy some of these for some people however, so if you want some at cost + shipping please let me know how many you want and where you live. So far I have: Danny - 6 boxes Fujis - 2 boxes Luke314pi - 2 boxes Any more for any more? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdyCarter Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 Im broke and have some store credit with Lik Sang so I'llhave to pass for now and use my LK pennies. Cheers anyways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amazing.JL Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 Great find Mr. E. I may be very interested in a couple, will think about it tonight. I need more variant packaging! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Excitable Posted July 6, 2006 Author Share Posted July 6, 2006 Im broke and have some store credit with Lik Sang so I'llhave to pass for now and use my LK pennies. Cheers anyways. No prob, use the LK pennies, it makes sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdyCarter Posted July 7, 2006 Share Posted July 7, 2006 16.73 GBP for 6 shipped from LiK Sang Thats cheaper than I pay for 3 two packs in this country. How the frack are they that cheap?!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JIrish780 Posted July 7, 2006 Share Posted July 7, 2006 Now that is a good sign, that can only help the overall success of the Street Fighter line as a whole. Great news! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Excitable Posted July 7, 2006 Author Share Posted July 7, 2006 16.73 GBP for 6 shipped from LiK Sang Thats cheaper than I pay for 3 two packs in this country. How the frack are they that cheap?!? Generally it's because we Brits get shafted on anything imported. At 500 yen (approx. $5 US) these probably seem expensive to Americans. At 500 yen (approx. £2.50) these are pretty cheap to us. Plus, Asian postage costs are generally pretty low. Of course, you'd have to buy a lot of these to get the whole set! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyc Posted July 7, 2006 Share Posted July 7, 2006 Hmm.... wonder if Marvel/DC Kubricks would prevent Marvel/DC mate blind packing for the Japanese market... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcastick Posted July 7, 2006 Share Posted July 7, 2006 Wow....I just REALLY Like the box!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Excitable Posted July 7, 2006 Author Share Posted July 7, 2006 Hmm.... wonder if Marvel/DC Kubricks would prevent Marvel/DC mate blind packing for the Japanese market... It would depend on the specific contract that Marvel and Medicom have. I would imagine not, as there's some blind packed Marvel stuff available here already. However, I think any Marvel mini-figure itch that the Japanese public has, may have already been scratched by the Kubricks. I imagine that if anyone thought Marvel Minimates would sell here, they would have already released them. As for DC, the awareness of DC characters is far lower than Marvel's so Batman and Superman would probably be the only characters they might be interested in. If Art Asylum released a Batman Begins or Superman Returns wave, Japan would probably be interested, but probably not otherwise. Generally super-hero stuff doesn't go well over here. The Batman waves of Microman have been peg-warming since I arrived last July. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MetalSonic Posted July 7, 2006 Share Posted July 7, 2006 Those are neat I ordered one to see what they look like in person. Say Mr. Excitable are micromen any good? I've been thinking of getting a batman one or one of the superman ones coming out. Too bad the Spiderman one didn't pan out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.