The Force Awakens in Japan; Star Wars toys at Toys R Us in Tokyo

Well, the Force fever has caught up with me.  After viewing countless Facebook posts of Force Awakens commercials, I decided to check out if the people here are as Star Wars crazy as us Americans are.   I'm almost certain that the English and Aussies are, in fact, most of the Imperials speak with a British/Australian accent anyway.  As for Far Easterners... Darth Vader is wearing what looks to be a samurai helmet and the Trade Federation baddies do speak with a Chinglish accent.  In any event, the movie is more than three months away so it wouldn't surprise me if the Japanese are reserving their Star Wars love for later.

 If I recall correctly, for the Phantom Menace, the toys were released only a few weeks before the movie came out.  Flashback to April 1999: Dad, Uncle Jim and I run into a bunch of unopened Phantom Menace figure shipping boxes at Super Walmart in Kissimmee, Florida.  The Kenner boxes were marked "Do not put on floor until two weeks after the X date" (two weeks after the then-present date).  Well, of course we opened them and carried out as many Jar Jar Binks and Darth Mauls we could carry in our arms.  Even the checkout scanners were reading "Do Not Sell" when we tried to pay for the figures. The long line of customers behind us and apathy-toward-her-job attitude of the cashier allowed us to get out of the store with the figures.

This time around it is different; we can see what type of vehicle Rey is flying and the various locales of the movie from the playsets for sale, three months before its release.  This is what I saw today at the Toys R Us's in the Tokyo area.  As demonstrated by Toys R Us, the Japanese are having the Force Awakened after all. 

Rey, Finn, Poe and Kylo Ren displays.

Many of the goods had Hasbro packaging, so I assume they are the same in the States, such as the deluxe figures above.

These sets kick the asses of the sets we had as kids.  We had to use the megaphone piece as a laser gun.

 There were many new Lego sets.

Perfect. Jango's head comes off.

More Lego sets.

New stormtroopers are in the house!

Some really large figures by Hasbro.

Mostly characters from the original trilogy.

Bandai models.  Pretty cool.  Perhaps you can't find these guys in the States.

I'd try getting the Boba Fett helmet, but they are blind-bag packaged.

I think these mini-replica helmets are Japan-only.  I learned a lot about the Force Awakened locales from the Hasbro Micro Machine playsets under the mini-helmets.

I'll get Boba in the near future.

These die-cast figures and vehicles are Japan-only, produced by Tomy.

These guys were around 50 bucks.

Pretty cool line of Star War vehicle drones.

A hodge podge of collectibles.

More cool stuff.

I'll probably get a few die-cast Force Awakened vehicles for my desk.  3 and 3/4 inch figures, the staple of my Star Wars collection as a kid, teen and young adult, were mysteriously absent from the assortment of goods I saw today.  Perhaps they will be released later here?   Regardless, I was pleasantly surprised that the Force is strong with the Japanese.  I can only surmise from what I saw at Toys R Us today that we will get lots of Star Wars promotional items such as Pepsi bottle caps, stickers with candy and gatcha gatcha toys in the future.  I can't wait.  Thanks for the read, and may the Force be with you.

Birthday Gifts;Seacons Part 2; Throughout the Tokyo Area

The family finally returned to Japan. Woo hoo!!! Now I have little buddies to accompany me on tasks like heading to the supermarket and trying to win prizes from the U.F.O. catchers.  Better yet, they brought treasures from Chicago for me as tribute for that special of special days, my birthday.  I'd like to thank my mom, my family and Uncle Jim and Auntie Lil for the wonderful gifts. Thank you to sister for the Hawks shirt, the other Uncle Jim for the Hawks blu-ray and dad for the iTunes card too (I was given these gifts in person in Chicago).  Here is the Chicago booty that was brought back for me:

Just what every winner needs, Zatarain's Cajun meals in a box, Kind bars and Sno Caps!

These glow in the dark lizards will come in handy when the power goes out.

Michael's Gourmet Coffee... Mmmmm... Who needs Starbucks, Caribou, Dunkin Donuts or Hills Brothers!

Every year my family and I are separated on that August day:( 

Anyhoo, I also picked up the rest of the Seacons that I talked about in the last post.

I'll post some pics of Piranacon when I open them up and assemble the dude.

Still shocked my cousin Brandon couldn't remember the Seacons.  Here is the 1988 commercial for them.  Hopefully it'll refresh his mind.

Alright that's it for now.  I'll probably post more Disney World stuff in the next few days.  It was an awesome vacation that I'll be thinking about for the next few months.

Transformers Seacons; Various Stores Throughout Tokyo

Just a quick post here.  Was at the local Aeon department store and happened to stroll by the candy/small toy section.  Lookie what I found. 

SnapTrap!!!

A miniature version of my favorite transformer of all time, Snap Trap!!!  I guess he's called Turtler here.  Snap Trap is the leader of the Seacons, 6 sea-themed Transformers (Decepticons) that combine to form Piranacon.  I got him in the late 1980's and being a huge turtle fan, Snap Trap was my favorite.  Sadly, I think my mom recently disposed of him while preparing the house for the market.  My older cousin didn't even remember the Seacons!  I guess that makes him a fake Transformers fan.

All hail Piranacon!

3 Seacons

3 more Seacons

In any event, Japanese candy stores/departments are now carrying miniature versions of the Seacons now.  From plenty of experience with toys here, I believe that candy sections at supermarkets would be the best place to find the Seacons.  At only 300 yen (about 3 bucks) apiece, the great Piranacon can be yours for under 20 bucks (albeit a miniature version).  Try finding him for that price on eBay! 

Star Wars Visions Exhibition/Gallery; Roppongi Hills; Disney Choco Eggs; Tokyo

We finally made it to the Star Wars Exhibition/Gallery that I talked about here.  I got really lucky on this one.  By chance, people who work at Roppongi Hills got free admission to the Star Wars Exhibition/Gallery on the top of the building, the 52nd Floor.  This special was only for a period of 4 consecutive days and ended today.  We could bring guests too, so I brought my family with me.  Usual admission to the gallery is 1800 yen (15 dollars) for adults and slightly less for kids.  We saved about 60 bucks with this special.  I went on Friday night too with a coworker on my team, being the Star Wars geek that I am.

Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed in the gallery.  They strongly enforced this rule and would approach anyone they suspected of taking a picture.  I was able to snap a few shots in the area before entering the actual gallery.  Here are some shots from the area where we were allowed to take pictures. 

Lord Vader himself.

Close up of Darth Vader.

More Vader.

Lots of stormtroopers.

The kids asked me what the Death Star was when they saw this above their heads.

Those pictures were from Friday night.  Here are the ones from today.  We went up top to the Sky Deck.  Make sure to take a picture fighting the life-sized Darth Vader (you can hold a light saber) if you go up to the Sky Deck.  We got one, but wifey would kill me if I posted it here.  Got this nice shot of Tokyo from the top of my building.

Here's what Mothra destroyed in Godzilla vs. the Thing, the Tokyo Tower.

Important reminder before entering the gallery.  Strangely, it was in slightly incorrect English.  You would think LFL would have approval rights over signs.

As stated earlier, we couldn't take pictures.  If we could, I'd post a million here.  In sum, if you are a Star Wars fan, you must visit the Star Wars Visions Exhibition.  It's until the end of June.  Inside the gallery there was a museum of Star Wars props and costumes including light sabers, blasters, Ewoks, droids and Jawas.  They had actual costumes from all six movies.  The gallery also had new Star Wars artwork specially created for the exhibition, even a nude Aayla Secura painting which I ashamedly thought was hot.  They also had models from various battles in the films, a mini showdown between Darth Maul, Obi-Wan and Qui Gon Jin and a 1/4 scale Jabba the Hutt.  There were T.V. screens throughout the gallery showcasing great scenes from the movies.  Finally there was a large souvenir shop which we had to wait 20 minutes to get in.  After visiting the exhibition, I can't wait to see Episode 7 in December.  Even my little one wants to watch all of the movies now.

They added a Baymax stormtrooper helmet to the stormtrooper showcase on the first floor.  Here it is:

In other news, we got a few Disney Choco Eggs last night.  They are identical to Kinder Eggs.  Even the chocolate is the same.  This series is the best of all time though.  The only sucky figure in this series is Ursula.  So that's only like a 1 in 12 chance of being disappointed.  Here are some pictures of the eggs below.

You can find these at all convenience and grocery stores in Tokyo it seems.  They are about 200 yen or 2 bucks each.

Here's the egg.

The same waxy chocolate I remember from our Kinder Egg expeditions to Canada as a kid.

Tsum Tsum Mickey!!! Yeah!!!

Four winners out of four eggs: Tsum Tsum Minnie, Elsa, Hiro and Tsum Tsum Mickey.

Well that's it guys.  Have a good Sunday.  Make it out to the Star Wars Visions Exhibition and buy some Disney Choco Eggs if you can!

Star Wars Exhibition (Teaser); Roppongi Hills; Tokyo

Golden Week!!! What is Golden Week?  Golden Week is a set of four holidays that occur at the end of April/beginning of May.  With the exception of retail and service workers, the whole country has a lengthy holiday.  It is crowded almost everywhere!  This year we had Wednesday of last week and Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off of this week off.

There is a Star Wars exhibition in the building my office is located in.  I didn't see the exhibition yet, but I am planning to see it at a less crowded time.  My wife's friend reported that there was a six-hour wait to see the Star Wars gallery during this week.   Even without going up to see the exhibition, there are free Star Wars displays throughout my building.  The displays are pretty much throughout the shopping mall area of the building.  I'll share some pictures of them with you. 

The exhibition runs from April 29 to June 26, 2015.

Here's another sign.

 

 

Stormtrooper helmet art display

Watermelon helmet

Cake helmet

Kabuki helmet

Spider helmet

Fancy helmet

Life-size Lego Darth Vader and Jango Fett near the Lego store.

Action figure display near one of the card shops.

My man, Boba Fett.

Boba Sr., Jango Fett

 I'll blog about the exhibition when I finally have the time to go up.  Have a good week!

Opening a Coconut; Disney Tsum Tsum; Aeon, Disney Store Japan

Got a bit busy last week. Finally time to blog and then... the kids had their own production of that 1987 animated Chipmunk Adventure flick.  If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend that you do so.  I know letting 6 animal children pilot hot air balloons on a race around the world is a little farfetched, but the music is classic.  Their show was 58 minutes.  I think the actual movie is only 1 hour and a half or so.  Very entertaining.

Here were there Easter gifts as promised last post.

Mostly stuff familiar to Americans.  Jelly beans, birdie cookies and chocolate eggs generic.  Some uniquely Japanese stuff though.  There's a make-your-own takoyaki set in there (grilled balls of dough with bits of octopus).  Think the takoyaki set is just candy takoyaki though.  The girls also got some Disney Tsum Tsums.  Tsum Tsums is a mad crazy game on Line.  Everyone in Japan plays it it seems.  I even think the Disney Store in the U.S. is selling Tsum Tsums too.

 Here are some Tsum Tsum above.  Daisy, Jessie, Anna, Marie, Easter Dale (from the Easter Bunny) and Olaf form a pile.  The other daughter's Tsum Tsum are probably in the bed next to her.  They are actually very much like Beanie Babies as they are filled with beans and are near the 5.99 beanie baby price (600 yen).  The girls love them.  I think there will be Big Hero Six Tsum Tsum out soon, along with the DVD/Blu Ray release here.

Other than that, we opened a coconut.  The local Aeon supermarket had them.  There must be a Southeast Asian fest or something as coconuts are not regular items to be found here.

Here it is. Young coconut for 400 yen or about 4 bucks.

They make it sound so easy... Liars!!!

You'll need these guys or a machete.

Drain it first.

Two glasses here.  Wifey and I loved the coconut water.  It was kinda meh for the kids. Fine just meant more for us.

Let me introduce you to my leetle frehend!

  I'm no powerhouse but regularly hit the gym.  Honestly, it was pretty f'ing hard cutting the coconut open.

Trehshaare!!!

 

Scoop the meat out.  If you have a spoon with serrated edges, it will be invaluable in the scooping action.

Well worth the 4 bucks and effort.

Here's to a coconut well opened!

 Thanks for the read.  Hope your weekend went well.