Monday, April 06, 2009

Star Wars Vehicle Collection 2



Purchase Location : Yodobashi Camera
Purchased Price : 420 Yen
Scale : 1/144
Maker : F-Toys

Monday, March 16, 2009

Collection Set - History of JMSDF Submarines


Purchase Location : Sakuraya
Purchased Price : 319 Yen
Scale : 1/700
Maker : TAKARA TOMY

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Yattaaman (Yatterman) Collection Set




Purchase Location : Bic Camera
Purchased Price : 240 Yen
Maker : Runa co., ltd. 

Monday, March 09, 2009

Kitahara World Toy Collection



Purchase Location : Yodobashi Camera 
Purchased Price : 350 Yen
Seller : ZACCAPAP

Saturday, March 07, 2009

Fran Patisserie - Mix Berry


Purchase Location : MINISTOP
Purchased Price : 210 Yen
Kcal : 83 Per Pack (total 332)
Maker : Meiji 

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Kinnikuman Character Eraser Set



Purchase Location : Bic Camera
Purchased Price : 330 Yen
Maker : Subarudo

Monday, March 02, 2009

Star Wars Vehicle Collection 1



Purchase Location : Yodobashi Camera
Purchased Price : 370 Yen
Scale : 1/144
Maker : F-Toys

Here is another great collection set from the maker F-Toys. This is the same company that makes the Star Trek Fleet Collection set that I posted earlier. Now if only this company would make a Stargate collection set!


This Star Wars Vehicle Collection set comes with one (each box) of the six following models in it. 


  1. X-WING STARFIGHTER
  2. AT-ST and SPEEDER BIKE
  3. TIE FIGHTER
  4. NABOO N-1 STARFIGHTER and DROID STARFIGHTER
  5. ETA-2 JEDI STARFIGHTER (2 pieces)
  6. Secret Item (TIE CRAWLER)


As you can see above my box contained the ETA-2 JEDI STARFIGHTER (2 pieces).


If you look at the F-Toys website you can see that they are releasing a new Star Wars Vehicle Collection 2 set. 

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Robo Q - Retro Red






Purchase Location : Bic Camera
Purchased Price : 2,780 Yen
Maker : TAKARA TOMY


Thursday, February 26, 2009

Cho-pan Strawberry Chocolate


Purchase Location : Life Supermarket
Purchased Price : 148 Yen
Kcal : 220
Maker : Meiji

Yet another chocolate product from the confectionary maker Meiji. This candy is called Cho-pan. I’m guessing that the “pan” in the name may be referring to the Japanese word for bread. There is a little piece of bread (pie crust) that tops each one of the four chocolates that come in the box.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Eco Choco


Purchase Location : FamilyMart
Purchased Price : 210 Yen
Kcal : 291
Maker : Lotte

This chocolate bar was released on the 14th of this month by Lotte.  As the name implies, it is an ecologically minded product. On the back of the wrapper there is a statement that says this chocolate bar was produced from cacao beans that were grown in Brazil on farms that use an agroforestry system


Being “eco” does come at a price. The cost of this chocolate bar was 210 yen, while an average plain one can be found for around 105 yen at many stores. 

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Micro RC Helicopter

Purchase Location : Yodobashi Camera
Purchased Price : 2100 Yen

Recently I have noticed quite a few stores carrying a slew of RC toy helicopters. Their popularity seems to be booming. Most likely this boom is fueled by the recent low prices of RC toys.


I never really payed that much attention to RC toy helicopters until I ran into this incredibly small one. It is called the miniBee. At only ten centimeters in length it truly is micro sized. I was shocked to see that the helicopter actually fits inside of the remote. 


This is my first purchase of a RC copter so I really can’t judge whether or not it flies that well. The tail always seems to spin left or right. There is a trim adjustment knob on the controller, but no matter how many times I adjust it, the tail rotor continues to push the helicopter to spin. I can however use the direction control lever to reduce to rate of spin.


Even if this micro RC helicopter is a mere toy, I have to admit I have had quite a bit of fun with it.  



In the photo above the white box on the red label reads sekai saishoukyuu, which translates as “world’s smallest” in English.




As you can see above, the helicopter fits snugly in the remote’s body. The remote also serves as a charging base. According to the manual the charging time is approximately thirty minutes and the flight time is around five minutes on a full charge.





There is a good promo video of this RC helicopter in action on the maker’s website here.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Yamato - Cosmo Fleet Collection


Purchase Location : Yodobashi Camera
Purchased Price : 380 Yen
Maker : MegaHouse

Space Battleship Yamato, also know as Star Blazers outside of Japan,  is one of the classic Japanese animations. 


This collection series based on the animation includes the following space craft:

  1. Okita’s Battleship
  2. Supersize Battleship
  3. Space Battleship Yamato Mechanic Ver.
  4. Middlesize Carrier Naska
  5. Supercarrier Valsey

Even though Space Battleship Yamato is rather old, its popularity still remains. More information about this classic series can be seen on Wikipedia’s Space Battleship Yamato page.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Gundam Collectable Figure




Purchase Location : Yodobashi Camera
Purchased Price : 620 Yen
Maker : Bandai

To be honest I am not a big Gundam fan. I haven’t even really followed the series. However, when I saw this collectable figure in the store I thought it was really cool. Also, due to the fact that Gundam is of legendary status, I thought I would like to learn more about it.


Anyone visiting a hobby store in Japan would most likely be overwhelmed by the amount of Gundam figures that are available. In fact according to Wikipedia’s Gundam web page, the Gundam franchise is a 50 billion yen trademark. The same page also says that Gundam plastic models account for 90 percent of the character plastic model market’s income. That is just amazing considering how big the market really is.


The above Gundam figure is called the MSM-03C HY-GOGG. It is a amphibious mobile suit.


If anyone knows a good Gundam primer website please let me know.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Dear Cacao - White & Cocoa


Purchase Location : MINISTOP
Purchased Price : 148 Yen
Kcal : 201
Maker : Glico

Just as the name of this candy suggest it is chocolate pieces that are regular dark chocolate coated with white chocolate. The chocolate in the center is soft in comparison with a regular piece of milk chocolate. 


I was quite satisfied with the quality of the chocolate and found it to taste better than the average chocolate bar.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Ultimate Monsters Collection


Purchase Location : Bic Camera
Purchased Price : 670 Yen
Maker : Bandai

The name of this figure collection series is Ultimate Monsters Godzilla 3. There are six figures in this set. They are as follows:


  1. Godzilla 2003
  2. Mechagodzilla 2003 (jyuubusougata)
  3. Mechagodzilla 2003 (koukidougata)
  4. Space Godzilla 1994
  5. Mothra 2003 (two figures - one male and one female)


I was really hoping to get the regular Godzilla 2003, but when I opened the box I found two Mothra larvae. I was rather surprised to find two. After looking at the back of the box again I discovered that one is male and the other is female. The male Mothra has red eyes and the female Mothra has blue eyes. Also, the Mothra “man” has a slightly movable three segment body, while the female is solid. Blah blah blah... okay as you can see in the photo they look pretty disgusting, not something I will be displaying anywhere soon. 

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

White Gyoza



Restaurant Name : White Gyoza
Location : Kashiwa, Chiba
Item(s) Purchased : Fried Gyoza & Boiled Gyoza
Purchased Price : 420 Yen (10 Pieces)



Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Cheesecake Chocolate



Purchase Location : MINISTOP
Purchased Price : 210 Yen
Kcal : 347 (58g)
Maker : Meiji

As I was milling around the candy section of the local convenience store I happened to run into this new chocolate from Meiji. In fact, according to Meiji’s website this chocolate officially went on sale today.


The name of this chocolate is Gâteau Chocolate and the flavor is Cheesecake Tart. Gâteau is a type of French cake.


The taste of this chocolate was even better than I had expected. It has a rich taste, but it is not overly sweet. Anyone who is a fan of cheesecake would most likely enjoy this chocolate.