Archive for the ‘Collecting’ Category

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The World Of Bootleg Chinese Waifu Cards

Tuesday, August 5th, 2025

I bought this a couple of weeks ago:

It’s a box of ‘Goddess Story’ cards. These are Chinese unlicensed ‘waifu’ cards featuring girls from anime and video games. Some refer to these as ‘Goddess Story TCG’ but they’re strictly for collecting only: there’s no game element.

Here’s a pack:

And here’s the five cards that were inside:

From the top left, we have characters from Love Live, Oreimo, Needy Streamer Overdose, Gundam and Demon Slayer. All the characters featured on the cards are from existing properties – 24 in total are represented in this box alone – and none of them are licensed. These cards therefore exploit the (lack of) Chinese copyright laws to use the artwork without credit or payment.

The cards are extremely high quality. They’re all glossy and well made, most of them have some type of foiling and the rarer ones are embossed and have very fancy foil effects. Even the most basic cards feel better in your hands than a Magic The Gathering card, and this quality belies the bootleg nature of this product, and is one of the reasons it’s become so popular.

There’s six levels of rarity in this box, shown above. Rare cards (the lowest rarity) are not foiled, but all the others are. The four levels about CR (SR, SSR, SER & SCR) are textured with embossing effects as well. Apparently SCR cards are very rare, and I was lucky to get even one in my box (which I haven’t finished opening). Can you identify the characters/series on the above six cards?

I first heard of these during the pandemic, and saw them available on places like Etsy about two years ago, although I felt they were overpriced at about $5 a pack. When I was in Australia earlier this year a shop at Charlestown Square was selling individual packs at A$14 each (!) which was eye-opening, so when I saw on Amazon a price of only $13 – for an entire box of 30 packs – it was time to buy in. I was so impressed I quickly purchased a few more:

Only one of these boxes cost more than $20, and it was only by a few dollars. Each of these are different sets, although the bootleg nature of the product makes it difficult to determine in what order these were released (there’s no dates and the set codes are inconsistent). Furthermore the box I have opened contains some cards not listed on the checklist at the back of the box.

At this point I’m sure some of you are shaking your heads (“He bought ten boxes?!?”) but these scratch the itch of opening trading card packs, are very cheap, and the cards are shiny and pretty! I’ll be opening these packs for years 🙂

I’ve been buying these on Amazon, and the vendors usually send bonuses with the orders. To my surprise this has included promo packs and the included cards are shown above. I like that two of these are tarot cards. Imagine the difficulty of assembling an entire deck!

And then there’s the above. It turns out other Chinese companies are releasing similar products, and I’ve bought a few of them as well to evaluate. These were a little more expensive than Goddess Story and seem to promote themselves as higher quality cards with fancier treatments (including heat-sensitivity, glow-in-the-dark and gems). As you can see I haven’t opened any of these yet; I’ll save them for a special occasion!

I’ve got over 300 packs of Goddess Story cards now. Want some? Let me know 🙂

Posted in Anime, Collecting, Trading Cards | Comments Closed

The Fortress Of Necross

Monday, July 21st, 2025

Rewind back to a typical day in the life of other me in Japan in 1987. I’d been playing Famicom Dragon Quest all day long and was heading to the game center near the station to play the new game Rastan that I’d read about in the latest issue of Comptiq. On the way I stopped at the konbini to grab a snack and saw this:

It’s called ‘Fortress Of Necross‘ and if the name alone didn’t win me over the art and words ‘Role Playing’ certainly did. I immediately bought it and found a little bag of chocolates inside as well as a smaller inner box containing cards and a plastic toy.

I quickly realized this was a heavily RPG-inspired toy series, and it reminded me of many of my other interests such as the Famicom games I was playing (Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and Zelda) or especially my beloved TRPGs including Fighting Fantasy and Sword World. I quickly bought more boxes and built up a collection, learned more about the lore of the evil necromancer Necross and the heroes trying to defeat him, and even played the game utilizing the cards that came with the figures.

I was absolutely hooked! These toys seemed like they were made just for me.

Of course back in 1987 I knew nothing about what was being sold 7500 kilometers away and my snack choices never came with any sort of toy. I didn’t learn of the existence of these toys until almost three decades later.

The figures are about an inch tall, and include the good-aligned hero characters (about 8 per series) and many evil guys including Necross and his generals. The figures were packed randomly, and with 40 different ones available collecting them all would have been quite a challenge! They were massively successful, and over the next decade Lotte released 8 series – 320 figures in total.

As the line continued it began to include characters not restricted to standard sword and sorcery fantasy, including robots and gods, and the last set was even based around the Cthulhu mythos:

These are beautifully designed and sculpted little figures, and had these been available to 15-year-old me I would have gone mad for them. A few years ago I decided to get a few for myself as nostalgia for the other me that never existed.

This turned out to be easier said than done since these little guys are very collectible and prices can be eye-opening. Finally, during this past trip to Japan I found a few for cheap and finally began my ‘collection’:

Let’s look at each of these in order:

First we have Wood King (from the third series) who seems like a strong guy since his stats are high and his bio says he is a Demon King. The game involved drawing enemies randomly from a bag and getting progressively stronger as you defeat them, but I think this guy would be one you wouldn’t want to draw early! Each monster also came with an item that can be used to help defeat other monsters.

The Numelian (second series) is a weak monster that is apparently a ‘friend of the octopus’. He comes with a compass that helps defeat a Tengu monster. His figure is fairly small (about 2cm) and wonderful detailed for its size.

And lastly we have the Worm (third series) which is a giant worm that helps fertilize the magical woods. It seems to be of average strength.

As this toy line continued, various special features were introduced. This included some figures also being available in transparent plastic (such as my Wood King and Worm), to colour-changing plastic and eventually figures with removable plastic ‘gems’. It seems some of these fancier versions are especially rare and collectible, and I’ve seen examples well over $100 (for a single figure) in Japanese shops.

Necross toys are an example of keshi, or miniature plastic/rubber figurines. Many lines exist, and three are shown above: Kinnukiman (‘Ultimate MUSCLE’ in the west), Villgust and Monster In My Pocket. I actually recall one of the latter at Charlestown Square newsagent sometime in the early 1990s. I believe it was a dinosaur and I liked it, but I have no memory of what I did with it.

While these sorts of toys had their heyday in the 1990s, they’re far from dead. These days they have been returning in Japanese gacha machines – I’ve got some Ultraman versions – and there are blind-boxed Godzilla ones as well. Lots of indie creators make and sell them, and there’s even been some revivals in the west. Nostalgia for the old ones seems to be picking up as well, and here’s a (1 inch high) metal anniversary version of a Kinnukiman figure that I also obtained from a gacha machine:

I very much doubt I’ll ever buy any more Necross figures, but I’m happy to now own the three I do. They’re a glimpse into the memories of the other me that paradoxically seems to become closer the further away those years become.

Now excuse me; I’m going back to my other childhood, during summer 1987 in Japan. I’m home from the game center, my pocket full of Necross toys, and it’s time to watch the latest episode of Kamen Rider Black… long, long ago in the 20th Century…

Posted in Blog, Collecting, Japan, Retro, Toys | Comments Closed

Can Collection Update (& Japan Pickups)

Monday, June 23rd, 2025

It’s been a couple of years since my last can ‘collection’ update, and since I obtained some on each of my last three Japan trips, now seems like a good time. I’ll try to list these additions in chronological order of when I got them.

I did a bunch of attic sorting last year and unearthed the above two. They date from 2019 and were part of series of five cans to promote the Far From Home film. I have no recollection of where or when I got these.

Some more Chinese Ultraman (in this case Tiga and Mebius) cans, purchased from a shop in NYC a few years ago. The contents were sickly sweet and instantly disposed of.

These are both mysteries. I think I got the Bumblebee one during my solo 2023 Japan trip, but perhaps I found it in NYC as well? The Qdol can features Kyo Kusanagi, a character from King Of Fighters, and was found at a local Asian grocer. They only had this character but looking online he was one from a series of six cans.

Last year Coca Cola did a worldwide series of commemorative Marvel cans featuring what I personally think was mundane art of dozens of characters. Above are six of them, five from the USA and one (Groot) I got in Japan.

The Australian cans in this series were different – taller and thinner – and didn’t feature as large a range of characters. I picked these two up in Oz last year.

Back in January I bought the Ultraman coffee can in Nagoya, and despite looking never saw them (there were six different ones) for sale anywhere else. The Ultraman can was bought at a local Asian grocer.

Jessica brought both of these cans of beer back from Japan – still full! – and they feature beautiful art by Hirohiko Araki, the mangaka of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. I don’t read the manga so I don’t know if these are original characters or from the story.

And lastly we have these four. The ENHYPEN can was purchased from a drink machine in Hakodate a couple of weeks ago, and was one of a series of eight cans that I never saw anywhere else. The second is a Hololive energy drink, and was bought at a konbini. The third is a Hokkaido souvenir coke can, which was available almost everywhere in Hakodate. The Digimon milk tea can was purchased at a local Asian grocer.

And that’s that for this update to a ‘collection’ which I don’t take seriously and just sits forgotten in the attic. Come back in a few years for the next update to find out if I get any of the new Jurassic Park Dr Pepper cans available in stores right now 🙂

Posted in Collecting | Comments Closed

Japan Pickups: Wizardry

Friday, June 20th, 2025

My Wizardry game collection is close to complete and it’s been a while since I’ve found anything I didn’t have, so finding four items on the recent trip was a pleasant surprise.

The special edition of the remake of Proving Grounds Of The Mad Overlord comes with an art print and two booklets. Wizardry The Five Ordeals released just a couple of weeks before the trip and was widely available everywhere (it’s a port of a Japanese PC game). I’m looking forward to playing this one!

Elminage is a game series that is Wizardry in all but name and was developed by some of the same people that made the Japanese Wizardry games. I already owned two of the games and with the addition of Elminage II and Elminage Gothic I now have the entire series. Both of these games were quite expensive, and it’s worth mentioning that I can’t play Elminage Gothic since it’s a 3DS version and my 3DS’s are religion locked to USA games.

Incidentally, my collection of Wizardry games now exceeds 50! I believe I own every game in the series including all the Japanese ‘gaiden’ games, so from this point expanding my collection will only happen via new releases or if I manage to obtain more of the original computer versions.

I also purchased on this trip the above three Wizardry guides. Each of them are full colour with dozens of pages of monster and item art, and detailed maps of each game level.

As with the dozens of other (Japanese) Wizardry guides I already own, these are beautiful books with production levels that far exceed what we had in the west at the time. It’s evidence of how popular this series was in Japan that I now own multiple comprehensive guides for each of the first few games, each released by different publishers and yet I’m not aware of a single western guide for any of the first five Wizardry games!

Lastly I found this Wizardry fanzine in the retro game section at Shosen Book Tower in Akihabara. As you can read on the translation at right, it has a lengthy interview with Superdeluxe games about the collectors edition mentioned above, as well as a wealth of other wizardry-related articles and artwork. This book is obviously a work of love by dedicated Japanese fans and will require close reading via translator since I suspect there’s some good information in its pages 🙂

My Wizardry book collection exceeds 50 titles now as well, and continues to expand via novels, manga, game guides and RPG manuals. With hardly any information on such books available online I have no idea how much else is waiting to be found on future trips…

Posted in Collecting, Games, Japan | Comments Closed

Game Boys

Thursday, June 12th, 2025

Most of the games I sold last year were for various versions of the Game Boy, and the sale was very lucrative since this is a market which has been exploding in value. On this trip I’ve been keeping an eye on Game Boy hardware in particular, which is increasing in value much faster than other retro consoles.

Look at these GBAs for example. Nintendo sold over 80 million of these and you’d think the value would be low as a result. But finding good quality ones (with battery cover, no scratches etc.) isn’t easy and finding ones with rare colour schemes is very difficult. Even so, $500+ surprised me.

But look at these limited edition versions! I’d never even heard of the one on top (sold only at the NYC Pokemon store, which no longer exists) and the one on the bottom was a special version sold in Japan only when Mother 3 was released. As you can see, each were priced at well over $1000.

But even those prices are nothing compared to ¥660000 (about $4600) for this limited Pokémon Game Boy SP! And it’s not even in pristine condition! Surely this is the holy grail of SP collecting? I’ve still got two SPs, and I was intrigued to note that even unboxed common versions go for $200+ now.

The above is a Game Boy micro faceplate – just a little plastic thing that clips onto the front. At $200+ this is eye-opening so I did some research and this was a Japan-only Club Nintendo reward for cashing in Nintendo Points! You’d have to be a maniac collector to buy this one.

It always bothered me that the Game Boy Light was never sold outside Japan (because it was released just before the GBA) and I always wanted one since it’s the only GB model I don’t own. Like a fool I let the years pass without buying one and now even unboxed standard versions are $500+. Or you can get this Osamu Tezuka limited version for $1000…

Or this Pokémon one for $3200! What’s surprising about this particular item is I took the photo in a Bookoff used shop. Bookoff is a great chain and you can sometimes find rare items in them but I think this is by far the most expensive thing I’ve ever seen. I wonder if the person with pockets deep enough for this will find it?

Incidentally Pokémon games continue to dominate the used GB/GBA markets. The guy I sell games to says he can’t keep them in, and when I sold him all mine last year he already had a buyer lined up! (Admittedly mine were in close to mint collection.) The used game stores here are full of old Pokémon games, and even loose cartridges these days go for many times their original retail price.

You’ll have noticed a distinct Pokémon subtheme on this post, as one of the driving forces behind GB collectibility is people still playing old Pokémon games on original hardware. Here’s a $1000+ Pokémon original DS (which I also didn’t know existed) and while I didn’t take photos the various Pokémon-branded DS models fetch predictably high prices as well.

And on the topic of DS’s, one of my game regrets is never buying a 2DS. I thought it was weird when it was released but in the back of my mind always planned on getting one for my collection. But I didn’t and they disappeared from stores very quickly. They’re rare in used shops, and as you can see even imperfect examples are expensive. One of the shops in Akiba has a sealed boxed version in a case, but it’s labeled ‘Not For Sale’!

If you’ve got a Game Boy or one of the many follow-ups be sure to keep it in good condition. It’s probably worth quite a bit more than you’d think 🙂

Posted in Collecting, Games, Japan, Trip | Comments Closed

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