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Ultraman Cards

Sunday, March 9th, 2025

I bought this in Japan:

It’s a box of the initial set of the new Ultraman card game! Even single packs of this was difficult to find in Tokyo, and I only saw boxes for sale in Nagoya. It wasn’t very expensive; about $30 for a sealed box of 20 packs.

At the time I hadn’t seen the English language cards for sale in the US, but in the last month or so packs of both the original set and the first expansion turned up at a local comic store. I bought every pack I saw, and opened them all.

The cards aren’t particularly attractive, and the first set in particular is heavy on images taken directly from the TV shows. It only features Ultras taken from the last couple of decades (no Showa era Ultras at all) which is ok, but I wish it was more art-based and less photographic.

The cards themselves are well manufactured, made of thick stock with a premium feel compared to other TCGs. The chase cards are beautiful, with the ones I pulled having metallic effects, rainbow foiling and embossing. But they’re spectacularly rare, and in about 40 packs (including all my Japanese ones) I only got one (of 40) ‘AP’ cards, and no SP, SSSP, UR or ExP cards!

I don’t know how to actually play the game, since I’ve failed to find any of the starter decks for sale here in the USA! Almost no retailers have them, and sellers online ask silly money. Hopefully I’ll get them one day and see if the game is fun

As I said this is a brand new TCG launched recently (with some fanfare) by Bandai. It’s a little surprising since Bandai have so many other TCGs on the market including Battle Spirits, which recently released these two Ultraman expansions:

There have been several Ultraman expansions for Battle Spirits over the years, with these two being the most recent, with the blue one in particular only being released last December. Kristin got me a box of each for my birthday.

The red expansion box came with a single card box topper promo pack (which I haven’t opened) and the set contains 69 cards in four levels of rarity. With 20 6-card packs, how much of the full set could I get?

I can’t play this game, and the cards are very wordy and entirely Japanese but they’re so pretty! This is the level of design the official Ultraman game needs in my opinion.

All the cards (even the commons) are embossed, foiled and plastic coated making them all feel like thin credit cards. And these packs are significantly less expensive that Magic packs, which asks the question why is the quality of Magic cards not at this level?

The blue expansion box included a box-topper and a promo for the new Ultraman TCG, which I found amusing. This set has 75 different cards once again in four levels of rarity.

The cards are the same high standard as the other set, and the rare cards just as spectacular:

I’ve only opened a few packs of each, and will probably finish opening the over the next few months. Even though I can’t play it, I like these cards much more than the official TCG, and I wish it were these ones that had been translated into English

Posted in Collecting, Games, Otaku, Trading Cards | Comments Closed

Postcards From Japan

Sunday, February 23rd, 2025

All told I sent us 36 postcards from Japan, and the reason I’ve waited on this post is that six of them have yet to arrive. I haven’t given up hope since after my last trip a handful of cards took three months to find their way here but I don’t want to wait that long so let’s review a selection of the ones that have arrived today.

Fuji postcards are very common, and it’s extremely likely I’ve sent you one or more over the years. The image of the Shinkansen speeding in front of Fuji is iconic, and I’ve bought and sent many cards depicting this over the years. The bottom left card is one of several 1950s-era Japanese postcards I obtained at a postcard show last summer, and you’ll see several more of them in this post.

Geisha are iconically Japanese, but aren’t exactly common. And yet they still print postcards of them, which I usually buy since they’re colourful and pretty! We saw a geisha in the wild many years ago in Kyoto. She boarded a bus in full makeup and dress, and it was obvious she was a curio even for the locals. The leftmost card shows a ropeway in Hokkaido, and I should have saved it for a future trip…

The graphic Nagoya postcards were found at a post office, which was a relief since I’d had difficulty finding other postcards in that city. The one on the bottom right came from the zoo we visited, and the bottom left one was found packed with a VHS tape in my attic during a recent cleanout. It’s over 30 years old, very flimsy, and I’m surprised it survived the mail

Every day I sent us two cards, and as usual the messages were usually a general description of what we did that day on one, and some specific incident or event on the second (like what we ate or bought). This may seem mundane, but after doing this for almost two decades it’s fun going back and reading these tiny diaries.

The bottom left one came from the Alice in Wonderland shop in Nagoya with the tiny door we had to squat down to enter. It’s a lovely card and I should have bought more of their unique designs. Postcards are still very popular in Japan and it’s not hard to find good ones, which is why I was puzzled at the apparent lack in Nagoya.

These were purchased from a tiny store in Asakusa that sold mostly photos of celebrities from decades ago. This is a weird type of Japanese shop that doesn’t have a real western equivalent (maybe I’ll blog about one some time) but I was happy and surprised to see they had a small but incredible variety of (dated) pop culture cards as well!

I sent us two lenticular cards, and the Christmas one in the middle is one of them. Sent on Christmas Day, this described the fun we had shopping the otaku shopping district (Osu) in Nagoya. On the right is our new years card. I sent 14 new years cards on January 1, in four designs. Most depicted cute snakes, but as you can see ours didn’t

As I understand, you’re not technically allowed to mail shaped postcards in Japan. And yet they print them, and I’ve sent many over the years and they all arrive. Gotochi cards (special souvenir postcards sold at post offices) are shaped as well, and I’ve now sent myself two over the years and neither have arrived. I wonder what’s special about gotochi cards that prevent them from being mailed internationally? (The above card isn’t a gotochi, but was purchased from a popup shop showcasing work by the artist.)

Here’s the other lenticular I sent us. It’s massive: easily one of it not the largest card I’ve ever mailed. It’s more than twice as large as a normal postcard, and I put a bunch of extra postage on it just in case. I was very surprised it arrived, and it’s given me the idea of mailing an even bigger – as big as an A4 page! – Japanese lenticular card that I bought years ago.

As for the six that haven’t arrived, I don’t remember what they depicted or what I wrote on them. I number my cards so I can extrapolate when and where I sent them (Nagoya and Tokyo) but can’t speculate why they never arrived when others mailed the same day in the same mailbox did.

And as for the stamps, here are all the unique ones on the cards I mailed us:

Some good stamps here, but I discovered something interesting at the very tail end of the trip so I think the stamps I send from Japan next time will be a lot more interesting…

All these cards are now put into the big binder titled ‘Japan’, which is so full I think I need to start another. And if you’re wondering, yes I left space for the missing six

Posted in Collecting, Japan, Postcards, Stamps, Trip | Comments Closed

45+-Year-Old Star Wars Cards

Sunday, February 9th, 2025

The above pic shows the extent of my collection of the first series of Star Wars cards released by Topps back in 1977. As a child I had many more, but as I’ve mentioned on this blog before I glued them into a scrapbook

At the antique fair last year I purchased the above ‘repacks’ of vintage Star Wars cards. Here’s some of what was inside the one on the left:

In total the repack contained one sticker and 28 cards. They’re all original Topps cards, but they’re from the fifth series released in 1979! In Australia we only ever got one series of Star Wars cards, and had I known American kids saw five different sets on shelves all the way up the release of The Empire Strikes Back I would have been green with envy! I’m happy to have added these to my collection

Speaking of Empire, I still own my complete set of cards, which you can see above. These are in excellent condition since by that age (8, in 1980) I had stopped destroying my cards! As with Star Wars, Australia only had one set of Empire cards, but America had four, and the second repack I bought at the fair was from the third series:

There were 33 cards in the box, all different, and all in remarkably good condition considering they’re 45 years old. Again, I’m pleased to add them to my collection, but one in particular I was quite surprised to see.

The one on the left – which was also in the repack – is card #1 from the first Topps Empire set. On the right is my card #1 from my childhood set. I’ve circled the differences.

These are typically referred to as ‘Topps’ Star Wars cards today, but the truth is that Topps only sold them in the USA, and they were licensed and sold in other countries by different companies. In Australia it was a gum company named Scanlens, as you can see on the top left of the card shown above. I suspect this is the reason we only ever got one set for each film. Interestingly the Scanlens cards have a slight premium over the Topps ones, and a full set of Scanlens Empire cards in good condition can easily sell for over $100. The stickers are quite a bit rarer (I have most, but not all of them) and a Scanlens set can sell for several times the cost of the card set!

And what about Return Of The Jedi? Ive got a few dozen cards from the first Topps set, as well as about a half dozen unopened packs, including no-doubt rancid gum.

Should I open them?

Posted in Blog, Collecting, History, Trading Cards | Comments Closed

Japan Pickups: Games

Wednesday, January 15th, 2025

I’m using ‘games’ here to describe video games and ‘TRPGs’ (as tabletop games are called in Japan). This is the category in which I’m always hunting for items on my trips and this time I was very happy with my finds…

It’s been a while since I’ve found a new Japanese Fighting Fantasy book for my collection, so I was pleased to see this JP version of ‘Out Of The Pit‘, the FF Monster Manual. Unlike the western version, it’s published at the same size as a normal FF book and is therefore a chunky little volume. The cover is a little tattered, but it’s in otherwise excellent condition and included its obi and even an advertisement for the Japanese Warlock magazine.

Speaking of which, I bought ten more issues of Warlock, which I found once again at Mandarake in Akihabara (where do they keep getting these from?). These weren’t cheap, but with this addition I now have 75% of the entire run of this magazine, including the first and last (#63) issues.

Moving onto one of my other collections, I found the above three Wizardry games. The leftmost had eluded me for years and was surprisingly inexpensive (about $30) but I didn’t even know Summoner had a PS2 version and didn’t hesitate to pay through the nose for it (~$100) when I found it in Nagano on Christmas Day. The last is the JP physical edition of the recent Wizardry 1 remake. Alas I was unable to find the special edition of this release, which comes with a lot of bonuses. One day I will…

This is a remarkable guidebook for all three Game Boy Color remakes of Wizardry 1 – 3. I’ve got many Japanese Wizardry game guides in my collection now, but this may be the best I’ve yet seen.

It starts with some lovely colour pages detailing the history of each game…

And then goes into detail about the specifics of the GBC versions of each title, including monsters, items and maps. Most of the book is in colour as well.

Each game gets its own section and as a result the book is fairly lengthy. The GBC versions of these games are rare and (very) expensive these days, so this book would have a limited audience. But I have all three games and will one day play them again and when I do this ‘bible’ will be extremely useful!

The above is the 1991 revised edition of the Wizardry TRPG rules for the tabletop game based on the video game series. I have read that the Wizardry TRPG was immensely popular back in Japan back in the day – competing even with D&D – but this is the first time I’d found a basic rule book for sale.

It’s got all the usual sections common to RPG rulebooks, and I like that the character sheet resembles those in the video games. I wonder what this game is like to play?

Speaking of the TRPG, I also bought the above. The two on the left are adventures, and on the right is a gamesmasters screen! These date to a few years before the rulebook above, which suggest they were intended for the first edition rules (which I’ve never seen). These were expensive, and only a maniac would buy them if he couldn’t even read them…

The above was an incredible find, not only because I’d never heard of it but also because I have since read it is ‘extremely rare’! It’s a Wizardry card game named after the ultimate wizard spell ‘Tiltowait’!

The description said it was ‘opened but never played’ and while the flimsy cardboard box had seen better days the cards themselves don’t show any evidence of use so I’m guessing the description was accurate.

Amusingly this is a reskin of Uno using monsters and spells from Wizardry as card art. From the included rules it seems ‘Tiltowait’ is the Draw 4 equivalent and other spells (‘Haman’ etc.) correspond to the other effect cards in Uno, with a few additions such as counter and discard spells.

The last game pickups from the trip were the above Switch titles. All of these are compilations of arcade games – mostly shooters. Taito Milestones 3 was purchased not just because it includes Cadash but also all three Rastan games and both Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands. It’s one of the very best arcade compilations I’ve seen! The game on the right is the special edition of Mushihimesama, the insect-themed Cave shooter.

Lots of treasures here, but alas my grails once again eluded me. The hunt will continue in future trips…

Posted in Blog, Books, Collecting, Gamebooks, Japan, Otaku, Retro | Comments Closed

Elongates: Final Thoughts

Saturday, November 16th, 2024

It’s time to put this too-long series to rest, but not before a few last words on this pressed penny collection.

I sorted the 271 coins by where they were obtained, and this was easy for about 90% of them, challenging for another 9% and – so far – impossible for these three:

The top left features an unidentifiable design with no words, and was pressed onto a 5 euro cent coin, which means Scotland or the UK. Perhaps it was somewhere in Cardiff? I’ll probably never know. The top right is a misaligned penny and from a snippet of writing on the back was made in Santa Cruz. As for what it was supposed to show, who knows? The bottom is a real mystery. The Pamir was boat that sunk near The Azores during a hurricane in 1957. The origination of the ship suggests a German coin, but it’s pressed on a US penny so I have no idea where I got it.

The location of where I pressed this one is also unknown:

Isn’t it remarkable? The entire Lord’s Prayer pressed onto a tiny penny! It’s very detailed and easy to read and I imagine many of these have lived a happy life in purses and wallets over the years.

Let’s move on to ‘bad’ examples. The truth is most of the collection is forgettable – even arguably trash – and since I was always pressing for Bernard I tended to prioritize outrageous or ludicrous designs. Of the 271, these are the ones that raise my eyebrows the most:

On the left we have a penny showing the comic character Storm, which was pressed at Universal Studios. The detail is good but unfortunately the character is almost unrecognizable and you need to gaze very closely to even understand what you’re looking at. The next is a Pez character and I don’t think I need to go into details as to why it should never have been made. The third is a ‘likeness’ of Bruce Springsteen so bad I very much doubt anyone could identify him without the name at the bottom, and the M&M’s NYC fireman penny makes the Pez example look desirable

As for my favourites, after some consideration I decided on these four:

The top was obtained at Hirose Game Center in Akihabara and shows the player ship from the classic arcade game Darius (I assume you don’t need explanation as to why I love this penny). Then we have a Tardis obtained at the now-closed Dr Who Experience in Cardiff, Wales. The Ned Kelly one – pressed somewhere in Melbourne – I love for its ludicrousness (a penny featuring a criminal?), and of course I’m going to treasure a Nessie penny obtained at Loch Ness.

Now sorted and catalogued here, the pennies all live happily in a special dedicated book I bought for them, and this will now sit on a shelf or in a box forever. I’m not planning on adding to the collection – so no, you don’t have to press pennies for me if you find any! – unless I find a truly special or unusual design. But there’s enough nostalgia in this collection that I’m happy I own the ones I have

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