Category: Collecting

Can Collection Update (& Japan Pickups)

June 23, 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 🙂

Japan Pickups: Wizardry

June 20, 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…

Game Boys

June 12, 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 🙂

Robot Claw