Movies – Page 2 – Robot Claw

Bikkuriman Star Wars Complete!

July 15, 2024

Last year in Japan, this happened. This year I succeeded in finding more.

The above is the full set of the second Bikkuriman Star Wars stickers, this time themed around the prequels. I bought this as a set, rather than a box of wafers, and it wasn’t cheap at ¥4500! As with the original set, the stickers are vibrant, cute and very sparkly:

The backs of the stickers are very similar to the first set including the ‘rumours’:

I dearly wish I had more of these since they’d be wonderful to actually use! Wouldn’t you love this on a postcard:

But my success didn’t stop there, since I also found this lone sealed wafer:

This is a from the third (and final) series of Bikkuriman Star Wars, called ‘Special Edition’. Although the wafer expired 8 years ago, I purchased it (for ¥800, or about $5) just for the sticker. And which one did I get…

Nothing! The pack didn’t have a sticker on it! I’ve opened many dozens of these in the past and this is the first time this has happened. I would have been raging if it wasn’t for the fact that I had also found…

The full set of series three as well! As you can see there’s a lot of variety in this third series, including lots of stickers showing character pairs, vehicles and battles. The set also contains four embossed stickers with a gold foil effect:

As with the previous sets these are all very metallic and sparkly and I would have loved to have extras to put on postcards. In fact I was looking forward to using the one that should have been in the empty wafer!

So now I have the full set of 72 Star Wars Bikkuriman stickers. They’re all sleeved and safe in a special chocolate sticker binder 🙂

But the search is not yet over, since there’s certain other sets of stickers I would still like to complete…

“Oh What A Lovely Day”

May 24, 2024

Saw Furiosa with Sue yesterday, on the giant ‘Vmax’ screen at Kotara. The seats were comfortable but the cinema was cold; probably the coldest I’ve felt yet this trip! I smuggled in a Chokito and a Wolverine coke can, although I use the term lightly since no one was checking anything and I probably could have lugged in a haunch of roasted meat.

The film was wonderful, and makes me want to rewatch all five Mad Max films again in order. I fear this may be the last Mad Max film, which will be a shame since it does a lot of weird worldbuilding that I’d like to see more of. Let’s hope Wasteland – the rumoured sixth film based around Max himself – is made.

I want to see Furiosa again actually. Maybe I’ll soon get a chance…

Five Droids

March 5, 2024

Just because I sold hundreds of Star Wars figures last year doesn’t mean I stopped buying them, but these days all I’ll pick up is a droid. And thankfully they almost never release any! Here’s five I’ve bought since the great sell-off about a year ago.

This first one was an R2-D2 released back in 2000 in packaging reminiscent of the original figures from the 1970s. I was in the tail end of my collecting days then and didn’t buy it, but recently picked up the above copy for a low price on Amazon and was amazed when it arrived in near mint condition after 23+ years!

I won’t discuss the history of the character since you all know who he is, but here’s a fun R2 fact: he’s appeared on four postage stamps!

This R4-G9 was amongst the very first Revenge Of The Sith figures released and by then (2006) I’d by and large stopped buying any figures. I recently picked the above copy up (also on Amazon) and she’s unusual enough I’m surprised I never bought her back then. Perhaps I simply never saw her?

As for the character, despite appearing with Obi-Wan her role in the film was so brief you probably forgot about her moments later. And if you hadn’t yet picked up on it, yes R4-G9 is a lady droid. Couldn’t you tell from the pink tint to her dome? 😉

I only purchased this Power Droid because it’s so ugly and weird, and I find the existence of a carded figure amusing. Another Amazon purchase, this one came in mint condition sealed in a custom shipping box and cost me considerably less than various online sites say it is ‘worth’.

This droid – long nicknamed ‘Gonk’ – dates all the way back to the original Star Wars. They have made many appearances in Star Wars movies and shows, such as in Rogue One as shown above. Gonks are just generators on legs with rudimentary intelligence, but endearing because of how ugly they are!

I’m not a big fan of the current ‘Retro’ line of figures that are sculpted to resemble the original 1970s lines. That said I love how tiny this Chopper figure is and didn’t hesitate buying him. I’ve got a thing for little droids in tiny bubbles!

Chopper (his ‘real’ name is C1-10P) is from Rebels and last year made his live action appearance in the Ahsoka series. He’s a bit of a rogue, and famously uses a garbled dialect that is almost legible. There’s a recent non-retro figure of him as well, which I’m sure I’ll get one day.

R4-D5 was in the original Star Wars, and famously if it wasn’t for his ‘bad motivator’ then Luke may have never adopted R2 and C-3PO. Decades ago I had the original R5-D4 figure, and recently I picked up the newly released version above as well.

R5-D4 was recently in the third season of Mandalorian, which was a mystery since it raised the question of where he had been for so long? The short version is that his encounter with R2 in the belly of a sandcrawler years prior eventually led him to the Rebellion where he loyally served for years. Oh and that bad motivator? That was self-sabotage to make sure Luke took R2. Good old R5-D4: he’s always been the hero 🙂