Category: Otaku

Hexagons!

Back in 2015 Topps released an unusual ‘collectible’ product called Galactic Connexions. Basically they were Star Wars hard plastic tokens with pictures on them:

They were Wal-Mart exclusives, not particularly easy to find in stores, and as far as I thought at the time, a very strange product that seemed like it didn’t have much of a market.

The ‘hexagons’ (which I’ll call them from now on) came in three base rarities (grey, black and clear plastic) with three further rarity levels based on the sticker finish (normal, foil, patterned foil).

In addition there were several levels of chase hexagon available in a variety of colours and foils, including stupendously rare 14k solid gold hexagons available via a redemption.

There’s also an additional rarity in the form of the blue ‘star field’ hexagons that were only available in promo bags given out at a Star Wats event at Walmart in 2015. This was in fact the first hexagons I got, since KLS happened upon a handout of these promo bags one day when she went shopping.

The backs of the hexagons are all the same, only with the ‘1st edition’ removed for later releases. Weirdly I have a single disc with the sticker from the back on each side. Was it some sort of promo? I forget…

So what are these for? We’ll it’s actually a game! Players form ‘decks’ of seven hexagons and score points by placing them adjacent to others a bit like dominoes. Scoring is slightly complicated and depends on the colour of the hexagons, the character shown and the lines at the edges of the image. I’ve never played the game, but I’ve read it gets boring almost instantly.

So they’re basically collectibles. A plastic hexagonal trading card, if you will. Given that almost all of them occur at each rarity then it’s a weird product to try to collect (since there could be up to 17 versions of each hexagon), and they’re not really as attractive as the average trading card. They’re also somewhat heavy in large quantities and trickier to store than cards. As I said, this is a strange product.

As far as I could tell at the time these failed quickly and spectacularly. I only purchased a couple of packets of them when they first came out, but I remember finding them in the clearance section within weeks. When series 2 and 3 came out within the next few months, they seemed to instantly be on clearance and I don’t remember paying full price for more than a very few of the 100 or so I now own. Series 3 was particularly tricky to find, probably because the line had failed by then and most Walmart’s didn’t stock them.

So I bought some, opened them, stuck them in a tin and forgot about them for 6 years. Then – to my amazement – I found three packs of series 3 at a local Walmart just a few weeks ago. And much like 5+ years ago, they were in the clearance bin!

Naturally I bought them, and opened them up. I retrieved the tin, took them all out for a second look (and this blog post) and was amused to see that I didn’t have any of the new hexagons I just opened. Unfortunately I didn’t get the redemption hexagon for the 14k gold one, which was probably for the best since the mailing date expired five years ago!

Now they’re all safely packed back into their tin, where they will probably stay forever 🙂

Ramen 10: I’m Not Stopping!

I’m not reviewing ramen today, just showing off a recent purchase. Specifically this:

It’s a noodle stopper, which is a figurine designed to help keep the top on cup noodles while they steep. Most of us probably use a fork or plate or some other device, but now you can use a cute figurine:

Yes this is a real figure designed for this use. They are made by the Japanese company Furyu mostly as UFO Catcher prizes, although the days you can just buy them on amazon. Mine is Hatsune Miku in a cherry blossom outfit, and I’m astonished at the sculpting and paint job considering how inexpensive she was ($20)! She also sits on the noodles very well and keeps the top nice and sealed while the hot water does its job.

Of course since I don’t want to damage her I won’t actually be using her for this purpose, and instead she’ll sit happily on a ledge in my office to remind that a piping hot cup of noodles is only a few steps away:

Noodle stoppers: an essential tool for the cupnoodologist! 🙂

Chitocerium

It’s time for a new model kit. I don’t often do posts about kits these days, but this one is unusual:

It’s a tiny cat kit! This is one of several kits in a new line called Chitocerium, which apparently means ‘the protectors of the gates between worlds’. Yes it’s silly, but the kits are cool.

This kit is small and inexpensive (about $10) and all the pieces fit in the palm of your hand. It’s an easy one to build, but sandpapering down the flash was a little tricky due to the tiny scale. This segment for instance was made from 5 different pieces:

About a quarter of the total pieces in the kits are tails! There’s 8 to choose from; which one would you pick:

It took me only about ten minutes to assemble, and is very small but can be posed in many familiar cat poses. It’s an extraordinary kit for its size. Here it is next to a LEGO minifig;

As the box suggests this comes in two colours, and the line also includes some extraordinary figure kits of android girls (one of which I have). Given that this is a line from a company (Good Smile) not necessarily known for plastic model kits, I’m impressed.