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Con Haul

Tuesday, August 26th, 2025

Here are some of the items I got at the con. I’m not including the half dozen or so volumes of manga (mostly isekai trash) or the many stationary items (postcards and stickers) since I haven’t yet decided which will be gifts and you may even see a postcard in your mailbox one day.

The above is an English ‘special edition’ of the Weekly Young Magazine, a Japanese manga weekly from Kodansha. This is a hefty (1000+ pages) volume containing the first chapters of 14 series translated into English. Readers can vote on which ones they want to see serialized, but it’s unclear whether this format (an anthology magazine) will continue or if they’ll be serialized online.

This is a beautiful book, printed in Japan and with the same feel as the Japanese anthologies. I had to join a longish line to get one (for free) at the con, and the next day I saw a big pile just sitting around for the taking at Kinokuniya in the city!

This is a vinyl figure of a kaiju that I bought from the designer. The monster itself is from an old (1980s) Korean film which I’d never heard of, but the guy who designed this figure also designed two of the kaiju in the recent Godzilla x Kong film and had a few impressive 3D prints of his work on display. His was a somewhat out-of-place booth for an anime con but I’d been looking for a vinyl kaiju figure and this one wasn’t expensive and scratched the itch.

There were hundreds of anime figures available, almost all of the prize variety. I’ve got loads of these BiCute girls, and picked up the above two at the con. Prices were extremely good – possibly due to competition? – and had I more space I probably would have bought more.

Bandai had a display and shop for Gundam kits, as well as an area where you could sit and make a beginners version for free. I charmed the dude into letting me take one! I like that it’s on a single runner, and will certainly assemble it one day.

I got the above clear file at the Japan Tourist Board exhibit. I was just throwing all the free handouts into my bag and didn’t even notice it was a clear file until I got back to the hotel. It promotes a 2022 short anime that reimagines Japanese castles as transforming robots, which was partially funded by local tourism agencies.

Loads of exhibitors were selling TCG cards, mostly Pokemon and One Piece, but one booth seemed to specialize in Weiss. I’d been considering buying a Weiss box for a while, they had them for a decent price, so I bought this Nikke one. I’ll let it age a year or few before opening.

Speaking of TCGs there were also a few being launched at the con. They all had the whiff of scam about them – companies wanting to cash in on the current TCG mania – but I wasn’t going to decline a free promo card. Maybe I can sell it for a fortune and retire one day. Or maybe not 😉

I’ve put most of ‘the cute stuff’ together. This is what I bought specifically for Kristin, and all of it came from artist alley booths. The envelope with Korean text is a blind pack of animal stickers, and the frog pin was also a blind box item. The bottom left is a capybara coaster. Had KLS been with me we would have purchased much more like this!

Even though it wasn’t a con purchase, here’s a bonus pic: dollar-bin comics purchased at Midtown Comics. I have no interest in recent superhero comics, but always find the late 80s and early 90s stuff a fun read. I wonder which of these will be best and which worst?

Posted in Anime, Books & Comics, Cards, Collecting, Models, Otaku, Toys | No Comments »

Not-LEGO Apothecary

Monday, August 18th, 2025

It’s time for another ‘brick toy’ set by a LEGO competitor. This times it’s this ‘Medieval Apothecary’ by a company called FunWhole:

I bought this a few months ago for about $60 on Amazon, although the price seems to have gone up a bit since then. I chose this because the reviews were excellent, it includes lighting, and due to its similarity to the medieval blacksmith set from LEGO.

Opening the box reveals a lengthy full-colour instruction manual, 21 bags of pieces, and a box for the light elements. As with today’s LEGO sets, this one is built in numbered stages so you only open two or three bags at a time.

The large instruction book is very nice. Heavily influenced by LEGO, the illustrations are clear and easy to follow, and include elements like alternate angles to make the fiddly steps of inserting the wires for the lights easier.

The light elements themselves are bricks with built in LED lights connected by very fine wires. The finished model has about ten lights in total, and I was surprised to see it’s a single circuit powered by three AA batteries.

While there are a lot of aftermarket sets to add lights to existing LEGO kits, LEGO themselves rarely includes light bricks. My guess is this is due to difficulty: I suspect younger children would find installing the lights in this set quite challenging.

The above shows how the wires are installed in and around the other pieces, and on the finished kit they are mostly invisible. The set contains male and female bricks with matching +/- terminals so the top floor of the building can be removed with affecting the wiring, which is impressive.

The above photo shows the (unfinished) top floor, and you can see three of the light elements have become candles in the chandelier and a flame for a stove.

Even more than the UFO set I reviewed a month or so ago, the bricks in this set feel exactly like LEGO. They have the same grip and are in most cases identical, although there are a few I’d not seen before including ones designed to allow the tiny wires to run under them.

The set includes a few stickers, and these were much better than LEGO. While LEGO uses simple vinyl stickers, this set had decals that are rubbed on and then almost seem like they have been printed on the piece when the plastic top layer is removed. This is exactly what LEGO needs to switch to!

It’s not all as good (or better): since LEGO still has a trademark on their minifigs, the competitors need to design their own and these guys just look a bit… wrong. I’ve chosen to display the finished building without them 🙂

Here it is displayed in our curio next to the LEGO Medieval Blacksmith, and you can see they are the same scale and match nearly perfectly.

The lighting is truly impressive and although I’ll never really use it as you can see it looks great especially in the dark.

Many of the lights are interior and illuminate the well-detailed rooms of the apothecary. This kit has a lot of play value for kids and I would have loved this when I was young.

This is a phenomenal kit. The instructions showcase other sets made by this company and they have some themes – like ‘steampunk’ and ‘wild west’ – that LEGO has barely touched. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I buy more from this company.

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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

Ramen Universes Beyond: Tamagotchi

Sunday, July 13th, 2025

Its been half a year, so you’ve undoubtedly been wondering when the next licensed ramen review was coming. Worry no longer; it’s time for Tamagotchi!

Tamagotchi are the original ‘digital pets’ that were first released almost 30 years ago. The toys are still available in many (including retro) forms, but the characters are also available on a wide range of merchandise. In Japan, Cup Star is using them to sell instant noodles, such as this soy sauce flavoured example:

Apparently there are 20 different lids, each featuring graphics from the 29-year history of Tamagotchi devices. I wonder if collectors are going mad trying to collect all of them?

Opening the lid revealed an impressive-looking product, generously filled with pieces of egg, shrimp and unidentified brown rocks. To my surprise it smelled good, and I immediately became curious about the taste.

I added hot water and let it steep for three minutes, and the above shows the finished product. It smelled even tastier cooked, and unlike most of the (over) 70 ramens I’ve tried these past years it was with no hesitation that I extended my fork…

My verdict: actually quite good! If I had cooked this up in my Hakodate hotel room I would have been perfectly happy with it, and it’s only due to me simultaneously preparing a chicken ramen that I didn’t eat it all. Special props need to be given to the tiny shrimp, which rehydrated well and were very tasty.

As mentioned I purchased this in Hakodate, at a large and impressive supermarket. It was part of a large endcap display with all sorts of standees and point-of-sale graphics, none of which I bothered translating. This was a mistake, since I didn’t know that buying one entitled me to a free sticker, which almost certainly would have gone on that day’s postcard. 🙂

Posted in Food, Ramen, Toys | Comments Closed

Not-LEGO UFO

Thursday, July 10th, 2025

Bernard generously sent me the above: a Tuomo brick-building kit of a UFO. Tuomo is a competitor to LEGO, and a well-reviewed one as well. Let’s build the kit and see how it is!

Much like LEGO, the pieces are separated into bag groups, numbered 1 through 3. These correspond to steps in the instruction book, to make assembly more streamlined.

The instruction book was in a bit of a state since it seemed to have been shoved into the box after all the bags. This has never happened with a LEGO kit, which usually protects its instructions in a cardboard envelope. Happily the book wasn’t damaged, just folded.

The instructions included steps with many more pieces than the average LEGO kit. I’m in the camp that believes LEGO has gone too far in recent years as far as dumbing-down instructions so I think this is actually a plus. It reminds me of LEGO instructions from my youth.

The pieces are the same size and look and feel like LEGO. The vast majority of the pieces in this particular kit are identical to LEGO pieces, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they all are. I could only detect two obvious differences: the ‘grip’ of the pieces seems stronger than LEGO, and of course they don’t have the LEGO logo on them!

The kit includes some metallic silver pieces. I’m sure LEGO have these, but I can’t remember seeing any (aside from little coins in the castle kits). I can’t tell if these are painted or cast with metallic plastic, but they look good and you can even see my reflection in the curved one.

There are no stickers, which is a massive positive. LEGO claims stickers keep costs down, but this kit has about twenty printed pieces and is much less expensive than LEGO.

It includes a light brick, which is turned on by twisting the top. The LED and battery seem to be sealed inside the brick and not replaceable, but I believe this is true for LEGO versions now as well (like the flame in the medieval blacksmith kit).

And lastly before I get to the assembly, the instructions contained a single error. You’ll see it asks for three corner bricks with a diagonal face, but the bags actually contained two normal corners and only one with the cut face. The diagram itself matched the bricks provided, so it was just the bricks listed in the blue box that were wrong, but it was an error regardless.

This could potentially be confusing for a builder, but I’ll forgive it since the diagram is clear and I’ve had LEGO kits with errors in instructions as well.

The base is built first. Previously in these Chinese brick kits I’ve seen things like woeful instructions, poor structural integrity or questionable engineering but this was solid, easy to put together and rests flat on the table. I’ll say this again, but if I didn’t know otherwise I’d just assume this was LEGO.

I didn’t take a lot of photos of the saucer assembly, but I found the design ingenious especially the ring that held the top and bottom halves together. This is a hidden-stud model, which means the top and bottom halves are inverted, and I was impressed by how this was achieved in a relatively small model.

Notably the kit has no minifig. While LEGO no longer has a copyright on the brick designs, they do on minifigures, which is why the competitors either have different figures or omit them entirely. The alien in this kit is made of sixteen pieces, but I believe the model would be better with an alien minifig in the cockpit.

And here’s the final product! The saucer sits on top of the ‘tractor beam’ and the light brick is underneath the saucer and easy to turn on or off.

And here’s what it looks like with the light on. I’ve placed my only minifig inside to show scale, and I think you’ll agree it looks fairly good.

This is a well-designed model, was fun to build and looks good made. This is by far the best LEGO competitor I’ve ever built, although it feels weird to call it that since the pieces are essentially identical. I don’t remember exactly how much this cost but I know it’s significantly less than were it an actual LEGO product, which is another positive. In short, this is essentially LEGO with a different name.

This is another example of why LEGO is under increasing pressure from these competitors, and why their prices are increasingly eye-opening as these competitors become more widely distributed. And as good as this particular mode is, I’ve read that another LEGO competitor makes an even higher-quality product so I’ve bought one of theirs and you’ll see it here as well one day.

Posted in Miscellaneous, Models, Toys | 5 Comments »

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