Banpresto's Ichiban Kuji Premium Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 2nd A's starting selling today (26th January). Many fans are queuing early in the morning before the selling starts in Akihabara, with people reporting about it with photos on twitter.
The Ichiban Kujis are basically lottery of which has various kinds of merchandise available for purchase via a lottery draw. Each are available in finite numbers, and usually there is a sheet indicating what has been sold / drawn and what hasn't.
Like most Ichiban Kuji series, the top 2 prizes are usually high quality PVC figures. Prize A is Takamachi Nanoha as depicted in the 2nd movie of Nanoha movie. This image of Nanoha figure on display in Gamers store was dated back earlier this month.
Prize B is Fate T Harlaown (aka Fate Testarossa).
Approximately 30 people queuing outside Gamers store at 6:25 am. (http://twitpic.com/by7ohi)
By 7:18 am, the number of people waiting outside Gamers store has doubled. (http://twitpic.com/by7ykp)
Tables with boxes of raffle tickets lined up outside the store entrance. (http://twitpic.com/by84pj)
Outside Volks Hobby Tengoku just a few blocks away, cartons and cartons of Nanoha Ichiban Kuji items are lined up ready for the sale. (via @mohukan)
Someone by the name of Ninja (にんじゃ, twitter username @NinjaExpress) bought a total of 192000 Yen worth of Nanoha Ichiban Kuji there, which amounts to 240 tickets! (http://twitpic.com/by807w)
The stockpile is astonishing to look at, even taking over the kitchen! While apparently not all of them are to himself, as he mentioned on twitter that these are shared with 8 others, this is still approximately 22000 Yen per person! (http://twitpic.com/by9lps & http://twitpic.com/bybx84)
The whole thing was sold out before noon, which was less than 4 hours in total.
Never underestimate the fans' eagerness to buy what they want. Wanna get something hot? You'd better beat them to it! o_o;
Info via Hachima Kikou (はちま起稿)
Other images from Seaside Tears 2 and @NinjaExpress
Holy crap - that is a freaking huge amount of stuff to buy. I can't say we have that type of love in the US as they don't have lotteries that much for merchandise.
ReplyDeleteIt truly amazes me what lengths people go to for the tickets.
While Hong Kong has access to such kuji items, I would imagine that it would be harder to acquire in many other countries. The thing with kuji is that the individual items don't have fixed prices, so the prices can be very flexible for aftermarket, and can be very scary to look at too...
DeleteThe sad thing is that, even at ¥22k, I think I spent that much on just 2 ichiban Kuji Sheryl Nome figures! In that case, surely lottery would be the way to go if I could!
ReplyDelete22,000 Yen would be an average for each of the 9 people's aquisition I suppose, with redundant items included. It could be more or less depending on the luck, but I can sure see why lottery / kuji can be the way to go.
DeleteAs for me, kujis are often not what I would desire, as I generally have rather bad luck, and the kuji items' aftermarket prices can be quite ridiculous sometimes...
That's insane, that guy spent over $2000...
ReplyDeleteI guess if I had that kind of money to spare I would do the same though.
He supposedly purchased the whole lot with a few others, but it's a scary number nonetheless.
DeleteOne may be off for a better chance to do the lottery. If lucky it's also a much cheaper way to get what s/he wants than to get something in the aftermarket. I wish I have that kind of luck too...