Year 9: October Update

It's October and I always do a blog update this month so that I can post the McDonald's Halloween sign! Last month and into this month I went a little off topic as I posted a lot about Japan, or maybe it wasn't too off topic since I did share some things related to toys and video games. In any case, I'll try to get some posts up by the end of the year in relation to video game ads, the reason I started the blog. I acquired some old issues of Starlog magazine that have a few nice ads and when time permits, I still look through comic books for more ads. Something that I've actually posted about over the years are ornaments, and this year Hallmark has created one of the best Star Wars ornaments. This one features Chewbacca playing Dejarik against R2-D2 on the Millennium Falcon. It's a light-and-sound ornament that has video too, but at $99.99 it is pricey, and doesn't even come with the required power cord. As usual, Hallmark has a lot of pop culture ornaments and I won't mention them all here, but some highlights include a Luke Skywalker action figure in vintage Kenner packaging, Megatron, Xbox 360, the Fantastic Four, Fruity Pebbles, and Kool-Aid Man.

Shortly after the last update I wrote in August, I came across LEGO's newest Death Star set that has since released earlier this month and costs $999.99. It does include 38 minifigures, if that makes the price any easier to swallow. Plus, LEGO posted a teaser video last month that indicates Star Trek sets are on the way. More recently, it unveiled a set from its "Ideas" line of the pirate ship from the 1980's movie The Goonies. The $329.99 set releases on November 4th.

 

Last week I came across Tomy Plus, a division of Tomy International, itself a subsidiary of Takara Tomy. I'm just a bit behind on this as Tomy Plus started in 2023, and some of its projects are crowdfunded, like the recent 1:10 scale, highly-detailed replica of Knight Rider's K.I.T.T. It cost $399 to back the impressive collectible car that features voice recognition, lights, "Super Pursuit" mode, and a rotating license plate.

In video game news, Electronic Arts (EA) is being acquired by an investment consortium for $55 billion, and that is expected to be finalized in early 2027. Although the investors are based in a few countries, the primary one is Saudi Arabia, and so it will no longer be an American company. EA was one of my favorite Commodore 64 developers and publishers, along with MicroProse, Epyx, and Interplay. In the '90s it grew substantially thanks in large part to its successful sports games, and I understand why a lot of game players grew to dislike EA, as tends to be the case with most large corporations. However, EA is arguably the most significant third-party game publisher, one that I thought would acquire more of its competitors, rather than being acquired itself. Maybe not much will change, though I tend to think this is a bad deal, and under new ownership the company is likely to focus more on online-only games with numerous microtransactions.

While I've been talking about Japan possibly too much of late, I should mention that the Tokyo Game Show was held at the end of September. For myself, the biggest announcement was that Forza Horizon 6 will be set in... Japan! Yep, more Japan. I've not even played Forza Horizon 5 yet despite it being one of my favorite game series. That's because of my out-of-date hardware, though I hope to upgrade my computer soon. October 18th was the 40th anniversary of the Nintendo Entertainment System's North American release. I probably could have come up with a post for that, but I haven't had much time and my video game magazines don't date back to 1985. Speaking of retro consoles, Atari is going to release a plug-and-play Intellivision console that has 45 built-in games and includes controller overlays. Dubbed the Intellivison Sprint, it is now available to pre-order at a price of $149.99. That price is on the high side for this type of device, but for fans that don't still own the classic Mattel Electronics console, it does look very much like the original system minus the controller cords (the controllers are wireless).

Now it's time for the McDonald's sign. Happy Halloween!

Thanks for reading,

Jonathan

Random Japan

As I was writing a blog update for this month, where I was going to cap off my coverage of Japan, I decided that I had enough to make one more post. It's not a lot, just two more things to mention. One is a store at an Aeon Mall in Asahikawa where I walked around a place called Village/Vanguard. The small store squeezed in a wide variety of things, like toys, clothing, manga, and candy. One of the photos I took is of Monchhichi toys. If you are a kid of the '80s, you'll probably remember Monchhichis. The toys first released in Japan in 1974 by the Sekiguchi Corporation, and then Mattel brought them to the U.S. in 1980, and in 1983 we got a Monchhichi cartoon. According to Wikipedia, there are still some stores selling them in North America and they continue to be popular in Europe, and I'd have to assume Japan too.

I showed some Pokémon photos in the A Few Things From Japan post, and I have a few more. As I wandered around Hokkaido, I took photos of six Pokémon manhole covers. These can be found throughout the whole country and there are many more in Hokkaido than the six I photographed. I also noticed that Vulpix appears on all of the manhole covers I saw. That's the same pocket monster that was on the ANA airplane I flew on, as well as a vending machine I found next to one of the manhole covers.

That puts a wrap on my trip to Japan. Sorry if I wrote too much about it. I hope some of you enjoyed the posts!

Namco (Sapporo, Japan)

While I did search for arcades during my vacation in Japan, most of what I came across were locations dedicated to skill (or luck) games, like UFO catchers, and gacha machines. I had primarily wanted to see what a Japanese arcade is like, someplace dedicated to classic and modern video games, but I couldn't find anything like that. This Namco business in the Sapporo Factory shopping center is largely gachas and skill games, however, it does have some actual Namco and Nintendo video games. I saw Time Crisis 4, Luigi Mansion Arcade, linked Mario Karts, and Tatsu no Tatsujin (Taiko: Drum Master). There is also a Pong game, though it isn't a video game, it is something with physical parts more akin to air hockey. I don't have photos of everything as I was trying to avoid taking pics of people. Plus, sometimes I just forgot to take photos of things, in part because I did play a few games here and at a place that didn't allow photography, and I never won anything.

Toys "R" Us (Kushiro, Japan)

Just like the previous post about Toys Yoshida in Asahikawa, I photographed another toy store in Hokkaido. Asahikawa has a Toys "R" Us store too, but I didn't have time to get to that part of the city. Instead, I went to the Toys "R" Us store in Kushiro when I had a rental car. A few years ago I photographed a Toys "R" Us in Canada as well, and I believe it's the same company that owns the brand in both countries. Other than product differences, this felt very much like a Toys "R" Us you'd find in North America. One thing that stood out is that this Toys "R" Us only carries Nintendo consoles, no PlayStation, and not surprisingly, no Xbox. I didn't see any Xbox merchandise anywhere I went, which I expect is normal throughout most of Japan, especially in the areas that I visited. 

Some of these photos didn't come out too good. Apparently, my phone switched between HD and a much lower resolution when I was here, and the quality difference is obvious. I don't use my phone for photos a lot and never noticed that setting, so now it's set to only take the higher quality images.