Kotobukiya Darth Vader on the Cheap

Star Wars fans can now get their hands on Kotobukiya's Episode 3 Star Wars 1/7 Scale Darth Vader Pre-Painted figure. This official Star Wars figurine is approximately 310mm in height and is now available at a discount at Play-Asia!

Ultimate Captain America Figurine Fire Sale

In conjunction with Marvel Comics putting up part of its comics library online, particularly those issues showcasing the debut of popular characters, why not also get an action figure of a recently deceased super hero, at a heavily discounted price?

Enter Marvel Legends Series 8 Pre-Painted Action Figure: Ultimate Captain America. Sure it's Captain America from The Ultimates, but it's still the Cap.


According to the packaging, the Cap has 42 points of articulation, comes with a custom poster book, wall mountable display stand and a Marvel VS. system trading card.

He's going for USD 12.99 at Play-Asia. Click here for purchase details. And yes, I just ordered one.

Fancy Zelda Gashapon?

Fans of the Zelda series from Nintendo better be prepared with their credit cards/Paypal funds as Yujin's The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess Figure Collection Gashapon is now available for sale on Play-Asia! Click here for details.

Gift Recommendations - For a Video Gamer

Remember that rather pissed-off chap, Kratos, from the God of War games? Well, he is on sale (literally) on Play-Asia. Kratos figurines produced by Neca are selling for a discounted price of USD 14.99 each, and when combined with free shipping, cheaper than what you might find on eBay.

Check out the pictures:

1. God of War Action Figure: Kratos, for further details, click here.


2. God of War Action Figure: Kratos Golden Fleece, for further details, click here.

P/S: I want one of these for Christmas ya.

Got to Get 'Em All?

Gashapon (Capsule Toys)...once you buy one, you'll want to continue to collect them all. Previously I made the mistake of purchasing a single gashapon from the Animal Crossing collection only to find out that the collection sold out a couple of days later, preventing me from completing my collection.

So, when word got out last Sunday that gashapons from a new Animal Crossing collection were available for sale, I made an order for all 8 figures. Play-Asia's free shipping option is pretty fast as I received the package this morning.

These figures come in the same size and in the same stackable display cases as those from the previous collection (review available here). The difference is that the figures from this new collection are a tie-in to the new Animal Crossing movie released in Japan.

Out of the 8 figures, I can only identify several familiar faces, such as Tom Nook, Redd, Blathers and the cab driver. The quality of the gashapon is high and the figurines themselves are well painted, capturing the look and feel from their video game (or perhaps, movie) counterparts. My only gripe is that some of the figurines don't stay stuck to their display case bases. I use a tiny amount of water soluble glue to resolve this problem.

That minor issue aside, these figurines do look cool stacked together. There are nine in the picture as I included my previous gashapon with the rest of the set:

Get your own set of Animal Crossing Gashapons from Play-Asia (here)

What Came Karting Through the Mail?

I like Mario Kart DS just as the next Nintendo DS owner does. I may not race as well as WFC regulars but I sure love the game for its amazing racing experience and replayability. So when I bumped into Mario Kart gashapon on sale at Play-Asia, I quickly jumped at the opportunity to own the whole set.

The "Nintendo BOX Figure Collection Part 6: Mario Kart DS Racing Collection", as it is called, is produced by Yujin and consists of 4 different characters which are Bowser, Peach, Mario and Luigi. I managed to get the complete set and having seen the figurines up close, I must say I am pretty impressed with the attention to detail with Bowser and his thorny shell being an excellent testament to their quality.


These figurines come on wind-up karts with rubber wheels; push them backwards to make them go forward.

Each figurine costs USD 2.90 and it tooked a week to arrive at my place via free shipment. Ordering four figures does not gurantee a full set, unlike my case, as figurines are random. Get your very own set at Play-Asia.com (here)

Connect the Pegs

Trust the Land of the Rising Sun to come up with something quirky. Some call it a puzzle, some call it weird, some call it "some more Japanese stuff", just what are they referring to? These are some comments I got for a push-peg puzzle which I purchased just recently with my copy of Winning Eleven DS (review here).

Produced by Tomytec of Japan, the push-peg puzzle that I purchased is one part of 6 puzzles that make up the Dot-S Collection Nintendo Version. This Nintendo licensed collection commemorates characters from notable game franchises such as Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong.

Each push-peg puzzle comes with a push peg board and quite a number of pegs for you to recreate the pixelated form of a particular video game character. The one that I've got features Link from the Zelda series. I was provided with enough pegs to depict Link in two different kinds of poses, one from the front and the other from the side.


Additional "recipes" can be found at the Dot-S website, although you may need pegs from more than one puzzle to actually accomplish some.

To get your very own push-peg puzzle at Play-Asia.com, click here!

Short Stuff

According to its Wikipedia article, a gashapon translates as a "trading toy". It's also commonly known as capsule toy due to the nature that they come in capsule dispensed from vending machines. Capsule toys have been around for as long as I've known and even when I was a kid, the neighbourhood sundry store used to have vending machines at the store front to entice kids to spent 20 to 50 cents a capsule.

Japanese capsule toys differ in a sense that the capsule toys are of higher quality and the price per capsule is certainly more expensive, ranging from RM 4 to RM 8 and more often than not, the contents are collectible items in a series. The vending machines can be found not in sundry shops, but in shopping centres, Japanese supermarket chains such as Jusco or toy stores such as Toys 'r' Us.

This little fella came along with my Electroplankton package and basically this is an example of how a gashapon looks like outside its capsule.

The reason for it being added to my package was that I needed to bring my order price to slightly above USD 50 (Electroplankton by itself was USD 48.90) in order to qualify for a USD 5 discount. This little fella cost USD 1.99.

This gashapon is part of a series featuring characters from the game Animal Crossing. All together they are 7 of them to collect.