Saturday, June 25, 2011

Famicom Cushions and other Famicom Crap....I Mean Merchandise. Famicom Merchandise.

I was at Village Vanguard, a novelty store downtown, today. I did a post about them a few months ago as they sell Famicom games. They had some new Famicom crap in today though so I thought I'd take a few pictures and put them here.

The main thing of interest was the Famicom cushion. As the name implies it is a cushion and a Famicom: all in one.

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of novelty stuff like this. The attempt to cash in on my ironic sense of hipster nostalgia is just a bit too blatant. Still though, it was a nice try. It is actually two cushions, a Famicom cushion and a Famicom Disk System cushion:
They are tied together at the back, where you can also see the controller wire strings:
Which connect to the controllers:
It is really a shame that they display them wrapped in ugly plastic like this. I would have been much more tempted to buy one if they had displayed them nicely (like making a cushion Famicom Box or something). Usually Japanese stores are much better at stuff like that, Village Vanguard (and whoever manufactured these things) really dropped the ball there.

I was almost tempted to remove one from the plastic for the purposes of these photos. You know, the old:

"Cough Cough" (sound of plastic being torn) "Cough Cough"

routine. I didn't have the guts though.
Another problem is that they are made of this plastic-y type of material that doesn't look like it would be too comfortable. If I did have these I doubt I would use them as cushions much.

I suppose they would make for a rather cunning anti-Famicom theft device as you could put them under your TV when you go out of town and burglars would be tricked into stealing your Famicom (and Famicom Disk System) cushions rather than your actual Famicom (and Famicom Disk System).

The problem with that is that these pillows actually cost more than a Famicom (and Famicom Disk System), so you'd have been better off just letting the burglars take the real thing.

Anyway, these are about 3300 yen if anyone is interested.

They had some other kind of interesting Famicom related crap lying around. Like this handbag:
Must have been an imported one.

They also had these carrying cases:
Not too sure what it was for. I guess you could keep your Famicom controller in there or something.

And a little box that contains Space Invaders:
And some Mario dolls:
And more Mario dolls:
And Mario mobiles:
And boxes shaped like blocks from Mario:
And Luigi hats:
And a bucket of actual Famicom games:
I didn't buy a thing.
Link
Related Posts:
- Fukuoka Famicom Shops V: Village Vanguard and Don Quixote
- Famicom and Game & Watch Stuff From Loft

9 comments:

  1. That little box over the Space Invaders box reminds me of the Hudson quick-tap LCD devices (the ones that can time how many taps you can punch in an NES controller per second). Some of the design is different - I have one of the little buggers myself - but that was the first thing I thought of when I saw that holder.

    Your blog just reminds me of why I want to go back to visit Japan again so badly...

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  2. That Hudson quick tap think sounds cool. I kind of want one to see how I stack up against Takahashi Meijin!

    And thanks. I take it you have visited these shores before? It pleases me to no end to think that my blog might encourage Japan-tourism:)

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  3. Hm... aren't those the same Famicom/FDS pillows that are seen in many of JewWario's videos? I'd love to have some pillows like that, even if the packing wasn't that great~

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  4. Hmmmm...probably - how many types of Famicom pillows can there be out there? :) I've only seen one of those videos and don't remember.

    They are kind of cool, eh? Very accurate and detailed.

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  5. Hello, I'm reading your blog for a while and I'm going to visit Fukuoka for a month starting this Saturday. Can you give me addresses of all the shops you mentioned in the blog? I'm a big Nintendo and retro gaming fan. I'll be a student in GenkiJACS, so we can even meet (If you want) when you visit Mandarake.
    Great blog BTW, keep it up!

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  6. Hi CK. Enjoy your stay in Fukuoka, it is a nice little city!

    Unfortunately having the addresses of the shops won't help you to find them (in Japan addresses are not very useful for that purpose).

    The easiest way is to go to Google Maps, centre the map on Fukuoka, and just do a search for the store name.

    To find Mandarake you can just enter its name in English and you can find it pretty easily (it is in Daimyo, between the Tenjin and Akasaka subway stations). For Omocha Souko you'll have to enter its name in Japanese, which is:

    おもちゃ倉庫

    Its a bit of a pain in the ass to get to, the one near Kaizuka station is the best.

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  7. Haha, there's stores like this in Sao Paulo too, I like some of these kinds of things but they're usually too expensive. I would be tempted by that blue smiling guy though! Is he a Chao from Sonic Adventure?

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  8. Interesting!

    I`m not sure about the blue guy. I actually thought he looked like one of the bad guys from Bomberman!

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  9. Oh yeah, you're probably right! :P

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