Hi all!
Well, not everything happening is related to the CG film. There have been a lot of little things happening in Japan that, while not necessarially available to people outside of that country, should at least be noted.
First off, the Kewpie Gatchaman figure straps are now out. These are going to be followed next month by a ballpoint pen with a Kewpie Ken figure on it. You can see a picture of it at the bottom of this page:
Kewpie Ken Pen
In December a third Kewpie item, a "Squeeze" figure will be released. I haven't found any pictures of the Gatchaman version of this yet, but from other examples of this type of figure I've found, it appears that it will be a soft vinyl figure similar in nature to your average kids bathtub rubber ducky.
Next, a chain of stores in Japan named Fotoist is carrying a line of kids goods (Clothing, lunch boxes, notebooks, and the like) with Tatsunoko characters on them. Many of the designs are based on the "Tatsunoko Style" artwork created by Play Set Products. These are being sold under the title of "Blender of Tinkerbell." No, I don't know why they use that name.
The Fotoist website has some pictures of the characters, but not of the products. They have images of both the regular version of the Tatsunoko characters and the Tatsunoko Style versions. If you want to see them, they can be found at:
Fotoist Website
The Tatsunoko website has some pictures of the actual products, though only one with a Gatchaman design (A sprial-bound notebook with a Tatsunoko Style Jun on the cover). These can be found at:
Tatsunoko Style
On that same page, just beneath the Fotoist items, you'll see pictures of some Tatsunoko Style products that were prizes from the Daily Yamazaki stores. If you bought enough items from their stores between August 1st and August 27th, you would be entered into a drawing. 70 people won a Nintendo DS Lite that came with an original carrying pouch with Tatsunoko Style Gatchaman characters on it. 1,000 people won a trio of book cards valued at 500 yen each, which could be used to pay for rental books. One of the three cards had the Tatsunoko Style Gatchaman characters on it. You can see additional pictures of the prizes at:
Daily Yamazaki
and at:
Daily Yamazaki Nintendo DS Lite Giveaway
Then there's the announcement from Kotobuki Solution that they will be launching a Gatchaman-themed RPG game to be played over cell phones. The game will be available through several outlets in Japan starting in December. The press release for this can be found here:
Kotobuki Solution Press Release
And what better way to play that game than on your very own Gatchaman cell phone?! That's right, the SoftBank online shop is working with fanfun.815t to release a series of Tatsunoko-themed cell phones. The phones are supposed to be available by the end of September, but currently the SoftBank website only has a "Coming Soon" type of placemarker for them. I assume this will update in the near future to show the actual phones, as well as listing their price. The page on the SoftBank website that has the placemarker can be found at:
SoftBank Website
Bear in mind that the websites listed above are all in Japanese, though most do have some pictures.
And that should bring you up-to-date on the current Gatchaman happenings in Japan. See, while we've been concentrating on the CG film, Japan has merrily been going along, releasing new Gatchaman items at their usual pace. Now to try to track them all down...
James
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