I saw some Japanese Star Wars Bikkuriman stickers around the internet, including the card blogs Torren' Up Cards and This Card is Cool. Upon further research I found that there were three different series of these wafers packaged with stickers. One series covers the original Star Wars IV-V-VI trilogy, one is based on the I-II-III prequels, and one covers all six films and carries the label Special Edition.
I located boxes of the Special Edition wafers for sale on one of my favorite Japanese shopping sites (the same place I get my unopened BBM True Heart Wrestling cards) for about $20 less than the going rate for a Special Edition sticker set on eBay, even after shipping. The sets contain 24 stickers each, and a box of wafers contains 30 pieces. I'd heard that a box will get you a full set, so I made my order and waited f...o...r...e...v...e...r (several days) while the box made its way across the ocean, through customs, and onto my doorstep. I took a bunch of pictures so that you can enjoy the unboxing with me.
Here is the top of the box. It's got a nice little scene featuring a duel between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, along with a representation of the wafers. I am guessing the text in the lower right lets you know that there are 24 different stickers. Up above is the packing information and handling instructions.
This is one side of the box. It's got some more art on it, with young Anakin in his podracer and R2-D2 doing his droid thing.
The back of the box shows Han Solo and Princess Leia as well as the Millennium Falcon.
Finally, the other side of the box shows the podracer art again and C-3PO accompanying R2-D2, along with probably a lot number and an expiration date.
This is what the box looks like with the seal broken and the lid folded up into display mode.
And here it is from the front. The box front features droids again, with R2-D2 accompanied by the head of C-3PO.
There are two different pack designs. One features the same art as the box top, and the other combines the podracer and droid art from the side of the box. The back of the packs contains a lot of text. I can pick out a few things, but a lot of it is a mystery. I think the part of the text under the flap details a redemption contest, where specially-marked stickers can be mailed in for a prize. I didn't get any of the mail-in stickers. Nutrition information wraps around the side of the pack.
Opening the pack reveals the wafer sitting in a little cardboard tray. This one was a little crumbled, probably because it was in the corner of the box where any impacts would affect it directly.
Under the wafer is the sticker. The stickers in this box were just packed in with the wafers. I have heard that some Bikkuriman stickers are wrapped individually. Some of the stickers had a fair amount of wafer flakes and chocolate bits on them. I cleaned them up as best I could.
 |
| Top Row: 1, 2, 3, 4, 9 Bottom Row: 11, 12, 13, 14, 17 |
The first 20 stickers are in order by episode, but the foil stickers didn't scan well and I had to separate them out from the non-foil stickers. The last four stickers feature a gold finish and come from Episode IV, V, and VI.
It's hard to pick favorites out of this batch. I like them all! The sticker with R2-D2 and C-3PO's head is a good one. I like the one with Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Luke. The vehicles are all cool stickers. That Han Solo and Leia sticker is a good one, too.
 |
| Top Row: 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 Bottom Row: 15, 16, 18, 19, 20 |
These silver foil stickers didn't scan well at all. They didn't photograph particularly well, either, but I did the best I could. My favorites here are probably Boba Fett with Han Solo in carbonite, the Luke / Vader duel, Vader with his shuttle, and the Death Star.
 |
| Top Row: 21, 22 Bottom Row: 23, 24 |
The four gold foil stickers scanned pretty well. They are all pretty good, but I like the one with Yoda on Luke's back and the one with the Emperor using his Force lightning on Darth Vader best.
I scanned the backs of the stickers for the sake of completeness, but I can't read them. All I know is that the titles in the upper center match the text on the front of the sticker, the film the image is based on is listed in the upper left, the card number is in the upper right, and the Disney and Star Wars logos are in the lower half.
This was a pretty fun box to open. I did wind up with a complete set of stickers as well as a handful of duplicates that will probably be going out in trade packages. The wafers are tasty enough, but I don't know what I'm going to do with 30 24 wafers. I guess it's a good thing my kids are snack fiends. I definitely want to collect the other two sticker sets, but in digging around it looks like it might be cheaper to buy them outright as collated sets than it will be to import them in their original packaging.
I'm glad to see that you do get a full set in a box. I might go ahead and grab the sets off Yahoo Auctions at some point. They appear to be cheaper that way to begin wtih.
ReplyDeleteThey might be cheaper as sets. I know the first two series will be cheaper as sets than as boxes even here in the US, at least based on current eBay prices.
DeleteShipping is what killed me on this one. It was more than the cost of the box. The box was just over $23, but after shipping I paid $47. The cheapest Special Edition set on eBay was north of $60, though, so I still made out better (and I got a bunch of tasty wafers to share with my kids).