EDDIEWONG

I hate exclusive and limited toys! But that’s what also makes them worth more in the long run. But they’re just so hard to get here in Tokyo where everyone happens to be a toy-otaku of some sort.

Medicom released these three Spider-Man 3 movie ‘Vinyl Collectible Dolls’ on May 5th here in Tokyo. The ‘black-suit Spiderman’ and the ‘Venom’ happen to be Blister Shibuya exclusives. What makes this worse is, there will only ever be 500 black-suit Spideys and 1,000 Venoms! On release day, Blister Shibuya had all 500 black-suit Spideys in stock, 500 Venoms and quite a few original-suit Spideys, but they were all sold out literally as soon as the launch event started because a massive queue had already formed outside the shop well before the launch kicked off! Arrrrrrrrgh!

During the launch event, I was at the World Hobby Festival (WHF) with Danny and Tony therefore I wouldn’t have made it to Shibuya even if I knew how rare these dolls were. In the WHF, one of the toy booths actually had one black-suit Spidey, one Venom and two original-suit Spideys for sale. I’m pretty sure this toy seller had one or two of their guys at Shibuya’s event snatching up these vinyl dolls (each person is allowed to buy 2 of each). This toy seller listed the black-suit Spidey for close to 3x higher than the retail price, the Venom for 2.5x higher, while the original-suit Spidey was a teeny bit lower than the retail price.

I actually knew about these vinyl dolls when Medicom first announced them, I just didn’t know they were so rare and Blister exclusives. Because I was aware of the retail price for these dolls, when I realised what the toy seller at the WHF wanted for them, I was like “What the…?! This idiot is trying to rip-off some poor otakus! I’ll go get mine in Akihabara on Monday”. Turns out, I’m the idiot here.

Strolled around to a few hobby shops in Akiba the Monday after WHF, but obviously the dolls were no where to be seen. I then headed off to Blister in Shibuya and that was where I was told that these dolls are exclusives and were all sold out. Got my sad-butt home, looked on Yahoo Auction, and there they all were! The black-suit Spideys all had a price tag of 3.5x higher than retail price while the Venoms were 3x higher. Each seller had at least 2 of each! Buggers!

Later in the day, I found out that Blister Shibuya only had 500 Venoms on release day with no information regarding the other 500. But I already lost hope of finding both the black-suit Spideys and Venom therefore I tried to forget about it. But when I had a bit of time this weekend, the dolls came to my mind again therefore I headed off to Blister in Shibuya again last Monday. Again, I see none of these vinyl dolls but I decided to ask the staff anyway. She told me the black-suit and original-suit Spideys are sold out but they just updated their online store with stocks of Venom (not sure how many tho)! So, I placed an order as soon as I got home. 10 mins after I placed the order, I checked the online site again and a ‘SOLD OUT’ sign was already in place! Damn, am I lucky or what?! This morning, the Venom arrived and what can I say? It is beautiful! Best of all, I didn’t pay 3x the price like those poor buggers on Yahoo Auction! And no, I’m not gonna open it…

I also picked up the original-suit Spidey on Monday. These are not as limited nor Blister exclusives like the other two therefore you can pick them up from pretty much anywhere. I got mine from Akiba. The shop I was in had 7 of them on the shelf but for whatever reason, the top of the boxes on all 7 of them have an insane amount of swirl marks all over it (it was exactly the same in another 2 shops). It’s like someone put them on the floor and slid them along or something! Bad choice of print-coating. But like said, all 7 were like that and this shop actually sold them for below the retail price and was cheaper than everywhere else so I thought fine. But now, its like, I can’t take my eyes off those swirl marks! And no, I will not take the doll out and trash the box. I like things remaining in their boxes and never opened… like a virgin…

Will I get a black-suited Spidey? Not for the price they’re going for, man. It’ll be great to have but when thought about, it makes more sense to have the original Spidey and the Venom. Black Spidey is cool and all, but he was just in one movie for a short time. And you never get to see black-suit Spidey battling the Venom anyway cuz there is only one symbiote suit (forget the Carnage character, I’m talking about the Spider-Man 3 movie here). Originals and classics are always better, imho…

UPDATE 2007/06/05 – I’m selling a Venom, check it out.

UPDATE 2007/08/15 – I got ‘em all, and more!