I just got an e-mail from the Japanese Online Pokemon Center site stating an apology that the site CRASHED due to the mass influx of persons ordering the ‘Pikapika Pack 2020’.
The mass amounts of people wanting to get their hands of the goods were told that pre-ordering and ordering will be CANCELLED, and instead given out as lottery style. Meaning you either get picked to buy the product or you don’t. (just like the New Ford GT)
oh yeah, did I forget to mention that the ‘Pikapika Pack 2020’ consists of plushies and misc items only? not even cards…
Just imagine if it was a TCG item
so… yeah Black Friday level madness in Japan i guess
Plush and figures have been a pretty big part of Pokemon from the beginning =)
according to the List of highest-grossing media franchises on Wikipedia the breakdown for Pokemon’s 95$ billion in revenue is:
Licensed merchandise – $64.1 billion
Video games – $17.138 billion
Card game – $10.853 billion
Box office – $1.756 billion
Manga sales – $1.46 billion
Home entertainment – $863 million
Making the licensed merchandise like shirts, bed sheets, toys, etc has been 6 and a half times more profitable over the course of the franchise than the TCG
They allow high profile individuals and car collectors to buy them. In the case of the Ford GT you need to have a family friendly public image to be considered for one. You apply like a job and they research you.
‘Fukubukuro’ or lucky bags are a long standing tradition for new year shopping in Japan, even before Black Friday existed.
Usually you’ll get great value for money when buying lucky bags and Japanese shops always have a limited amount available each year, so people get really hyped and popular stores run out of stock incredibly quickly.
But yeah, in terms of shopping it is definitely the Japanese equivalent of Black Friday in the US.
yea I knew it would crash the site. last year the pika pika bags went up on the pokemon center website at the most random time instead of the usual 10am JST when they do put the new pokemon lines in.
The Lucky Bags are something that Japanese people go nuts for. I follow a few youtubers and twitter users that go through the whole ordeal for them. the bags are usually like 4,000 yen but the value inside it is well over the 4,000 yen mark. its usually leftover pokemon center items that havent sold well or have A LOT of excess stock of things. people line up at like 5 am to try and get one of the bags. the center employees give out tickets and i believe its limited to 2 per person and when its gone its done. Each year is a new theme bag that has a special plush ONLY available in the bag. 2018 was pikachu, rowlett or alolan vulpix, 2019 was pikachu, eevee or mew and 2020 will be the new galar starter faces in the bags. since the bags are random you never know which ones you get. There is actually a TCG lucky bag but they ONLY sell it at the pokemon centers. plus not all the centers do it on the same day