So how is Star Wars perceived in Japan?

I'm interested as I've come across a great (or at least, what I think is great) Star Wars figure collection: Takara Tomy's Metakore Star Wars figures. About 3", mix of metal and plastic, nice weight, good detail. There are about 30 figures released; you can get some via Amazon, and a few more via Japanese shops on eBay.

What I've found interesting is the particular choice of figures. Rather than be heavy on the heroes of the movies, the collection seems to be heavy on figures wearing helmets. There are like 4 figures with normal human faces (Luke x2, Rey, Han); everything else is a droid, stormtrooper, or something else with covered (or nonhuman) face. In the most recent Rogue One-related release, the closest to hero figure is K2-SO (no Jyn, no Cassian, etc), but there are two variants of Death Trooper plus Sandtrooopers.

Since I assume their collection choices are driven by what would sell best in Japan ... what's that say about Japanese Star Wars fans? Preference for robots or things that could look like robots (stormtroopers)?

Curious...

That's a pretty interesting inference, and I don't know if it's true or not but it sounds like a great excuse to post the TIE Fighter anime thing again so I'm going to.

2 minutes ago, HammerGibbens said:

That's a pretty interesting inference, and I don't know if it's true or not but it sounds like a great excuse to post the TIE Fighter anime thing again so I'm going to.

Is it bad I've made custom cards based on the commander and the three imperial pilots?

2 hours ago, DeathstarII said:

Is it bad I've made custom cards based on the commander and the three imperial pilots?

No sir, that's actually very bad***. Could you post them please?

I don't get the same impression, especially since Bandai has been putting out some Figuarts of the main heroes quite a bit lately.

http://blog.livedoor.jp/hacchaka/archives/51999543.html

"When there is a han solo, I want to arrange the chews side by side, but I am looking forward to that because it is decided to go out in April."

Shamelessly google translated, but I found this funny.

Also, Bandai's Star Wars model kits are pretty much the best there have ever been in my opinion.

2 hours ago, HammerGibbens said:

No sir, that's actually very bad***. Could you post them please?

Here or general forum?

1 hour ago, DeathstarII said:

Here or general forum?

Right here please!

6 hours ago, HammerGibbens said:

That's a pretty interesting inference, and I don't know if it's true or not but it sounds like a great excuse to post the TIE Fighter anime thing again so I'm going to.

I'm about 90% sure the guy who made this is French just FYI.

E: the only thing I really know about Star Wars in Japan is that Bandai (I think) make some outstanding ship kits.

On 3/29/2017 at 1:20 AM, thespaceinvader said:

I'm about 90% sure the guy who made this is French just FYI.

He's American I'm pretty sure.

4 hours ago, HammerGibbens said:

Right here please!

Okay, I don't have the commander saved to my device, but here's the other three

(sorry for big picture)

(She's been changed to "once per round, after performing a seondary weapon attack, you may immeditately perform the same attack against a different enemy ship, treating the header as 'attack:'. when instructed to spend a target lock for a secondary weapon, instead you may move the red target lock to another enemy ship at range 1-3")

(this one, idk how to change it so it's more balanced)

Rosh's ability is fine as it is tbh. ABTs are not the ultimately common turret, thats TLTs and they cant hit him anyway at that range. In fact most secondaries are range 2-3 anyway except non-tlt turrets.

In fact i would LOVE to get that and make people stop running the ABT + AccCorrector ghosts. Not because its a broken build but because its an incredibly stale and cheap build.

10 minutes ago, Vineheart01 said:

Rosh's ability is fine as it is tbh. ABTs are not the ultimately common turret, thats TLTs and they cant hit him anyway at that range. In fact most secondaries are range 2-3 anyway except non-tlt turrets.

In fact i would LOVE to get that and make people stop running the ABT + AccCorrector ghosts. Not because its a broken build but because its an incredibly stale and cheap build.

Okay, what do you think of the other two? (Note that in case you missed it, I have Ada's changed text in parentheses)

12 minutes ago, DeathstarII said:

Okay, what do you think of the other two? (Note that in case you missed it, I have Ada's changed text in parentheses)

Neel: Cheap blocker with a bite if he doesnt go poof. TIE Fighters, least in my experience since i tend to commonly have an academy around, rarely just take a hit or two...they usually go unscathed then suddenly die lol. I'd probably drop him to 14pts, as i see him as basically an alternate Wampa pick: someone that odds are wont be that big of an issue but the sheer potential he has draws attention.

Ada: Wording is a bit odd but i see what youre getting at (Baze for secondary weapons, moving the TL rather than spending it). She could be brutal, but bombers have a knack for going up in flames when theyre too expensive so i think the risk vs reward is enough to justify that ability. I'm not sure i like the idea of the 2nd attack being stronger than the first since it has a TL to spend on rerolls though. Thats a bomber i'd be tempted to slap Expertise on as it is lol.

2 minutes ago, Vineheart01 said:

Neel: Cheap blocker with a bite if he goes go poof. TIE Fighters, least in my experience since i tend to commonly have an academy around, rarely just take a hit or two...they usually go unscathed then suddenly die lol. I'd probably drop him to 14pts, as i see him as basically an alternate Wampa pick: someone that odds are wont be that big of an issue but the sheer potential he has draws attention.

Ada: Wording is a bit odd but i see what youre getting at (Baze for secondary weapons, moving the TL rather than spending it). She could be brutal, but bombers have a knack for going up in flames when theyre too expensive so i think the risk vs reward is enough to justify that ability. I'm not sure i like the idea of the 2nd attack being stronger than the first since it has a TL to spend on rerolls though. Thats a bomber i'd be tempted to slap Expertise on as it is lol.

Neel's ability is quite literally just based on the fact that in the short he's described as liking his odds of survival since there's so many TIEs, so I wanted him to get angry that out of all the TIEs in the engagement, he's the one being shot at

ada, yeah I don't know how to really clean that up well, and the idea was from her firing the missiles at all those x-wings and poor, poor y-wings, and the fact she can use her TL for the second shot was intended, but know I have a fluff reason, the last little x-wing scrambling to get away as the missiles home in on it

Dont get me wrong i like Neel's ability. The reason i love Mithel/Scourge so much is theyre a TIE FIGHTER thats actually capable of really pissing people off, so they draw alot of attention. If luck goes my way they tank quite a bit of the alpha strikes while Ryad/Backdraft/Sabaac/whatever other 30ish cost pairs i got just laugh at the poor tie fighter's misfortune as they wreck havoc on the enemy. Reason i said you outta drop him to 14 is because of Wampa being the same PS/lack of EPT. Wampa generally does nothing, but he still scares the piss out of people because of that unavoidable damage card that goes through shields. Neel would probably be ignored unless they thought they could vaporize him to keep his ability from working.

I love giving TIE Fighters obscenely powerful abilities because the frame makes them impossible to become OP by default. Imagine Mithel/Scourge/Wampa/Youngster (with his text changed to whatever ship hes flying) in another platform such as a Defender? lol...broken af

Fair enough, as soon as I'm able to edit the cards, I'll drop him down a point, any idea how I can clean Ada's wording up?

"After performing a secondary [M] or [T] weapon attack, acquire a Target Lock on another enemy ship. You may perform the same attack against that ship and treat the attack as Attack: instead of Attack: TargetLock ."

Might need to clarify if its discarding a second missile/torpedo to attack though. Slap an "if you have another [M] or [T] to fire, you may..." or something like that. Or mention at the end "The second attack does not discard any cards" if intending to basically give her free ordnance.

One thing I know for sure, neel's never being shot by other PS4s unless he has initiative or they can guarantee he'll be blinded

So glad we could turn a cultural discussion into a custom card thread.

Fun film, though.

There's all kinds of star wars stuff here - really cool was the pin collections, i'll see if I can upload a shot of them, lots of stationary. You can find some pretty rad figures of the ships, lots of random packs, F-toys has a cool ATAT that's a decent size for X-wing. I've really enjoyed the fusion stuff between Japanese and Star wars...

That Mara Jade alt art is awesome. More pics, please!

OP: I lived in Japan for 5 years and can say that SW culture isn't quite as big as it is in the west. The Japanese are very loyal to their own industry/IP which is quite admirable. Yes, Bandai makes some awesome SW kits .. but go to any toy store and you'll see that the Gundam kits outnumber SW kits 100:1. That's not to say SW isn't huge over there (there's a SW expo at Nagoya Castle right now), just not as big as it is here.

I also bought these .. couldn't resist.

They are awesome, are they still available?

7 hours ago, Iceeagle85 said:

They are awesome, are they still available?

I think so.

Bandai Samurai Taisho Vader
Bandai Ashigaru Stormtrooper
Bandai Ronin Bobafett

Here they all are here:
http://tamashii.jp/special/sw/lineup_mr.html