Good afternoon, bombscouts! This is the second post covering recent merchandise releases for Bomberman. The first one went over the goods from Fangamer, which most of you were probably already somewhat familiar with regardless of me babbling about them here. Verdict: ALL GUD, GO BUY.
This post will be covering the merchandise released by Amnibus, a Japanese company. They started taking pre-orders for their line in August 2018 before officially releasing it in December. Due to the slow-burn magic of Shopping Mall Japan’s service, Sakaki and I didn’t actually get the merch until the beginning of February, and we probably paid too much in fees on top of the already painful prices, but listen we suffer for our art, okay, and our art is being too attached to Bomberman.
So, we got everything that Amnibus has up for offer:
- A necktie (~$45.00)
- A canvas tote bag (~$23.00)
- And a set of pins (~$4.00 individually with a design chosen for you at random, or ~$29.00 for all of them plus a surprise design)
As of this writing, all of these look to be running low on stock, so if there’s something that catches your eye, grab your skates and get runnin’.
Semi-relatedly, if you’re on Pinterest, give my Bombermerch board a follow! It’s where I compile some of the things that I find interesting from the Yahoo! Japan auction listings (with some oddballs from elsewhere). I don’t update it super-regularly, but I recently did another auction dive and found quite a few things I hadn’t ever seen before, so I’m planning to add those to the board soon. (…and, uh, I guess I should add the Fangamer and Amnibus stuff too for the sake of completion.)
Same caveats as before regarding my photography skills, or lack thereof.
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No group photo here like with Fangamer’s stuff, so let’s just start off with the necktie, which is now in Sakaki’s care so he can go be nerdily professional.
Here’s a close up of the skull detail on the front.
The website lists the approximate length of the tie as 145cm (57in) and the width of the tie at its widest point as 8.5cm (3.35in). I forgot to measure the width, but the length measure is pretty accurate.
My knowledge of ties and their make is pretty lacking, so I can only say that – though made of 100% polyester – this tie doesn’t feel super cheap at a quick touch, and at around $45 before any other applicable fees it falls within a price range that Google has just suggested to me as a good balance between price and quality. In other words, despite this being a limited-run item, you’re not necessarily being overcharged for novelty.
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The pins are my personal favorite of this line because I’m a magpie and I like shiny tiny things. They all came in a labeled cardboard box and were individually wrapped.
Fun, right? Here’s what I got.
The Full Fire is the surprise design.
Each pin is 27mm by 27mm, which works out to about an inch square. It’s a pretty decent size, and feel and look fairly well-made with bright printing and sturdy backing (although the actual pin part seems a touch delicate). That being said, while I like these, I think $4 for one is a little pricy – particularly since you don’t get to choose what design you want. But given that a single pin is by far the cheapest option in this line, I suppose the company just wanted to boost their profit margin as much as possible.
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Lastly, here comes the tote bag!
This thing is pretty sizeable. At 48cm by 40cm, it’s 15 inches tall and almost 19 inches with, with a depth of about 5.25 inches.
(Forgot to take a picture of the width measurement, sorry! Also, that’s an 18-inch ruler in the pictures.)
Unfortunately, in spite of its roomy dimensions, I can’t quite recommend it for heavy use. Since it’s a 100% cotton canvas fashion accessory, it’s not likely to be waterproof, and stains will show up more visibly and quite quickly. On top of that, washing the bag runs the risk of both shrinking it and wearing out the design, which isn’t that vividly printed to begin with. The whole thing at least feels sturdy, though, so if you’re not as precious about your stuff as I am then this will probably serve you decently well – although, again, that $23 price tag is a little high for what you get.
As a closer, here’s a picture of the bag with the power-up pins placed on it! (Just placed, not pinned. So I don’t know how well the pins will stick on the bag.)
