Private Ocean from Sega Toys with dancing sea creatures

Unbelievably, we nearly missed one of the coolest lifestyle gadgets at the Tokyo Toy Show because it looked vaguely like the Ants Life Studio from Bandai, but the ants weren’t dancing along to your iPod the last time we checked. Featuring over 100 different ocean creatures, the Private Ocean from Sega Toys combines a color-changing backlit display with a choice of backgrounds, touch sensors, date/time, and an external connection for a digital audio player.

For the ocean setting itself you can choose from sunrise and and sunset modes for the sea creatures to swim around and play in. Touching the top sensor activates the fish to swim together and form the date and time before dispersing once again, but touching the bottom sensor bar scares them off from the point where you touch. Apparently, the top buttons allow for “communication” with the little guys inside as well, though we aren’t sure to what extent.

Now for the kicker: When you connect your iPod or other audio source to the Private Ocean, the music will play through the internal speakers as the fish and other sea creatures dance to the music!

Of course, we didn’t realize almost all of these features until we got home, so our video is a bit on the weak side. Once it comes out in October, the Private Ocean is the first on my personal to-buy gadget list for my very un-Hawaiian desk, as long as they stay away from the jellyfish.

Buy the Private Ocean in the Online Shop

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Sega Grand Pianist Hello Kitty version - Tokyo Toy Show 2007

We’ve long been fans of the Sega Grand Pianist miniature grand piano, but this beats the original black version by about 88 extra keys of cuteness. At this week’s Tokyo Toy Show we were able to see some upcoming versions of the Grand Pianist, both in standard white and in a super-kawaii white Hello Kitty version.

The original Grand Pianist has been a big hit in Japan since its release, and may be long overdue to be branded with Kuromi painted all over it.

Get your very own Hello Kitty Grand Pianist in the Online Shop

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Tokyo Toy Show 2007 coverage with video and pics!

The CScout Japan team went to the Tokyo Toy Show 2007 today, and had an amazing time checking out all the newest toys and gadgets from Japan for this year. There are many cool things coming out, and we’ll go into much more detail over the weekend, but today is just a basic overview. As usual, we were most impressed with Sega, especially their lifestyle gadgets like the Homestar Pro, but Bandai and Takara Tomy were right up there as well. Konami is a definite must-see, but only because they have the best models

We also got to see the Puchi Puchi virtual bubblewrap up close, as we mentioned in this post. For some reason there was a major surplus of three kinds of items: Helicopters, air guitars (the kind not made of air, which was confusing), and models of Tokyo Tower (we saw at least five). No shortage of girls either! Check out the rough video coverage below:

We can’t possibly fit everything in here at once, so we’ll cover our favorite items in the coming days, one-by-one. Click below to jump and see some eye-candy from the show before we unveil some exclusive pics of some very cool Japanese products coming your way soon…

Click here for more

Tags: Bandai, Homestar, Sega, Takara Tomy, Tokyo Toy Show, Toys

Bandai Mugen PuchiPuchi update - Tokyo Toy Show 2007

At the Tokyo Toy Show today we were delighted to see that Bandai has noticed all of the Puchi Puchi coverage we brought to them via Engadget, Akihabara News, Technabob, PopGadget, and the hundreds (tens?) of other blogs that linked to their site through us. Below are several pictures of the real deal, including signs mentioning that 300,000 people visited their site through blogs when the product was announced! Unfortunately we didn’t get to play with the virtually bubblewrapped goodness that Puchi Puchi embodies, but it still looks like fun.

Order your Puchi Puchi

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Kuchofuku air-conditioned bed and clothing

The traditional Japanese way to stay cool in the summer months is to lay on a flexible pad of bamboo tiles, but we’ve never quite gotten used to the hard feeling. Enter Kuchofuku, now releasing it’s 2007 series of air-conditioned lifestyle products including a bed! This is on top of its already popular USB shirt, pants, and jacket offerings. By taking in air at the head end of the mattress, the dual fans at the foot pull it through a soft membrane that expands to become an air-cushion, bringing cool air in past your head and through the bed.

Using a standard AC adapter, the 2.4kg (5.3lb) Kuchofuku Air-conditioned Bed is extremely ecological, and the maker claims that with everyday use for eight hours the bed will use less than ¥30 ($.24) for the entire month! It also rolls up into the included bag for compact storage.

In the air-conditioned clothing arena, Kuchofuku has a wide range of products including jackets, pants, white shirts (for both men and women), and workshirts with dual fans that create constant air flow. Combined with the bed, it’s now possible to spend nearly every second of your day being fanned with cool air for those hot and humid Japanese summers.

Kuchofuku homepage
Buy the bed and clothing online

Tags: cscout

Puchipuchi Virtual Bubble Wrap toy from Bandai Asovision

It’s a compulsion, and a secret pleasure. We lost track of the times we’ve either hoarded or had bubble wrap snatched right out of our hands to be popped mercilessly, either one-by-one or by the impatient “wring-out” technique. It’s a natural law that man loves to pop bubble wrap.

In comes Bandai to take all of the fun out of the pop by making it fun, with the new PuchiPuchi (プチプチ) infinite bubble wrap toy. Puchipuchi in Japanese is the sound of a little pop as well as the name for bubble wrap, so the toy basically named itself! Designed to mimic both the sound and feeling of popping little plastic bubbles, PuchiPuchi can be carried around as a key chain for popping. Their slogan “Anytime, anywhere, forever…you can puchipuchi” basically says it all.

You may think that popping bubbles is boring, but the toy makes a sound effect every 100 pops, including “door chime”, “barking dog”, “fart”, and “sexy voice”. To add even more excitement to the craziness of Puchipuchi, there’s a 1:1000 chance that you’ll get a “puchi lucky” toy that has a heart-shaped bubble. Is there a better way to make your friends jealous?

Bandai designed the toy with the Puchipuchi bubble wrap company, so it’s almost guaranteed to be the most realistic bubble wrap simulator on the market. Pop.

**UPDATE: June 28th, 2007***
We went to the Tokyo Toy Show today and got some great pics of the real Mugen Puchipuchi. Enjoy!

Press release from Bandai
Due to popular demand, now you can Order Puchipuchi in the Online Shop

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Video Glasses from Thanko

The iPod economy has given us faithful users an array of third party add-ons, but the Thanko Video Glasses are up there with the best of them, mostly because we can’t stand watching anything on a tiny iPod Video. They connect to multiple video sources to create the effect of a 37-inch screen directly in front of your eyes, and include earphones for the sound.

Now, sitting on a train wearing the Video Glasses won’t exactly make you the coolest geek around, but neither will hunching over and staring at a postage stamp screen. In most cases, the sheer practicality of them has the reverse effect. One of our Japanese friends here in Tokyo uses them at the music events he does video for, one of many applications that will actually make you look cooler.

You can now buy the Thanko video glasses in the Online Shop.

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Banpresto Feeling Egg waterproof lifestyle lights

Continuing in it’s never-ending quest to get everyone to relax with LED lights, Banpresto has released a miniature version of the popular Bath Palette that can be used just about anywhere. Feeling Eggs come in a set of four (red, blue, green, and orange) and are packaged in a plastic egg carton to complete the “egg” effect.

Much like the Bath Palette, the Feeling Eggs are waterproof and can be used in the tub, shower, or pretty much anywhere you’d like to add some color for relaxation. While they don’t change colors, they do fade in and out to create a “living” effect that is quite cool.

Available now in the Online Shop

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Japanese trends get big in Taiwan

The rise of Japan as THE international power for trends is undisputed (at least in our minds!), and we reconfirm this every day in our work here at CScout Japan. We are, however, often surprised by the extent that the culture moves outside of Japan and into the world, even if it’s not so far away.

During a trendscouting trip to Taiwan last week we discovered one major theme of the culture: Taiwan loves Japan. A lot. In fact, Taipei is the perfect mix of Japan and mainland China in atmosphere, attitudes, and lifestyle. This may have a lot to do with the former occupation of Taiwan by Japan, but people in Taipei are catching on to Japanese trends much faster than we ever expected.

Sure, the mainland has purikura, but it’s with very old Japanese machines, but Taipei’s selection was the same you’d see at any game center here in Tokyo. From the clean and well-stocked convenience stores on every corner to the hairstyles on the young and trendy, Taiwan has adopted many aspects of modern Japanese culture and integrated them into daily life.

In Ximen, Taipei’s version of Shibuya mixed with Harajuku, we had several moments where we weren’t sure exactly what country we were in. It’s still Taiwan, of course, but the distinct Japanese flavor is strong. Taiwanese have also adopted a good amount of Japanese words into their vocabulary, including older words from the occupation times, but also more modern usages such as baka (idiot) and kawaii (cute). Needless to say, we were delighted to see that they not only pick up on Japanese trends quickly, but do it well. Case in point: Black over-knee socks which were everywhere.

We were only in Taiwan for a few days, so we must have missed a million more examples of this modern cultural crossover. If you have any more good examples of this in Taiwan or anywhere else we’d love to hear about them!

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Anime Trends: Anpanman Hair Salon in Yokohama

Anime aimed at older kids and adults gets most of the attention in Japan, but for the under-12 set the most important character to know is a pastry full of sweet beans named Anpanman (anko=sweetbeans, pan=bread, and man=man). For many Japanese, Anpanman is their first introduction to the world of animation, and the series is beloved by both children and adults to the point where our good friend’s son’s first words were “mama”, “anpanman”, and “papa” (in that order), and it came as no surprise.

Now the little guy can say ‘Anpanman’ in style, because from the end of April, Bandai opened the Yokohama Anpanman Children’s Museum, which doubles as a “mall” of sorts catering to kids. Inside, among the fun and other attractions, is the Anpanman Hair Salon where kids aged 0-6 can get their hair cut while sitting on an Anpanman chair and watching Anpanman on TV. Of course, there’s a menu of styles for the kids, including “casual style” and “party style”.

What party these kids are going to is beyond us, but if Anpanman’s sexy friend Melonpanna
is going to be around, you gotta look your best. That probably means a trip to the Anpanman Children’s Collection store as well to get some new duds to compliment the style.

Via Bandai

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