Bandai’s Little Jammer PRO gets a sultry vocalist

The latest addition to Bandai’s Little Jammer family is a sexy female jazz singer. Though we’ve yet to hear her voice (which is a real woman singing), she has her own speaker like all Little Jammer pieces and has been designed to accompany the latest Little Jammer album Live! the Debut. Just as a song begins, she turns on her platform and faces the mic, ready to sing. While other Little Jammer band members move their instruments with the tune, the vocalist moves her mouth, shakes her waist with her singing, and moves her left hand to the beat all in complete synchronicity to the music. Even for tracks with no singing she still moves to the rhythm.

Bandai’s target market for the vocalist is baby boomer males (with disposable income of course), and they expect to sell about 10,000 pieces within the next year. Available from March 9th, she comes complete with the new album for ¥16,800 ($140). No word on a male vocalist yet, but we suspect that it wouldn’t be nearly as popular as this red-dressed mechanical seductress.

More on Little Jammer Pro here, and you can buy the original set here.
Vocalist now available HERE for purchase.

Pictures and info via Bandai

Swarovski rhinestone USB memory stick for classy nerd-girls

In the same vein of the $860 Mottainai USB memory stick we submitted to Tomorrow Magazine comes the Swarovski USB memory stick necklace from Solid Alliance. The colors and design are customizable with a choice of four different colors, eight patterns, and any single letter or number you want. You can choose two of the four colors, one for the background and one for the design.

The memory sticks take three weeks to create and deliver and are made by Estlat, a specialty jewelry store in Harajuku. They come in 512MB, and 1-2GB models. The target market is upscale females, but we don’t find the price to be too extreme for that lucky geek lady in your life.

Buy the Swarovski USB memory stick in the Online Shop

Pictures via Solid Alliance

Autoflight indoor glider from Takara Tomy: Fly me through the room

When the Aerosoarer from Takara Tomy’s Tomitech division came out last summer, we were really excited about the prospect of being able to fly a little airplane inside our own living room. We bought one on the first day they came out, and raced home, ready to fly. While difficult to maneuver, and definitely inappropriate for small Japanese houses like ours, the Aerosoarer is fun to play with, despite the hassle of constantly recharging.

On February 22nd, Tomitech will be releasing an automatic version called Autoflight. It charges faster than the Aerosoarer (10 seconds), and can fly for 30 seconds up to 100 meters by using its built-in propeller. While it doesn’t offer infrared control like the Aerosoarer, we see this as a benefit. The Aerosoarer controls can be very difficult to master to the point of frustration, but you can finetune the Autoflight physically by adjusting the plane itself. It’s also much cheaper at ¥1575 ($13). At 3.7 grams it’s slightly heavier than a paper airplane, but tons more fun.

Via +D Lifestyle

Human Player from Bandai: The Tamagotchi with YOUR personality

Just announced today from Bandai, the Human Player is a new take on virtual pets, communication, and personality tests. Though it looks like a portable media device mixed with a virtual pet, the Human Player takes elements from two other Bandai products, Tamagotchi and Cube World, and add a personal element: Your own personality. First, you take a fifty question personality test (Called the “Ego-Gram”) that assigns you one of 22 personalities. We took the test and got “Super Hero Type”, so it’s pretty accurate beyond our expectations. Up to sixteen people on one Human Player can take the test.

After your personality is determined, you can now interact with other characters on the device, or infrared-beam yourself into someone else’s Human Player to see how you get along with them. Basically, they put you into the same room and see how things work out, based on your personality traits. Your own character spends his/her free time doing, supposedly, what you would be doing. Perhaps staring at his own virtual pet? There are also mini-games that put you into real world situations, and see how your character reacts. For example, you see a guy harassing a turtle with a stick…what do you do, Super Hero? Save the day, or walk on by?

Check out the video below from Bandai:

Human player will be available March 31st for ¥2980, or about $25.

Pictures via Bandai
Take the Ego-Gram at Human Labo

Fancy Nepia Chou Hana Celeb Tissues - $12 per BOX!

For those of you out there who just can’t stand to blow your posh noses with regular old 2-ply tissues, Nepia has the answer to your hayfever blues. As of February 9th, you’ll be able to get tissues worthy of the Emperor’s snot for a hefty ¥1500 ($12) per box, nearly five times the price of the normal stuff. Each box contains 450 sheets, but being 3-ply it actually comes down to 150 tissues at ¥10 ($.08) apiece!

The Nepia “Chou Hana Celeb” (Ultra Nose Celebrity) tissues are said to contain a high amount of moisture, as well as perfume of verbena which is an herbal remedy and was (according to Wikipedia) used on Christ’s wounds after he was brought down from the cross. Finally, a tissue made for God Himself! Although they’re $12 per box, they’ll come in double sets only, perhaps so you’ll have an extra box ready for when royalty visits.

In all seriousness, we don’t see this as being unsuccessful, just funny. After all (from a marketing standpoint), hayfever is a major problem here, and people will readily spend extra money on easing their symptoms. The stylishly embossed box, shiny graphics, and prism-like tissue slot almost make you want to blow your nose! However, branding it as “elegant” makes it appear as an extravagant purchase that can easily be ignored, but if it were more “medical” they might get a better reception. That’s obviously NOT what they’re going for. We’ll see how it goes.

Either way, there’s an expression in Japanese that goes �?カ�?�風邪引�?��?��?� (baka wa kaze hikanai), meaning “stupid people don’t catch colds”. If this is true, Nepia may have just lost their target market on the Chou Hana Celebs.

Pictures via Nepia

Hakoanime: Make your own LED anime in a box

We’re not talking serious animation here, but the Hakoanime (Box Anime) from ELEKIT allows you to draw your own animation with four separate pictures, and then uses four LED lights to animate them together. You construct the box yourself (takes about an hour), draw the pictures on the special paper, and then slide it in for animation.

Each of the four lights is timed to take each image separately and project them onto the main screen in sequence. Hakoanime is mainly for kids or for creating interesting home decor. It will be released March 20th and will go for ¥1980 ($16.40).

Pictures from ELEKIT

Sub-Spacial Communication Pod from Frepar Networks: 3D character holograms come to life

This year, Frepar Networks will be releasing a device that projects 3D character holograms of your choosing onto a platform for you to communicate with. By using the “CODEC Cell” cartidge containing character information you can view him or her (likely…her, right?) in stereoscopic 3-D without needing any special glasses. It’s possible to interact verbally as well as physically! For example, if you blow air at her you will actually see her skirt move as if in the wind. Touching will affect her as well, though we really don’t want to know where this is going to go.

The coolest part is the “physical transfer field” where you can use special barcoded cards that have clothing and item information on them. When you lay the card on the device the character will immediately have the item! This even includes items you buy at the store, such as cup noodles, that are scanned in via the barcode. She’ll even eat the food if she’s hungry. There’s even a weight meter that has the characters get fatter as the user does in order to assist in dieting.

The possibilities for the Pod are extremely varied. She can practice English with you, tell you the news, entertain you, educate you on software (She works with Microsoft Office 2007 to give a tour), or just sit there and be pretty. What we know for sure is that if it takes off there will be a massive market for the item cards.

Much like Love and Berry or Mushi King, card-based arcade games for kids, the cards would be collectable and highly desired by otaku who want to dress up their new friend. It’s been suggested that the famous Gravure idols will also be available to, um, look prettier than should be legal at times. Perhaps new cards and CODEC Cells will be included in magazines and books to make the experience even more real. With the massive amounts of characters for any genre in Japan, we doubt they’ll ever run out of material.

Look for the Sub-Spacial Communication Pod to be released at the end of this year, just minutes before Apple sues them for copyright violations. It’ll go for JPY 30,000 or about $250.

Pictures vis Frepar Networks
Microsoft campaign for Office 2007

Creative Marketing: Human vending machine in Shibuya

Everyone knows that you can get just about anything out of a vending machine in Japan these days. We’ve seen everything from potted plants to panties to minature vending machines come out of those things. Of course, they’re mostly used for drinks (including alcohol) and cigarettes, but rarely for food since the Japanese don’t tend to eat and move at the same time. This one from near Hachiko square in Shibuya is a promotion from Caramini Corn (caramel corn snacks) and is an exception to the rule for one major reason: It has a person inside!

Given the Japanese love for vending machines as well as customer service, it’s a can’t-lose promotion.

Hat tip and pictures via our friends at Eurotechnology Japan

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Sega Grand Pianist miniature grand piano

The Sega “Grand Pianist” is an amazing work of technological and musical art. Despite being only 4mm wide, each key works just as on a real piano, delivering natural sound through the speaker. It comes with 100 built-in songs (expandable with an SD card to play many more), and for every song the keys actually move and play the song like a miniature player piano! Be sure to watch the video below…

Features:

* 88 tiny, yet responsive, keys you can play yourself
* The keys move perfectly to each song on their own
* Amazing detail and size
* Great sound, with songs chosen by violinist Taro Hakase
* Piano bench

You can buy the Grand Pianist online