Tainted Love.

You all know how I love to hate Konami. Some of their marketing practices are questionable, even if they do wind up putting money in Konami's pocket. Other ideas are pure win doused in awesomesauce, then grilled to perfection for that savory - wait, wait. We're talking about trading cards, right?

Yes. Yes we are.

One thing that I cannot swing against them are collectible tins. The Master Collection binders were cool, and Duelist Packs were a neat idea (but not NEARLY as cool as Japan's character-themed Structure Decks), but the one truly solid, awesome thing that they thought up was the tins. Even with the economy as it is now, these tins are a theoretical bargain: Get a bunch of packs, a shiny promo card, and maybe a few extras for 20 dollars. Tins were a good idea all around.

Recently, however, their tin madness has been worrying me. As I said before (in the "Yusei, Yusei, YUSEI" entry), they're trying to max out character value...and are milking one cow way too much. I can name at least three friends of mine that are Crow fans, and know several Aki(za) fans as well. Konami picked up on Crow and Black Rose Dragon; would Black Feather and Plant-themed mini-tins (with corresponding Duelist Packs therein) damage them at all? I realize that Yusei is the main character, but he has a few tins that do nothing but rot on Target/Wal-Mart shelves.

Also, of all characters, why did Luna and Leo get a tin? I can understand from an artistic standpoint (their colors are easy to coordinate) and to a lesser degree from a collector's point of view, but the choice still seems odd to me. From what I've heard, they aren't major characters (bar the Signer thing). They probably should have had a mini tin at best; instead we have a gazillion Stardust Dragon Assault Modes floating around. Though I'm glad that Konami used a tin instead of a pack to release that card, it still feels dicey to me.

Putting card sleeves in tins is another thing that sounds cool, but wound up being 'meh.' Konami knows that their cards require specially-sized sleeves. They have made official sleeves for a while. The fans wanted Konami to put sleeves in their tins; they released a survey a while back. Why they put only 40 sleeves in boggles my mind. They mean well, but seeing as these sleeves were released during 5D's and the minimum amount of cards in a YGO deck is 40, wouldn't 45 have been a better number? After all, Konami just added a whole new use to the Extra Deck (which is, as the name implies, separate from the main deck). It was an odd move, but they managed to get the Japanese set-themed sleeves over here. I'll forgive them for now.

Another thing that I wish they would do more of: Alternate arts! While this is a minor point, it helps Nintendo sell their Pokémon tins. Making the tin promos as distinct from the cards in the pack as possible (without being different cards entirely, of course) could be an additional selling point.

On the plus side, they've started including Trap Cards in tins...Mirror Force, please?