Yu-Gi-Oh! Monster Figure Collection.

A while back, I did a brief post about the Yu-Gi-Oh! Monster Figure Collection series. They are, in short, little figures of Duel Monsters with Duel Terminal-compatible trading cards in little boxes. The figures apparently also have something on their bases that allows them to be scanned by a Duel Terminal. It's an ingenious idea that Konami really should have tried a long time ago.

As of late, these MFC's have been bugging me. That is putting it nicely.

First off, can anybody point to a good site for updates on this series? The last few have come almost completely out of the blue. The only reason I know about the most recent two sets is random eBay searches. Even the Yu-Gi-Oh! Wikia only talks about the first series, which featured the 5 Dragons from 5D's.

My second gripe - and I know you all are going to get very sick of hearing this - is that all of the monsters in the first three sets have had "dragon" in their names. You could argue about XYZ- Dragon Cannon and Cyber End Dragon being not dragons, but it is obvious that Konami is just milking their dragons for all that they are worth. Seriously, the series is called "Yu-Gi-Oh! Monster Figure Collection," not "Yu-Gi-Oh! Dragon Figure Collection."

They could do so much more with this. Yu-Gi-Oh! is loaded with cool monsters besides dragons. I am sure that they could get away with adding Dark Magician, Dark Magician Girl (a million nerds just fapped at the thought), Magician of Black Chaos, Black Luster Soldier -Envoy of the Beginning (come on, you KNOW they will do CED), Elemental Hero Neos in at least one of his forms and Elemental Hero Flame Wingman; they may as well finish what they started with Horus by adding in Phoenix of Nephthys and The Creator; the Earthbound Immortals would be awesome to assemble, even if they were evil; hell, why not have Levia-Dragon and Behemoth the King of Animals in one set? Brain Crusher, an awesome-looking mantis-dragon that apparently eats brains, would be cool to see again period. The possibilities are endless and awesome. Konami is letting them slip by.

Today, I showed a friend of mine the Horus figure. He wanted to buy that item regardless of the card being in Japanese. Much like decks containing Mirror Force and Crush Card Virus, these figure boxes are hot items that Konami could easily make money off of around the world. Instead, not only are they limiting themselves to dragons, but they have chosen to keep their product in Japan.

Oh, wait. I can totally predict their reason for NOT bringing these awesome little things over here: 

"Butbutbutbut DUEL TERMINALS AREN'T WIDESPREAD ENOUGH YET!"

Whose fault is THAT? Bandai has had card terminals for years in Japan. To make up for the relative suck of GX (were they writing as they went along?), they could have introduced Duel Terminals earlier as opposed to when they were suffering. Stick one in every Target to give the kiddies something to do while their parents are buying stuff. Virtual card games are not a hard sell.

Great idea + poor execution = More Konami fail. Why am I not surprised? Randomness is amazing marketing, and these are neat no matter which one you get. There is no way to lose, yet Konami is hesitating.

(On a tangentially-related note, I AM secretly eager to get my mitts on some of the Ragnarok-themed cards coming out. I am all for the battle of mythologies that I have been looking forward to since DAY ONE of YGO.)

Raikou Tin + God Card Set Released!

Raikou likes me. It really likes me! Seriously, that Lugia piece and the promos just paid for the whole tin. Breaking even, if not profiting, is a real joy!

On another note, Konami released both the God Card + Blue-Eyes, Red-Eyes, and Dark Magician set and the Marik Structure Deck recently. If you're a fan of the old Yu-Gi-Oh! series, check those out. The Marik Deck has a much-awaited common Mirror Force (seriously, it's about damn time) and the God Card Master Collection has...three of the most popular monsters from the old series and God Cards.

I would actually recommend getting the God Cards now, even if you just want them as collector's pieces. That's what they are: Collectibles. Nothing else. They are three of the most solid investments in YGO. If it ever goes under, those cards will still be valuable. Right now, they are about ten times cheaper than I have seen them in the past. Even with this sudden reprint, they will mean a lot to fans of the original series.

Hopefully, the case will be the same for the reprints of Blue-Eyes, Red-Eyes and Dark Magician. There are still fans of those monsters, too.

The only thing really bad about these reprints is that Konami made no rarity changes. At all. The God Cards and the other three monsters have all been printed as Ultra Rares already. It would not have hurt to at least give them snazzy text to set them apart...but eh, the DB Blue-Eyes is still holding fairly steady. I'm not too worried; it was still an excellent move in their part.

Coming up: Pokemon Black and White: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Nintendo's increasing furry tendencies in Pokemon and the things that YGO fanfic writers do HORRIBLY wrong.

Also, holy crap did I fail that test at number conversions. At least the rest of the course looks like it's in fairly plain English. Gonna be nabbing a LOT of spare points next week!