The Banpresto I Love Eevee series started last Thursday with the arrival of the first batch of mascot plush (Eevee, Leafeon, Glaceon) as well as towels, which come in one of three designs, all prominently featuring Eevee along with the Eeveelutions.

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Mascot plush are designed to be attached to bags, so while these plush are described as “large size”, which is accurate when you compare them to other similar types of plush, they are still not too big. In my opinion, they are the perfect size!

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Eevees are so popular, and I think game centers realize this. I’ve run into more trouble than usual trying to catch plush, making me think they are setting the difficulty level on the claws fairly high. Also, although not many game centers are enforcing restrictions, a couple have signs up setting limits on how many of one plush or sets of plush you can win at once, or if they remember you, in one day.

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Of course, I went out bright and early on Thursday to win as many Eevees as I could! I stopped at game centers in Nakano, Shinjuku, and Ikebukuro. This was my first mascot plush win of the day!

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Although I am not a Leafeon or Glaceon collector, I think they came out pretty cute for smaller plush! Leafeon unfortunately has a lot of painted and felty bits, which is unfortunately common with smaller prize plush, but still adorable.

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I also won a bunch of towels while I was out. I am usually pretty good at catching towels, but game centers were making it almost impossible to win any! I completely lucked out with the machine pictured. Unlike the other machines I tried throughout the day, the setting on the claw was very low, meaning the claw was very strong and I was able to win 1 towel in around 500 yen or 5 tries, sometimes less than that. I won a lot of towels from this machine, but I guess I won too many, because when I came back later in the evening, there was a sign up restricting people from winning more than 2 full sets per day, and the claw strength was very, very weak. (Oops?)

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I am very pleased with this set! The second set, featuring Jolteon, Vaporeon, and Flareon, comes out May 8th, and I can’t wait!