One of a couple catch up posts from when I was in Japan!

Some new plush from the popular “Kororin Friends” Banpresto prize plush series were released near the end of May.

One of these releases was a larger size Pikachu plush.

As with everything related to the Pokemon franchise, there can never be too many Pikachu plush.

Three smaller plush (Pikachu, Raichu, and Pichu) from the same Kororin Friends series also came out at the same time.

I tend to have difficulty catching the smaller sized Kororin Friends plush because of their round shape. How easy or difficult they are to catch is completely dependent on how nice the staff at the game centers are. For the mountain set-up, they can be super easy to catch if placed in the right spot of the mountain or incredibly difficult if at the wrong spot. For the other set-up photoed here, from Round 1, this can either be an easy 1-3 play win if the claw is strong or a waste of money if the claw is too weak to do anything.

I won the majority of my Kororin plush from this type of set-up, with the grabby claw. This is yet another instance of “this will either go well or horribly wrong” depending on how strong the claw is. If it doesn’t lift at all, you’re probably better off saving your money. If it’s strong enough to lift the plush a little, you can move it forward (or to the side depending on where the plush is in the machine) and win it in a few tries or if you’re really lucky, the claw will lift the plush up entirely and you’ll win instantly.

As an aside, the Raichu is super cute! I won one for myself because I couldn’t resist. You can see him here with my other Raichus (and Alolan Raichus) in the top right corner of the shelf.

Until next time~