Gamertell

When a game is released in North America and becomes successful, you see it everywhere. Case in point, Halo 3 was available not only in major electronics retailers and game stores like Best Buy and GameStop, but also in 7-Eleven stores. If it is a real winner, it will be accompanied by a strategy guide, soundtrack or occasionally a cheap trinket or two.

Things are slightly different in Japan. Yes, all of the prior accompanying items coincide with a game’s success, but there are additional promotional materials released. Ones which America doesn’t often receive. One of the most famous of these is the stuffed toy.

The plushie, as the stuffed mascot toy is affectionately known, is indigenous to Japan. Occasionally you will see a stray one roaming outside of its natural habitat. Usually this is from a brave company who knows a game will be a hit and feels the mascot characters are cute enough to entice interest. Of course, a devoted fan who did exceptionally well in life-skills class (formerly known as home ec) will have the skills to create their own.

In Japan, plushies, both licensed and original, are rampant. Any successful game franchise with an adorable mascot is guaranteed to have at least one or two. So today we’ll take a brief peek at some of the more popular and recognizable stuffed toys that can be imported from Japan.

Nintendo

As expected, Nintendo is one of the companies ready to cash in by mass marketing plush toys of beloved game icons. When Super Mario Galaxy was released in North America, we got stockings and ornaments. When Mario Party DS was released in Japan, they got plushie Mario, Luigi, Peach and Yoshi dolls.

In fact, it seems like any game release is an excuse for a new Nintendo plushie. Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is releasing, so ship out the plush Link doll! New Super Mario Brothers is out next week, so the plush Mario keychains have to be ready! We also can’t forget that the release of Yoshi’s Island 2 prompted the release of multicolored stuffed Yoshi dolls.

Then there are the Animal Crossing toys. This series has inspired a stuffed invasion. There are literally enough different stuffed toys from this series to recreate your own town. You can have the guards Booker and Copper at the gate, Resetti at your door, Rosy as your neighbor, and your character as a fisherman or bug catcher. Of course Crazy Redd will be by the town hall, Blathers and Celeste will be in the museum and Tom Nook will be resting in his shop. If you search Play-Asia’s toy section for Animal Crossing, you come up with 89 results. It’s exhausting to even think about.

Only two of its franchises has made a successful plush push overseas - Nintendogs and Pokemon. The Pokemon plushies can be found practically everywhere and do insanely well. The same can’t be said for Nintendogs items. In 2007 Nintendo teamed up with Tomy to sell stuffed Nintendogs toys in North America and Europe. Didn’t see them? That’s because they were mainly available in Target, Wal-Mart and Toys R Us stores. Suffice to say, they didn’t exactly sell out.

Sega

When I was a little girl, I adored the Sonic the Hedgehog games. I even watched the cartoon. My favorite character of all was Tails the fox. If I had known back then that a stuffed toy of him existed, I surely would have thrown a temper tantrum that would have rocked my block. Imagine my surprise to find out now that such a toy does exist!

In Japan, Sega has four different official stuffed Sonic the Hedgehog toys. The child inside each of us that has always wanted a physical manifestation of our favorite character can finally be fufilled. All three of the great ones, Sonic, Knuckles and Tails, are available in huggable, velvety fabric.

Oh, yeah, and that Amy hedgehog chick is available too. But nobody really likes her.

There are tons of different Sonic plushies out there. In fact, there are more varieties of Sega Sonic plushies than there are of Nintendo Mario ones (hint hint). You can get a small or medium sized normal plush toy, a bean bag plush toy or a plush doll. Frankly I’m not too sure about the difference between a plush doll and a plush toy. I think its a fabric and design thing.

There are other Sega plushies available as well, but they are harder to find. There were six different puyos released when Puyo Puyo Fever 2 came out. I’m sure that Samba de Amigo will likely have a stuffed representation after the Wii game is released.

And the Rest

Other companies have also tried to get in on the plushie trade, with varying degrees of success. Square Enix is the one company which consistently tends to do well, due to its adorable chocobo, moogle, cactaur and tonberry mascots. Even some of their Dragon Quest slime characters are stuffed. They also are the one company who seems to realize the benefit in marketing the plush toys worldwide, as they will import and sell the Japanese toys online to customers all over the world via their Square Enix Official Online Merchandise Store.

There are also stray mascots from other games. There are Ape Escape stuffed monkeys whose heads shake. There is even an impressive Dragon Ball dragon god plush doll. Every company is ready and willing to bring adorable icons into the real world. Japan is a stuffed animal collector’s dream. At the very least, a haven for anyone who loves things that are cute, small and fuzzy.

COMING NEXT WEEK: Important Portables discusses Japanese ball-jointed dolls.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Last week Important Importables discussed the best GBA import games.

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