PLEASE READ: The NEW SHOP is separate and distinct from the OLD SHOP. If you place an order on the OLD SHOP, you will not be able to use the NEW SHOP to check on your order and vice versa. Unfortunately, we were not able to resolve the two shop databases in order to transfer customer histories and accounts. Both shops are fully operational and capable of taking orders.
 

GBA Mahou Sensei Negima! JPN
 GBA Mahou Sensei Negima! Private Lesson 2 - New Import
«©NCSX» The original MSN Private Lesson sold an impressive 40,000 units in Japan. Sensing another successful run, publisher Marvelous releases a sequel which follows the premise of the first game closely. Students have once again been trapped in the dungeons underneath Mahora Academy and Negi Springfield is charged with the dual tasks of underground exploration and student rescue. Negi and student teammates use cards to battle and defend against creatures in dank dungeons as they spelunk for lost souls. 
 
 

NDS Angelique Duet JPN
 NDS Angelique Duet - New Import / In Stock
«©NCSX» The path of royal ascension in the world of Angelique Duet is not by bloodline but by one's ability to raise a continent's population by leaps and bounds. At the outset of the game, the Queen of the Universe and her angel assistant Dia select two new girls to be the next Queen. One of the girls is Angelique, who is given control of a new land that must be populated with throngs of people. To this end, Angelique interacts with nine Guardians who represent Darkness, Dreams, Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, Forest, Light, and Metal. The Guardians have the power to help the population of the continent swell and to damage the lands of your rival if you secure their favor. The Guardians also provide romantic interest and potential love.
 

 

 

NDS Fruits Mura 2 JPN
 NDS Fruits Mura no Doubutsu Tachi 2 - New Import / In Stock
«©NCSX» As the granddaughter of the village chief, players take on the role of Luche, a ebullient animal-girl who's mission is to help grandpappy repopulate Fruit Village after it was deserted and forgotten. To attract interest from animals throughout the kingdom, players build an amusement park in order to draw all manner of animal friends and visitors to Fruit Village. Fourteen types of theme parks may be constructed with features such as a Ferris Wheel, rides, and confectionary counters. Luche's ultimate goal is to make Fruit Village a thriving locus of commerce and entertainment. In addition to theme park building, players may also enjoy 34 mini-games and a confection creation game where desserts and tasty drinks are made for the masses. Love is also in the air with two potential suitors to win over.
 
 

PSP Powerful Pro Portable JPN
 PSP Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu Portable  - New Import
«©NCSX» Oddly proportioned athletes take the field once again in Konami's latest version of Powerful Pro Baseball. Packed with up to date stats as well as updated 2006 team rosters, players may play an entire season from start to finish and compare your chosen team's stats against the real team's stats as you both okay through the 2006 season. If you're good enough, your Powerful Pro baseball team will be in contention for the pennant as autumn rolls around.
   Bonus features include ad hoc communication to trade data with fellow fans and the capability to play a full game of baseball against another PSP player. Although a COM-controlled baseball team serves as adequate opposition, it's more challenging when two players link up via ad hoc mode to play an exhibition game or engage in a home run derby.

 
 

EATS FFXII Potion Premium JPN
 ETC Final Fantasy XII Potion Premium - New Import / In Stock
«©NCSX» NCS attempted to lower our import shipping costs for the FFXII Potions by having our vendor send the massive allocation of FFXII Portion Premium Boxes by sea freight. However, after handling charges, administrative costs and duties, the final transportation bill ended up equal to what air freight would have cost. Lesson learned... and time wasted. The FFXII Potion Premium Boxes arrived yesterday and we were able to ship some preorders on Tuesday but the bulk of our preorders are shipping this afternoon at the original preorder price of US$12.50 per Premium Box. 

Price Change
   Due to the high cost of carriage and importation, please note that NCS is raising the price per FFXII Potion to US$15 per Premium Box for new orders to cover costs. To lessen the sting however, customers within the USA may request shipping by USPS Priority Mail which is approximately US$5.50 for a 1-bottle shipment. Please note however that Priority Mail can take up to 3 days to deliver within the USA but it is trackable by way of Delivery Confirmation Service on www.usps.gov. Our online shop does not list Priority Mail as a shipping option but you may request it in the notes section of the online order form and we'll ship accordingly. Please note that you will still have to select a UPS shipping option to submit the order.

Packaging
   NCS will ship any new orders today and we're packaging each single-bottle order in thick bubble wrap followed by another layer of bubble wrap. The bubble-packed mass is then packaged in a cardboard box for final delivery to our customers in the USA and Europe. Each package weighs approximately 1.2 lbs with packaging material. We had a few bottles that were wrecked during shipping due to poor handling by the freight company. The glass bottles are fragile and when they're dropped from a 10 foot loading dock, the bottles on the bottom of the container tend to splinter and subsequently rattle around inside...

Bottle
   Each limited edition bottle is made of deep-purple tinted glass which measures 5" tall. A Suntory bottle cap seals the 100 ml of elixir inside but twist it open to get at the beverage. One of six deep-purple colored acrylic caps is also included with each glass bottle which measures 2.5" tall. Each limited edition package also includes one of 27 possible foil-wrapped Final Fantasy XII trading cards. The cards are beautifully printed and we're trying to fetter out a complete set for our own collection. They're that special. 

Bouquet
   Upon snapping open the bottle cap, a fragrance not unlike medicine wafts from the mouth of the bottle to one's nostrils. The first thought was Robitussin but there was also the scent of a ginseng-like aroma and a sickly sweet odor. One of the major ingredients in the potion is royal jelly, which is secreted from the salivary glands of worker bees to feed larvae. Queen bees are fed a steady diet of royal jelly for the rest of their lives. It's doubtful that any Queens will rise up from drinking the potion however.

Color
   Suntory used a tinting agent known as "Blue 1" to color the potions a light blue color that looks like windshield washer fluid. Blue 1 is used to give beverages, jellies, confections, ices, syrups, extracts and condiments a bright blue color that's unnatural in foodstuffs. Blue 1 is also used in cosmetics such as eyeliner.

Taste Test
   First impression: Apple juice. Or is it Kool-Aid? No, make that sugared water infused with a tangy bite that hits your tongue with a tart explosion of flavor which slowly dissipates as the liquid washes down your throat. A loose approximation of the flavor is Arizona Green Tea in those fanciful green bottles. The sugar content is loaded and NCS tasters felt that dilution was required - say 1 bottle of potion mixed with a glass of water would cut down on the sharp sugar-powered flavor. There's a barely distinguishable aftertaste which is reminiscent of Chinese medicinal herbs - the kind that may be savored in any well stocked Asian herbal pharmaceutical. We can't imagine anyone drinking the potions on a daily basis but as a collectible gimmick for Final Fantasy XII fans, they're probably something that will be much sought after in a few years. These things tend to behave that way.  

Ingredients
   Suntory lists the ingredients as follows: Grape carbohydrate solution, sugar, royal jelly, propolis extract, elder (sambucus nigra), chamomile, sage, thyme, hyssop, fennel, marjoram, rosemary, basil, melissa (lemon balm), acidulant, spice, caffeine, save charges (benzoic acid Na), phosphate (Na), vitamin B6, vitamin B1, blue 1.
 

 

 

TOYS Disney Dots JPN
 TOYS Dots Disney Characters - New Import / In Stock
«©NCSX» After dominating retro game recreations with their line of DOTS toys, Tomy turns their attention to classic Disney characters. Both Mickey and Minnie are recreated in dot-pin form where the four connecting peg board provide roughly twice the "resolution" of the first generation Dot-Pin pegboards. The peg count for the Disney Dots also ramps up to 750 versus 520 for the original Dot-Pin sets. The pegs included in the Mickey set is as follows: White (200), Gray (30), Dark Gray (50), Black (470). The Minnie set contains: White (190), Gray (40), Dark Gray (70), Black (450).

   The likenesses of Mickey and Minnie that may created are the old school black & white versions which opens up the possibility of modern Mickey and Minnie variants in the coming months. Pricing is set at US$19 each.
 
 

TOY A03 Sachiel XX JPN
 TOYS Evangelion Apostle A-03 Sachiel-XX - Belated Import
«©NCSX» NCS stocked two Apostles on Monday and a third angel arrived yesterday. A-03 Sachiel-XX measures 14cm or 5.11" tall and is packaged in a "Biohazard - Infectious Residuals" cardboard boxes marked as Lab Samples. It's a clever gimmick that adds color to an otherwise standard figure. Sachiel  is packaged on the right side of each box and her colorful wings and a base are packaged on the left side of the box.

 
 

TOYS EVA Characters Type-F JPN
 TOYS Evangelion Characters Type-F - New Import / In Stock
«©NCSX» Asuka Langley and Rei Ayanami are joined by a trio of weapon-toting mecha in the Evangelion Characters Type-F candy toy figures from Bandai.
   Asuka and Rei measure approximately 3" long as they lounge about and the Evangelion mechs measure roughly 3" tall. Some assembly is required - for example, the heads of both Asuka and Rei head must be docked with their bodies before they're presentable. A gray-colored octagon base is included with each figure for display purposes and a little piece of cellophane-wrapped gum is included for the toy collector to chew up.

 
 

TOYS Girl Fighting Chun-Li JPN
 TOYS Girl Fighting Chun-Li - New Import / SOLD OUT
«©NCSX» The 1/6 scale Girl Fighting version of Cammy arrived last week and Chun-Li landed yesterday. Sakura is scheduled to arrive later in the week. Chun-Li measures 26cm (6.29") tall and the sculpture by Takeshi Hamasaki is beautifully done. The attention to detail, the quality of the paint application, and the flowing nature of Chun-Li's garb all contribute to a jaw-dropping visual.

   Although Chun-Li looks relaxed in her pose, the wicked spiked bracelets on both wrists lend allusions to her darker side... 

   Preorders are shipping today but please note that we are sold out of this figure. We are waiting for updates from suppliers for restock and we'll update soon.

 

 

 

TOYS Naruto Kigumi Plush JPN
 TOYS Naruto Kigurumi Plush - New Import / SOLD OUT
«©NCSX» Naruto and friends engage in an extreme form of cosplay known as kigurumi (costume mascot) where the ninja garb themselves in furry animal costumes complete with collars, ears that poke out of their hair, whiskers, and padded paws. Decorated bibs are also in place for each plush... in the event that any of the Naruto crew members decide to drool.
   The figures measure 16cm or 6.29" tall and are made of cushiony plush material with flaps of felt material for the hair. All preorders are shipping today but we have sold out at this time. Pricing is set at US$11.50 each.
 
 

TOYS Star Wars Droids JPN
 TOYS Star Wars Droids - New Import / In Stock
«©NCSX» Tomy releases two variants of the R2D2 remote controlled toy that was released earlier in 2005.
   The first variant is an R2-Q5 Imperial Astromech droid seen to the left and the second variant is an R4-P17 Astromech droid to the right.
   Both droids include a remote control in the shape of a lightsaber which is used to move the robots forward and twist their domes to and fro. All preorders ship today.

 
 

TOYS Transformers Coll. 21 JPN
 TOYS Transformers Collection 21: Broadcast - New Import
«©NCSX» Takara ships a remake of Transformers Collection 21 which features the Autobot known as Blaster aka Broadcast who transforms from boxy shouldered robot to a tan/orange-colored boom box with a slim handle on top. The yellow plate with see-through window on Broadcast's chest becomes the cassette deck door when in audio equipment mode. The little black circles below its knees become the speakers. A hand cannon is included in the packaging which may be gripped in either hand. Broadcast, a member of the mighty Cassettebots was recently revived in the Transformers Headmasters cartoon series as Twincast.

   Included in the package is a yellow and gold colored Steeljaw figure which transforms from leopard-like mecha to compact cassette which slides into Broadcast's tape deck. 

   Transformers Collection 21 ships to all preorders today and new orders are welcome.  Pricing is set at Y4500 or US$49 from NCS.
 
 

TOYS Soundblaster Black Ver. JPN
 TOYS Transformers Soundblaster: Black Version - New Import
«©NCSX» Japanese manufacturer Toy's Dream Project has released their limited edition Soundblaster Black Version figure which morphs from imposing robot to irregularly profiled Stealth Bomber. The production quantity is limited to 4000 pieces only.

   A miniature, morphing Buzzsaw - the aerial reconnaissance buzzard - is included inside each package. Buzzsaw morphs from bird of prey to a cylinder which pops inside Soundblaster's chest cavity (tape deck). Two morphing weapons are also included which transform from cylinders to powerful guns which are gripped in Soundblaster's right gauntlet.  
 
 

Sega Saturn Magazine Vol. 25
193 pages; N/M Condition
Price US$7.50 per copy
 MOTD Sega Saturn Magazine Vol. 25 [July 25, 1997] allGone
Cover: Tokimeki Memorial
p16-19 Landmark News on a Mr. Bones promotional party, a Print Club wedding, new music