Awesome full circle moment I just have to share.

Last night I was walking around Tokyo and wound up at a basement card store (as we do). I expected to see plenty of overpriced Shohei, Roki, and now Kazuma, which I did - and then in the slabs section, sandwiched between Kareem and Jordan Poole was ... a Mengke Bateer 2001 U.D. Flight Team Rookie.

Ok, you’re in a Japanese basement, looking at a shelf with maybe 60-70 slabs total, tell me you expect to see Mengke Bateer in PSA 10. So that was unexpected. Also, Mengke is my uncle. No, my side of the dna tree did not get his height.

Little backstory, I grew up in Houston and when he came to the Spurs in 2002, we got to hang out a ton. Some might know he won a chip with them in '03 despite hardly putting up Scalabrine minutes. Even fewer might know that he had an unlikely but close friendship with Tim Duncan who we always joked was Chinese on the inside. If I could telekinesis to the old house I’d find you guys some pics of those two giants together, next to my 5'5 dad and 3'2 me. There may be a follow up post next week with said pic.

For what it’s worth, Mengke got traded to Toronto the next year and I heard from him a lot less afterwards. When his stint with the north was done, he moved back to China/Mongolia and got into playing tough guy side characters in movies while playing ball on the side. Still, he made history by being the first Asian player to win an NBA championship, and actually frontran Yao Ming to be the first Chinese player to start an NBA game.

Anyways, the guys in the store (Mint Tokyo, shoutout Yu) hooked it up, and I even made another friend from the Netherlands named Che who was ready to buy it for me if I didn’t have the yen. But MAAAAN. This is what the hobby is about for me.

Only question left: do I crack the PSA 10 and have uncle sign it at the next Thanksgiving?

This has always been a sought after book for video game lovers. It had bit of a bump when the movie came out and I’m guessing another one will happen with the sequel coming out.

2/4 Initial D 30th Anniversary Angel Clover Watches. All the way from Japan to UK. Amazing Quality!

Rather than post something in my collection, I figured it would be fun to go over a neat part of collecting things from a Japanese franchise. Licensing stickers!

• These official licensor-issued seals attached to licensed products (especially toys, model kits, and other collectibles) prove authenticity and licensing approval from the IP holder (in this case Tatsunoko Productions and the Sotsu Agency).

• The stickers often feature a series number, company logo, or maybe even a character/mascot portrait.

• Collectors often use the presence of a 版権シール as a key authenticity check, especially with garage kits that were frequently recast or bootlegged.

It is also important to note that some official items do not have this sticker. For example:

• Video Games were already tightly controlled by the publisher/licensee (Bandai, Capcom, Namco, etc.) and bore printed copyright notices on the box, cartridge, and manual. That was considered sufficient proof of licensing.

• Books, manga, settei, and magazines relied on printed colophons (奥付) and copyright lines instead.

• Stationery, apparel, and food tie-ins, most of which had nothing beyond packaging marks/logos, unless it was part of a larger toy release (I.e. Keshi blind boxes that included a toy & candy).

Tatsunoko licensing stickers have seen a number of changes over the years. Specifically, there have been three known iterations used for Kyattō Ninden Teyandee:

Early 90s stickers (bust image of Yattarō)

• These stickers included internal categorization codes (I.e. A-E, on the left of the sticker) They identified which manufacturer or product line a given item belonged to.

• At the time, multiple companies were simultaneously producing KNT/SPC goods. The letter system helped the licensor track royalties and contracts across product categories.

• This particular version of the sticker is no longer in use.

Late 90s stickers (Sotsu)

• Very to-the-point. They began simplifying the stickers to a generic silver Sotsu sticker that didn’t specify a particular character or sub-series. It’s designed to highlight Sotsu’s role as licensor rather than tie directly to the show.

• 承認済 (Shōnin-zumi) at the top means Approved.

• The center SOTSU is the company name (Sotsu Agency, sometimes written 創通エージェンシー in earlier stickers).

• 版権許諾証 (Hanken kyodaku-shō) at the bottom literally means Copyright License Certificate.

• By the mid-90s, licensing practices streamlined: Unified stickers were adopted instead of letter-coded ones. Internal tracking moved into contracts, paperwork, and barcodes, rather than printed codes. The goal was to give consumers one simple authenticity seal to recognize, instead of a confusing alphabet system. As a result, the letter-coded stickers are now a relic of early Tatsunoko licensing practice.

2025 and beyond (Holographic Tatsunoko seahorse)

• Very recently, Tatsunoko recently started using a much more compact, fully holographic circular sticker featuring the company’s logo - the Tatsunoko seahorse. These stickers are now typically placed discreetly near the barcode or product credits.

• The choice to go holographic is an anti-counterfeit measure. Earlier versions of the sticker were hard to replicate, but not impossible. Adding a holographic design makes them harder to copy. It also makes them super hard to photograph, and perhaps that’s for the best.

Both the Sotsu and Holographic seahorse stickers are currently in use today. Why?

Sotsu covers domestic retail verification within Japan’s licensing chain, while the holographic seahorse seal is Tatsunoko’s studio-level authenticity mark, often used for modern collaborations and export-ready products.

I don’t remember when I purchased this set. But I do remember it was one of the, if not the first collab between TakaraTomy & New Era. I’ve always been a huge fan of fan of New Era’s hats. Plus I loved transformers as a kid with my favorite being Soundwave 🎶📼

Including an image from online of the toys without the packaging.

Transformers and TakaraTomy did a lot of cool collabs: https://ebay.us/LzHkaC