Retail Price: 650 Yen
Total Tickets: 66
Released Date: 18 Mar 2023
Ichiban Kuji: Selectable prizes for non-blinds small prizes. Double chance included if your country carries this Kuji.
Series Sequel: 4th Doraemon Kuji set! 1st in 2023
Recommended for: Fans of Doraemon or casual fans that knows Doraemon
Doraemon is back once again! I believe most of us are aware of this iconic character that grew up with us! I am always happy that such a well-known character has another Kuji, this set’s theme focuses on the gadgets so let’s check them out!
Prize A (2 pieces)
Top Prize Appearance: 2nd
Prize Rating:
We start off the set with Doraemon himself and it’s a plush prize. It’s Doraemon in his iconic Take Copter, the plush is 25cm long and definitely huggable if you want to squish it. It also looks good to display if you want to showcase it. 2 pieces to go around. I do prefer the normal kind of plush, this one looks a little too fluffy, but still quite decent enough to be a top prize.
Prize B (3 pieces)
Prize Rating:
Next in the top prize list we have a jumbo towel. The design looks fantastic! We have Doraemon and friends in the playground and it features a lot of classic gadgets in the art too! So normally the jumbo towel that Bandai provides will be usable, but in this case this is solely a display towel (so please don’t soak this with lots of water), it’s meant for you to display and enjoy the art! It’s a 100cm long towel and I believe you will like the art so much that you won’t bear to use it for anything other than a display piece! 3 to go around and I think it’s probably the prize that any would have preferred in the set!
Prize C (6 pieces)
Design: 3
Distribution: 3 x 2 pieces each.
Prize Rating:
Before moving into the small prize section, this is a consolation prize given to us. It is a pouch featuring 3 of the iconic gadgets; Anywhere Door, Memorization Toast and Time Cloth! Design wise I do wish to see more gadgets but usability wise it’s 18cm tall so you will be able to put a few essentials inside! Not sure why this cannot be a normal small prize and they have to make it rarer, but it’s a good prize to pull and also one that many would anticipate to get as well!
Do play early to pick as I believe majority will pick the Toast or Door first, but do check early for availability of designs before playing!
Prize D (18 pieces)
Design: 4
Distribution: 2 x 5 pieces each. 2 x 4 pieces.
Prize Rating:
Moving into the small prizes we have classic glasses. We have design featuring Doraemon in everyone of them. The glass is 8.5cm tall but the thing is that they have durable as proven in the past and you can pick your favorite too! Plenty to go around, still do hope that they gave more designs for this prize, 4 is too little.
Prize E (18 pieces)
Design: 8
Distribution: 4 x 3 pieces each. 4 x 2 pieces.
Prize Rating:
Next we have towels, I will give credits where it’s due, the design for the towels are just splendid. We have partial design of the towel art. We have a Doraemon solo design, one with friends and one with gadgets. All of them look nice enough for you not to regret getting them but at the same time I do wish for more designs, it gives more option and potentially add collector’s value inside!
Prize F (19 pieces)
Design: 2 notebook 2 folder set
Distribution: 3 x 5 pieces each. 1 x 4 pieces.
Prize Rating:
Lastly we have a prize consisting of a notebook and folder set! If you pull this prize you have an option to choose one of the 2 notebooks which has great art or a pair of A4 folder. The notebook will be more popular due to the usability so do play early to choose it! The folder set is not bad either, you do get the art from the towels and if you pick the folder you get 2 pieces of folder in it!
Last Prize / Double Chance
Prize Rating:
If you didn’t manage to pull prize A but you want a Doraemon plush, you can go for a buyout instead! This variant of the plush is sitting (than flying). He also holds the Take Copter, if you are a hardcore fan you could get both A and Last prize! You can look for a 5-buyout or 10 with at least B or C inside!
The double chance is also for this prize so you have a shot at this!
Grading
Big Prize
I can’t I am not disappointed that there are no figures in the top prize, but at least we have a nice towel and plush to attract us to play.
Small Prize
Small prizes are appealing and we have pouches that make things better.
Last Prize
A Doraemon plush is nothing bad.
Variety of Prize
This set suffers from the lack of variety in both the designs and the list of prizes. I mean they are nice, but with the lack of designs, most people will not want to play more.
Odds of big prizes
5 big prizes in a pool of 66 tickets does feel a little shortage.
Value for Money
The prizes are nice enough to make you feel justified for the ticket cost.
Collector’s Value
See below
Overall: B-
Conclusion
Well, as expected the Kuji is just average, but can’t blame the franchise, they did well to give us some nice designs but overall it does lack the value that drives us to play more tickets, some figures would have been nice and maybe something different from the usual towel, folder and glass combo. More designs would help as well.
Odds
Let’s calculate your odds to get the following with one ticket from a fresh board!
Chance to get a top prize (A or B): 5 / 66 =7.58%, below average
Recommendation
2 tickets to support Doraemon, I think apart from A, B and C, the others are not worth your ticket cost so don’t overspend on this set.
Collectibles?
The Real Deal:
- None, this set is not meant for collectibles, just for usability.
Nice to have
- Prize B Towel, good item to keep if you like the design
- Prize C Pouch, it’s not easy to collect all 3 designs, but they do look nice to display and good to use.
Collect only if you don’t already have
- Prize A Plush or Last Prize Plush: If you need to get a Doraemon plush from Bandai, this would be a good way to start, but don’t overspend on this, just buy the plush directly from someone who pulled it, it won’t cost a lot.
Skippable
- All small prizes, they are nice but again not a collector’s item, so pick your favorite design and you can call it a day.
Image credits:
https://1kuji.com/products/doraeiga3
Kuji is Fun 