Saturday, February 29, 2020

[New Prince of Tennis x Zoff] Collaboration Collection - School Line: Seigaku

I saw this Prince of Tennis spectacles after I came back from Japan last April. After about one month of deliberation (because I think Zoff's quality is not as good and because I already have 2 new Digimon spectacles), I decided to succumb and pre-ordered. The item was sent in November and I procrastinated with taking photos. In the end I only took photos in order to test my new camera and for me to get used to it just before my Japan trip last December. If not because of the Prince of Tennis Chinese drama that I just finished, perhaps these photos will still be in my hard disk doing nothing. Haha..

New Prince of Tennis x Zoff Collaboration Collection has 10 different designs. The 'School Line' (going for 7700 yen each after tax) has designs based on the schools tennis uniform: Seigaku, Hyotei, Rikkaidai, Shitenhoji, and Higa Chuu. The 'Private Line' has designs based on specific characters: Ryoma, Yukimura, Atobe, and Shiraishi. The last one design is called the Megane☆Seven based on this subunit. The 'Private Line' and Megane☆Seven design are more expensive at 9900 yen each after tax. Each comes with specially designed case, lens cloth, and can badge.

While seemingly cheaper than the Digimon x Megane Ichiba spectacles, these prices are just for the frame without the lenses. Ouch! My lens from Megane Ichiba is 1.74 and to have this lens in Zoff, it will be an additional 9900 yen (after tax). In Zoff Singapore, it is $118 but there is an additional charge (I asked before but now I forget how much) since my frame will be considered as not bought from shop. So in total, this Zoff spectacles cost me more but has lousier quality (the plastic is so thin and flimsy that it feels of a weak build) than Megane Ichiba.

For more details about this collection, you can click here. Even until now I am still unable to access that page properly. Haha.. Last time it did not work in my Chrome but it worked in Edge. Today I tried in Edge, as well as Firefox, and the page still did not display accordingly.

Ultimately I bought this with the intention of wearing so my main consideration is the practicality of wearing them, rather than just for the characters. The crazy me bought two: Seigaku and Shitenhoji. This post will be specifically about Seigaku design and the specifications can be referred here. Somehow the designs for the 'Private Line' are more outrageous and I cannot imagine myself wearing them so I was not even interested in any of them. Lucky for me since the 'Private Line' is more expensive.

Of all people, the chosen ones for Seigaku design are the Golden Pair. Gosh!! Kikumaru is my favourite character so the temptation was even bigger for me. But hey, practicality comes first. After all Oishi and Kikumaru are depicted just in the boring Seigaku school uniform. Haha... So the main practical reasons are the square shape and the blue colour. Previously I mentioned that I was considering Yamato's design because of the colour so finally now I have a blue spectacles. That is all for the text and let the pictures speak more about the actual item.
Everthing that I received
Lens wipe
Can badge
The case design is based on the school emblem
The inside of the case is rather plain
The frame colour is dark blue although somehow it always appears more like black in pictures.
The temples take the colour scheme of Seigaku's tennis uniform
Racket head as the tip of left temple
Racket grip as the tip of the right temple
I feel less impressed as compared to the previous Digimon spectacles but my bias towards Prince of Tennis still makes me not regretting this purchase. Hahaha. Since there is no degree, I treated this as buying other toys. Thus instead of using a proxy, I used a forwarder service (Big in Japan). In total this costs me 7700 yen (price) + 500 yen (forwarding fee) + 1510 yen (EMS). Of course the forwarding fee and EMS are inclusive of the Shitenhoji spectacles.

NB: Tagging this post as 'Toys' for ease of searching in the future.

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