Who knew it was so hard to spend $70?

I was stuck in a Wal-Mart for an interminably boring hour about a month ago, so I picked up a random issue of PSM from the magazine rack and started reading it. Among other things, the magazine informed me that a new Lupin III PS2 game was coming out: Lupin III: Lupin ni wa Shi wo, Zenigata ni wa Koi wo (Lupin III: Death for Lupin, Love for Zenigata). While I was only mildly excited about the game itself (I imagine it plays rather like the earlier Lupin PS2 titles: Lupin III: Majutsuou no Isan/Treasure of the Sorceror King and Lupin III: Columbus no Isan wa Ake ni Somaru/Columbus's Bloodstained Legacy), the special pre-order prize that comes with the game made my eyes pop out and my Otaku's heart cry out. "I must have it!", it screamed.

This is it. It's a limited edition Shi to Koi ("Death and Love" -- Lupin is death, and sexy Fujiko-san is, of course, love) figure given to those who pre-order the game (you also get entered into a drawing for a motorcycle, but like hell I was gonna win that). Doesn't this look totally kickass? I thought so.

Anyway, I tried ordering the game at Play-Asia, the most reliable retailer for import PS2 games I know of, but their page contained no information whatsoever about the special figure. I emailed them and was told that they had no idea whether or not they get the figure until the product is released and they get package information from their suppliers. Yeah, that doesn't help me at all, since I'm angling for a toy that only comes with pre-orders. I've looked at a couple of other places, but they've all got the same lack of useful information when it comes to what I really want to know. *Sigh* If only Amazon.co.jp or any other Japanese retailer shipped overseas (I do realize that even if they did, it'd cost me my pancreas and my spleen).

Anyway, the release date has passed (it was the 22nd of February), so it looks like my only way of procuring that figure is through eBay (if anybody is stupid enough to want to sell it). Oh well.