You will be able to get your hands on a limited replica of Yu-Gi-Oh! rival Seto Kaiba's metal briefcase this month, as Konami celebrates the franchise's 25th anniversary.
Kaiba is possibly Yu-Gi-Oh!'s most well-known character, even compared to Yugi himself. The billionaire games mogul armed with a metal briefcase full of the series' (then) most powerful cards, and his Blue Eyes White Dragons are easily Yu-Gi-Oh!'s closest thing to a mascot monster. In celebration of the franchise's 25th anniversary this month, Konami is releasing a replica of that briefcase, as well as a reprinted version of his deck in the original manga. It even comes with three prints of series icon Blue Eyes White Dragon, set out in their own special display frame and stamped with a 25th Anniversary symbol.
According to Konami, the Blue Eyes' will all be printed at Secret Rare rarity, while the deck of 61 cards will all be Ultra Rare. Of note, three cards that appeared in the manga are getting physical card prints for the very first time. Life Shaver, Attack Guidance Armor and Magical Trick Mirror will all be making their debut, converted to the card framing used by the modern game and given new art that is evocative of their original appearance.
When the manga started, creator Kazuki Takahashi had no idea that the card game he made for it would go on to be as popular as it is. That means that, interestingly, the deck printed here is not at all viable for modern Yu-Gi-Oh! play, even with the templating changes made to make them consistent with it. For instance, while the case has the three Blue-Eyes in the display frame, the deck only has one… which is two short of being able to fuse them into the included Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. This is definitely for collectors wanting to own a remade deck, rather than anybody actually wanting to play with the cards.
Brand new cards aside, this is a beefy case, coming in at 7KG and being able to store up to 7000 Japanese-size cards. It'll include separators to help organise your decks and collection, making it a totally viable carry case for heading to your game shop or events.
Unfortunately, the case and deck have only been confirmed for a Japanese release in from Konami or partnered stores. Preorders will run from September 21 to October 31 from, when it will cost 33,000 yen ($300/£216.42). As these are being made to order, shipping isn't expected to begin until at least April 2022.