Overview of a Card Pack Box

Here’s our full, if at times overdone, view on everything you get in a Shinra Bansho card box. If you’re interested in getting one for yourself, check out our buying guide, “Where can you buy Shinra Bansho cards?”

Many images ahead, all of which expand to full size when clicked.

So first, the box itself.

Mine was ordered from AmiAmi.com (search “shinra bansho”) at a price of 1,630 Yen. The retail price is otherwise around 2,100 yen, so this was pretty good. See the buying guide for more options.

Some notes on Shipping

May be old news for those who import frequently, but otherwise:
I used SAL unregistered, which came to 980 Yen. As I pre-ordered it, it shipped right on the release date of April 16th, and arrived May 2nd – only about 2 weeks. I live in the Western US.

The other options are EMS, which has tracking, insurance, and is much faster, but the most expensive. There’s also SAL registered, which has delivery confirmation and insurance, but takes longer.

What I went with, SAL unregistered, has no tracking, insurance, or delivery confirmation, but is the cheapest. There’s a certain risk with this option, as if it gets lost, you’re out of luck, and the longer it takes to be shipped, the higher the chances it’ll be lost or damaged. It’s rare that this’ll happen (mine came in perfect shape), but it’s worth keeping in mind, especially if you’re out in the middle of nowhere.

The back. And the top, after my buddy here spun it clean around with one swing. Yes, it’s very light, unsurprisingly.

As you can see from the little warnings, you obviously don’t want it under the sun all day or excessive heat lest the chocolate melt. I was actually a little concerned about this, as the package was left out in the sun for a while, but it was fine.

You may have noticed the cut at the top of the box, where you’re supposed to fold it out – it becomes the backing board for the display box, much as it is with so many other candy/card/trading toy boxes. I didn’t want to do this as I’ll be storing it anyway, so please forgive the lack of a proper demonstration.

A closer look at one side and the open box. You’re supposed to tear off the side along the angled line and the front to give customers easier access to the product, which are packed pretty tightly in there. There’s a total of 20 packs per box.

The two types of packaging. Although not terribly visible here, the left has a red line at the top and the right has yellow, making it clear if you look at the open box again that it alternates between the two designs (ten of each).

The back and a side view of a red line pack. The upper right shows the value system, something like 12 commons, 10 uncommons, 6 rares, and 2 ultra rares (although they may use some other terminology). The example cards shown differ on  a yellow line pack.

Size comparisons with a standard DVD case and a Cardfight!! Vanguard booster pack.

And here’s what you get when you open one up and pull everything out.

First pull is a winner! Look at those shiny prisms! As has been noted in the past, it comes in a plastic wrap that keeps the wafer off of the actual card, and is generally fairly convenient for collectors who’d want to store it in some such manner anyway (although it does have the extra plastic on the top and bottom and a seam on the back, not that that keeps the back’s info from being readable. Uh, unless you don’t know Japanese like me, of course!).

The backing card, which helps to keep the pack’s shape and accounts for that thicker than usual size. Below are the sides, with addresses/QR codes for Bandai’s candy toy website and ShinraBansho.com. On the inner part of the card, unique to every pack, there’s a serial number (or a QR code you can scan) which is used on ShinraBansho.com. I’ve blanked the ones out here in case I decide to use them later.

Not understanding how this worked myself, we’re lucky to have the help of the ever sharp kurenaiseiba over at Peche no Sekai ver. B, who gave this overview of how it functions, beginning with how it did in the previous Shichiten no Hasha set :

You can input the codes on the Shichiten site but so far, they’re on Volume 4 which will end at June 30. The objective is to “power up” the 3 characters and once they have successfully powered up to the point, they will mail that card (Japan only) to your home.

If you don’t like the power up, you can use the codes from BanaFes “Shinra Banshou Town” to earn neat avatar stuff.

Daimaou has their “Eight Pillar” Challenge on which you choose one of eight of the pillars when you input a serial code. The prize you get are random but consider yourself lucky if you won either a physical Crystal Rare Makai Kenshi Arc or Crystal Rare Seijou Aria Card on which they can send it to your home (Japan only AGAIN).

Other cards are not physical but they can be obtained only in the online game are Yuusha Hiiro, Yama Ou Belferia or Kouma Ou Rukiferl.

The rest of the prizes are coins of Volume 1, Shichiten no Hasha and Daimaou on which they can be used on the online game and last are avatar items of Arc and Hiiro that can be dressed up from your avatar at BanaFes Town.

Thanks again, kurenaiseiba!

Card size comparisons – on the left is a Yu-Gi-Oh! card, on the right a Cardfight!! Vanguard card. Putting aside the exclamation point competition, those two types are actually the same dimensions, but the Vanguard one may appear smaller than it actually is due to its corners being shorter.

Either way, as you can see, a Shinra Bansho card is actually slightly smaller than your average trading card, both vertically and horizontally.

Showing off holographic effects in a photo is obviously fairly difficult, as the idiosyncrasies vary by angle and lighting, so here are two slightly different pictures that’ll hopefully help. Once again the comparison is to Yu-Gi-Oh! and Cardfight!! Vanguard – of the two Shinra Bansho cards shown here, the left obviously has more fancy prismatic effects, while the right is more of a flat, shiny gloss.

So what about the wafer? It’s about as tall as a Shinra Bansho card, but actually wider. The cookie shown here is a regular Chips Ahoy! brand, which are fairly small.

When I trademark a product, remind me to add three exclamation points. I’ll show them who’s boss.

And that begs the next natural question, how does the wafer taste? Well, first, as you may have noted, it’s more wafer than chocolate, with three being used and only two thin layers of chocolate. This means it’s somewhat dry, but not too much so. Also, it’s fairly substantial for what it is, a light snack, although obviously if you’re expecting something like a Snickers bar you’re barking up the wrong tree.

It’s not something I’d go out of my way for on its own, but it’s a nice little treat, about as good as a single decently sized cookie. Along with the trading card, at 100 Yen a pack, I can imagine how it makes for a fun pick up on top of running errands at the local 7-11 or whatever. That’s how it’s supposed to work, of course, not exactly how it does for us…

Oh, by the way, his name is Poe.