Star Wars Pachinko - Fever Star Wars

Not sure how Sankyo, a pachinko (= semi-gambling) company, was able to obtain a Star Wars licensing agreement with Lucas - I am guessing it was lots of $$. They call the new line of machines “Fever Star Wars”, and there is a whole commercial campaign around it. All the commercials have that quirky Japan sensibility, and are themed around Vader invading Japan with a brief introduction of the pachinko machine at the end. 

In this first commercial, Vader and his crew are “invading” Japan with a tour guide (the words at the beginning say: “Darth Vader is invading Japan!”). Vader gets a bit nervous when Japanese tourists surround him at a famous spot, but the tour guide keeps him in check:

This next video is a New Years setting at a temple. On New Years Eve, it is customary for Japanese to go to a local temple and ring the large temple bell.  Except here the temple bell morphs into Vader!  Let’s Pachinko! 

This one is pretty cool with lots of Vader hats on an assembly line and the tag line: “a new attack starts from here — Fever Star Wars!”. 

Pachinko is more widely played than ever in Japan and now has less stigma than before, but it is still a form of gambling. The object is to obtain as many balls as you can, which can be used for prizes - or exchanged for money.  I don’t think Lucas would license Star Wars to a manufacturer of slot machines, but who knows? 

Here is a close up of an actual Fever Star Wars pachinko machine. This shot shows the videos you get when you hit a “jackpot” so to speak (warning: this video is loud like an actual pachinko parlor).

For more video and web entertainment you can go to Sankyo’s site here.