Just announced in the recent nicovideo livestream event was the winning 2014 Snow Miku design, as well as the winning pet design that will accompany her. The designs were chosen by fans by using a voting system on the live stream itself. Selection boxes appeared over each choice, and the votes (clicks) were tallied.

The winners of the event are the #8 finalist of the Snow Miku design contest, and the #7 finalist for the associated pet that will also be included with her design. The theme of next year’s design was “magic”, and required that all design entries of Miku included a wand.

Congratulations to both winners! Now comes the long wait before the designs are refined and finally processed for creating a Nendoroid. You can view larger and more detailed images of the winning designs from here (Miku) and here (pet).

After the previous Winter and even Spring Family Mart promotional campaigns featuring Snow Miku and Sakura Miku, it seems that the fans just can’t get enough. With the demand for promotional goods still high, Family Mart will be launching another promotional campaign this summer, starting at a currently unspecified date.

The recent livestream event on nicovideo detailed many of the prizes that can be expected in the lottery of the upcoming promotion. Like the last time, each store will carry 100 tickets and 100 prizes. Tickets will cost 800 yen each. The majority of prizes will be the smaller rewards, such as the Graphigs and clear files. The much rarer prizes include the 2013 Family Mart version Nendoroids of Rin, Len and Miku.

The rarest prize of all is a Family Mart Swimsuit Miku Nendoroid, which will be rewarded to whoever buys the last (100th) ticket from each Family Mart store. So not only will this figure be rarer, but fans will have to camp near stores to be able to snatch it.

Better images and more detailed info will follow soon.

Images borrowed from 初音ミクみく.

Up for preorder starting today is the new Figma of KAITO by Max Factory, as selected by fans for Good Smile Company’s 10th anniversary product poll. This makes Kaito the 5th Crypton Vocaloid to receive the Figma treatment (now how about Meiko to finish the whole family?).

For accessories, Kaito will come with three different expressions, two different scarf sizes, and an ice cream bar. As a small hidden bonus, he seems capable of holding many various Nendoroid accessories (many of which are ironically perfectly sized for Figmas). So if you have any laying around, go nuts.

Preorders can be made in the usual places (CDJapan, Amiami, Amazon JP, Hobby Search). But those who preorder directly from GSC’s online shop will receive a bonus Nendoroid/Figma clip that allows you to pose your figures from additional surfaces.

Preorders from GSC’s online shop will close on June 12th at 9:00 PM JST, while preorders from other sites will remain open until their limits are reached. Orders are scheduled to ship in September 2013. You can view the official GSC product page here, and view additional images from Mikatan’s blog.

Click image to view album site.

As a followup for my previous post regarding this album, Reboot is finally scheduled for release tomorrow on May 15th, 2013 JST. If you haven’t preordered your own copy yet, it’s not too late to score some cool bonus items with the album. Below are a couple options to choose from.

Along with the album, CDJapan’s preorder bonuses include 5 collectable character straps, and a full reproduction key-ring, all of which was seen in the promotional video for Reboot.

The special bonus for ordering from CDJapan is a Reboot poster. The price is set at 1905 Yen, or about $19 USD. Click here to order from CDJapan.

The second preorder option is Amazon Japan, which offers similar bonuses as CDJapan, but with a single change: Instead of a poster, you will receive two decorative clear files.

Like CDJapan, Amazon Japan also ships albums internationally. The price is set at 2000 Yen, or about $20 USD. Click here to order from Amazon Japan.

Below is the crossfade previewing all 16 tracks from the album.

Click image for contest website.

It’s that time of the year again! For the third year in a row, Good Smile Company and Piapro are collaborating on a contest where the Vocaloid community can submit illustrations to be used for the 5th official Snow Miku design. The contest began on April 24th, and will end on May 13th at 4:00 PM JST.

The theme for next year’s Snow Miku has a few rules. The theme this time around is “magic”, so all entries must show Snow Miku with a wand of some kind. Another addition that’s new this time around is the inclusion of a pet. This is a seperate category, meaning there will be two winners this year!

Entries for Snow Miku designs must be submitted to Piapro with the tag “２０１４年雪ミク衣装”, and the tags must be locked. If you need it, you can use the template design provided here. Entries for pet designs are also submitted to piapro, but must use the tag “２０１４年雪ミクペット”. Once again, the tags must be locked.

EDIT: Mamitan from Good Smile Company has posted a translated guide here.

Winners of the contest will receive a free Nendoroid of the winning design, along with many Snow Miku goods. You can see all current Snow Miku entries from here, and pet entries from here. The winners will be selected sometime around mid-May.

I can’t wait to see the next winning design!