TechJapan

TechJapan's first contest!

Site News / Other
Posted by zmcnulty on Oct 08, 2004 - 08:02 PM

That's right! You can win an actual item! As in, I send you a package in the mail!

It's not much, but it's a pretty cool item. Details of the contest and pics of sample prizes inside.
By the way, this contest is open to all TechJapan members, regardless of geographic location. Providing you have a mailing address, I'm willing to send your prize there.
If you aren't a member, become one today [1]. It's free of charge, and I don't spam your ass, so you've got nothing to lose.

TechJapan's First Contest

The Prizes:
Ever wanted to own a small piece of the Japanese electronics industry, but not spend a shitload? Every TechJapan member knows that electronics in Japan aren't cheap. Well, you're in luck - there's nothing cheaper than "free." Here's some sample prizes for this first official TechJapan contest. Click each image for larger versions:

[2] [3]
[4] [5]
[6] [7]
[8] [9]
[10]

Yes! As you can see from the sample prize pics, winners will receive one miniature DoCoMo phone accessory. What you do with the prize is your choice - attach it to your phone (as you can see in the sample pics, I have mine attached to the Official TechJapan Phone), put it on your keychain, or even use the included display stand to show it off to the world. The miniature phones feature a small metal ring on the end of a cloth loop, providing you with many options as to where you would like to attach it. They also include small, customized display stands.

The phones themselves are 40% size scale models (=do not actually work!) of actual DoCoMo phones. There aren't old phones either - phones we have covered right here on TechJapan have been eternalized in plastic. In fact, this "Mobile Figure Collection" was released on September 24th in Japan, so these are still quite new products.

The phones come individually packaged, and you will receive a random phone from the following:

-FOMA P900i (3 possible colors)
-FOMA N900i (3 possible colors)
-SH900i (3 possible colors)
-SO505iS (3 possible colors)
-P252iS (4 possible colors)
-Two Secret Phones?

So as you can see, you will receive one of the 17 available phones. As I said, they have been individually packaged, and are sealed. When I send out your prize, I do not know which phone it is that you will be receiving. As you can see from my sample pics (I opened two packages), I got a silver N900i and white SO505iS.

Moreover, these miniatures have been officially licensed by NTT DoCoMo. They are posable, so the phones can be flipped open and closed just like their real-life counterparts. Also included in the box is a miniature version of the promotional flyers distributed for each respective phone.

If you would like more information on the prizes, please see this Keitai Watch article [11].

The Contest:
So how do you go about winning a prize? I have ten prizes to send out to ten winners. There are two ways to compete:

Submit realistic feature ideas for TechJapan
Five winners will be chosen from this category. The concept is simple - submit realistic features that you'd like to see on TechJapan. Examples of existing features would be "Saturday Statistics," "Ask TechJapan," and "The CRASH!" Please be specific with your entries, as simply saying "yeah dude do some reviews of shit," for example, is not a very creative idea. You may submit as many feature ideas as you wish, but keep in mind that you can only win one prize. A prize will be awarded to each user whose feature idea ends up in the top five ideas of all those submitted, as selected by me. As I said, please make them realistic: "lol translate the whole Japanese internet" is an example of an irrealistic feature idea.

Refer your friends to TechJapan!
Five winners will be chosen from this category. Do you have friends who may be interested in a site like TechJapan? All you need to do is have them become a member. The five TechJapan members who refer the largest number of new members will each receive a prize. Please don't go and try to cheat this system either; I have access to the IP addresses of each member. Not that this is 100% reliable, but I still don't want you to cheat. "After all, you're only cheating yourself." When you think you have referred a sufficient number of new members, please send me and email and let me know their usernames. I will check these names against one another, so don't go and try to make some referral ring.

The Conditions and Fine Print:
-Only TechJapan members are eligible to participate in this contest!

-You may only submit one entry per method. (That being said, I'm always willing to hear new feature ideas and get new members

)

-All entries must be submitted by e-mail. My e-mail address is zmcnulty@techjapan.com [12]

-Be sure to include your TechJapan username somewhere in your email, so that I can verify you are indeed a member.

-Put something obvious in the subject line, like "TechJapan contest entry"

-I'm not responsible if your junk gets lost during shipment. These didn't set me back too many $$ so if this happens, please don't go apeshit.

-As this contest does not involve any forms of payment, international entries are also acceptable.

-When you have received your prize, please send in a picture of where you're going to use it.

When will the winners be announced? Two weeks from today - 10/22. So, you have until 12:00AM EST on October 22nd to submit feature ideas and/or submit which new TechJapan members you have referred. Good luck!