December 20, 2009 11:00 AM | by 
I know many of you are excited about Final Fantasy XIII. What better way to wait for your copy than squandering away cash on delightful official FFXIII merchandise?
Here are 10 items I’ve selected for your appraise (in no particular order). Click thumbnails to see them better.
Final Fantasy XIII Play Arts Kai Pre-Painted Figures
At the moment, there are figures of Lightning, Snow and Vanille, respectively. They are pose-able and extremely detailed. Make sure you buy figures from a reputable dealer and ask for plenty of pictures before buying. There is also a transformable bike that you can buy separately for Snow.
Final Fantasy XIII Tumblers
Serve your drinks in style with FFXIII tumblers. Various designs are available. There’s Lightning & Odin, Snow & Shiva, Sazh, Hope, Fang, Lightning, Snow and Vanille. Collect all eight!
Final Fantasy XIII Potion Elixirs
Here’s something for you to fill up your tumblers with. These potion elixirs are lemon flavoured and contain caffeine, vitamin B1 and B6– all that stuff that make you stay up at night. Since stocks are limited, I recommend that you buy one set for your collection and another to drink. Can’t wait to have me some Lightning!
There’s also a different edition (still same flavour) that comes with a Trading Arts Mini Figure of one of the six main characters.
Final Fantasy XIII Eau de Toilette Lightning 50ml
Hey, it’s that toilet water we were discussing in the Ningin forums! It’s pricey (nearly US$100!) but it’s a rare collectible. Be the envy of all other Final Fantasy fans with Lightning eau de toilette. Men, have no qualms about owning feminine eau de toilette. We won’t tell anyone about it…
And there is a difference between eau de toilette and perfume. Eau de toilette is not as concentrated, the scent won’t last as long and is intended as a “refreshing body splash”.
Final Fantasy XIII Original T-Shirt
There are two designs available: Odin, Lightning’s summon, in human form (normally in stallion form), and Shiva, Snow’s summon, shown as a pair of sisters (normally in motorcycle form). They come in both men’s and women’s styles with sizes M, L and XL. These have all been pre-sold at Play-Asia but keep checking for a possible restock. The Odin design is nice (”black and white with a splash of pink”) and would make a great addition to any wardrobe.
Final Fantasy XIII Umbrella
I tried my hand at translating the Japanese on the Square Enix merchandise website and it said that the umbrella was fashionable and made with polyethylene (plastic) and metal. Ooh, I’m so smart.
OK, I used Google Translate… But the umbrella is quite pretty and would be useful if it was raining on the day you went to pick up your copy of FFXIII. And did I mention it looks awesome unopened (honestly, it does) and you only have to press a button to make it open? OK, I’m getting excited over an umbrella for nothing.
Final Fantasy XIII Official Posters
The first is a poster set that includes two B2 (72.6cm x 51.5cm) of Lightning (yep, they’re those infamous goosebump thighs) and Snow.
The second is eight different clear posters of the team. Since the posters are separate and not one big poster, how you display them is entirely up to you. Spread them all out or line them up. And they come in a nice box to boot. W00t.
Final Fantasy XIII Clear Files
These look really nice and there are at least four different designs available. I think this description from Play-Asia is extremely accurate:
Even most tedious pieces of homework or assignment looks more inviting when your favourite character sits on top of it. Get the clear file, keep your desk organized and show off your new stationery set to your friends.– You’ll probably get distracted more than anything.
Final Fantasy XIII Arts Museum Kai Trading Cards
The range of Final Fantasy XIII merchandise available is so impressive, they’ve even got trading cards– 63 cards to collect. They’d look great next to your Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon cards. Gotta catch ‘em all!
Each package includes 10 randomly selected cards. You could order 10 packages and get a factory sealed container. You know, give the duplicates to a certain good friend. Wink wink nudge nudge.
Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack
This soundtrack is the mother of all soundtracks. It’s so big, it’s got it’s own webpage (you can listen to some of the soundtrack here). There are two versions available, the Standard version and the full-blown First Cut Limited Edition. If you’re thinking of buying this beast, I’d recommend the Limited Edition version even if it is more expensive. There’s a load of extra content and the packaging is a lot nicer.
The majority of the FFXIII soundtrack is done by Masashi Hamauzu (Final Fantasy X, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII) but the main theme is by Nobuo Uematsu.
There you go; that’s top 10 Final Fantasy XIII merchandise for you. Here are others that didn’t make the list but still deserve an honourable mention.
Has this post left you drooling and wishing for more? Sorry for inundating you with an overload of Final Fantasy XIII information. I’ll try to keep my next FFXIII post brief. No promises though!
Have a look at the pricing for FFXIII merchandise at the Square Enix Shop (the site is in Japanese but you could use Google Translate…). The other place where you can check pricing is Play-Asia but it’s a little on the expensive side.
If you don’t want to miss out, you should place pre-orders now or sign-up for updates for when merchandise has been restocked. Some items might not be available until the North American release of FFXIII.
Image courtesy of wilson1988h.
And I almost forgot. Behold the ultimate Final Fantasy XIII collector’s dream. That’s right. It’s a pink on white, Limited Edition, Lightning Edition, Final Fantasy XIII, Collector’s Bundle, 250GB Slim PS3 (what a mouthful). Only available in Japan and Korea at the moment, but there’s nothing stopping you from importing this beast.
Final Fantasy XIII will be released on PS3 and Xbox 360 for North America, Europe and Australia on March 9 2010.