Celebrating All Things Japan This is one in a series of articles celebrating Star Wars from a Japanese perspective (click here for another). It's all because of the recent major announcement that the Star Wars Celebration party is continuing this year in Japan, July 19-21. See more details here.

If you've ever dumped a fistful of quarters into one of those grabbing "claw" prize games found at pizza parlors and other kid-friendly venues, then you'll probably understand the anxiety some determined Star Wars collectors are feeling overseas -- in Japan, specifically. Lately, scores of Star Wars prizes have begun appearing beneath the piles the plush Pikachus and Hello Kitties, many of which are available exclusively to the game.

Manufactured by Japan's U-Mate Company, a handful of Star Wars game prizes, including figural rugs, pillows, Darth Vader cooking aprons, lightsaber lamps, TV remotes, and coin cases, are available to -- and only to -- the tenacious few who master the claw. We've depicted a few of these cool exclusives below.

In addition to these, there are accordion clothes baskets resembling R2-D2 and R2-D1, droid ceiling star projectors, accordion fans, and even Vader and stormtrooper "mosquito stick holders"-- actually small ceramic bug repellent burners.

It's easy to see why collectors from Japan and other countries have been trying to track these down -- they're exclusive, clever, unusual, and relatively scarce. Only a few thousand of each is being produced, numbers low enough to frustrate those, ahem, clawing to get one.