Zombies on a Stamp

by Ross Miller { Sep 7th 2006 at 6:55PM }

In honor of Biohazard's tenth anniversary (though that was technically March 22), Capcom's beloved horror franchise has been honored with commemorative stamps in Japan. The stamps feature Rebecca Chambers, Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, Ada Wong, Leon Kennedy. Also shown are stamps featuring the Biohazard logo and the S.T.A.R.S. insignia.

We know Biohazard (which goes by the name Resident Evil in the US, maybe you've heard of it) is a hugely successful franchise, but is it worthy of stampage? We know Mario has been immortalized by Japan in stamp form, but what about Sonic the Hedgehog, who celebrated his 15th anniversary this year? Maybe his relevance has whithered as the years go by ...

Congratulations to Capcom for receiving such a flattering, albeit peculiar, honor.

See Also:
French stamps to feature video game icons

[via Game Politics]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

BPM? @ Sep 7th 2006 7:17PM

Sure beats having zombies on a plane.

But, if you're using air mail... OHNOES!!!

Vazel @ Sep 7th 2006 7:21PM

That's neat. Wish we had videogame stamps here.

Rayonic @ Sep 7th 2006 8:34PM

Sonic was never a popular franchise over in Japan. Don't believe me, just check out his sales numbers: http://www.vgcharts.org/worldtotals.php (do a page find for the word "sonic" a few times.)

Sonic has always had low popularity in Japan, high popularity in America, and mid-level popularity in Europe.

Merus @ Sep 7th 2006 11:12PM

As with the Mario stamps, this is intended as a collector's item. The actual stamps are the gold and blue squares, with the Biohazard sections being basically little stickers on the side. Plenty of these collector's items come out every year - the idea is to interest fans of the properties and get them to buy the stamp issue. They're not intended to be used for postage, although you could if you wanted to.

If your country has a Personalised Stamp service, it's the same principle. Generally, living people only go on stamp designs if they fulfill special criteria and commercial properties (such as video games) almost never do unless they have an interest to the citizens of that country in general and there's a reason to produce those stamps then (such as an anniversary). I can certainly see the USPS issuing gaming stamps celebrating 50 years of video games, so we might see them in 2008 (50 years since the first working video game, Tennis for Two), 2017 (Ralph Baer's first game) or 2022 (50th anniversary of Pong).

Considering the lead time they need to prepare stamp issues, it might be a wise move to send the USPS the suggestion now.

Allstar @ Sep 8th 2006 8:29AM

Does anyone know how to get your hands on a set of these stamps if you live in the United States? I would love a set (or two)! To answer Mr. Miller's question: Yes, the series is definitely worthy of the honor of being on a stamp accords. No Sonic game approaches the greatness of Resident Evil 4. Sorry, cute little Hedgehog.