Rishu UFO Catcher Plush - Convention Exclusive

Probably my favorite of all my Rishu things: the UFO Catcher! UFO Catcher is a misnomer in this case; apparently this Rishu was an exclusive item that you could purchase at a convention in Japan. I'm not certain of the type of convention or even how people went about purchasing/obtaining them. But the "exclusive" aspect makes them rather ELUSIVE.

I first saw a glimpse of this back in early 2000. Even though I had minimal finds, I went bat-crazy trying to find someone who was selling it. These were the days before PayPal and the online merchant boom, so when I DID find a seller, I went even more crazy. Sadly, the seller never responded and the information was taken off his site.

Years later, in 2003-2005, I was using Rinkya.com to search through Yahoo!Japan. LO, did I see a lot of Rishus with that UFO Catcher! I got into a bidding war with someone over it, but eventually prevailed.