The link below has a photo review of the piece. There are several discerning pictures — like this:

Not to everyone's tastes, but then again, not everyone likes milk in their tea or butter on their bread. Different strokes, folks!

コナミ ｂｅａｔｍａｎｉａ IIDXフィギュア 1/8シリーズ第3弾「CELICA」 [Asumanga]

To mark the occasion, Konami is releasing the game with a "PREMIUM BEST DISC" set that continues new songs and tracks especially for the home version. There's a total of 180 tunes as well as a look at upcoming title beatmania IIDX 17 SIRIUS.

Dated for October 15 in Japan, beatmania IIDX 16 EMPRESS + PREMIUM BEST is priced at ¥7,980 (US$86).

She's priced at ¥5,985 (US$60) and comes with different sets of arms in various poses.

2,500の声集まり『beatmania IIDX』フィギュア第3弾「セリカ」発売 [Gpara]

Oh yeah, I'd could play this arcade game. In front of other people, even.

Location Test [Konami Thanks, Riyu!]

Sounds suspiciously like Konami's Beatmania but it will be interesting to see how Activision would make the game their own. It also leaves me curious as to what the song list would be like.

DJ Hero [Trademork via Opposable Thumbs]

Sure, there's plenty of rhymes in Sony's PaRappa the Rapper and even SingStar flirts with a smattering of commercial hip hop. There are also no lack of video games starring mainstream rappers, as anything that starts with Def Jam features nothing but.

But what about the games that measure rhyming skill? The one's that do it better than Get On Da Mic? And turntabling?

Totilo unfortunately misses out on two games that do require some semblance of turntable skills, Sega's arcade game Crackin' DJ—successful enough to warrant a sequel—and Konami's Beatmania. While the latter may be strictly for the button-slapping Bemani set, you'd have a hard time denying Crackin' DJ's close approximation of real life turntable and fader dexterity. Both, however, are typically relegated to Japanese and extremely rare Western arcades.

Maybe some Western developer will be up to the challenge of tailoring Crackin' DJ's arcade experience for console gamer tastes, as Harmonix did with Konami's Guitar Freaks.

It's an interesting game design challenge and fascinating to hear accomplished developers speak on the subject. Online rap battles would certainly make for interesting gameplay, especially if digital DJs are involved.

At least we'll always have Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style.

Where's 'Hip-Hop Hero'? [MTV's GameFile]

Back in May, Konami dangled a Beatmania carrot rope, telling fans that if 2,500 pre-orders were received by June 17th for character Iroha Umegiri figurine, the piece would go into production. If not, well. When first announced, there wasn't even a resin sample or character model. Since then, the above figure has surfaced.

Good news! Iroha will go into production. Apparently enough folks pre-ordered, and Konami met its quota. The statue looks passable at best, but that probably doesn't matter to Bemani diehards. Iroha will be the first in Konami's planned Beatmania series. They better not set quotas for each figurine, because that would be annoying! Brian Ashcraft

Iroha Ready For Production [Konami Style via Heisei Democracy]