Metal Gear Solid 4 GA-KO alarm clock - rubber ducky clocky goodness
I read about this alarm clock on Kotaku, and considering its cuteness, utility, and relevance to the Metal Gear Solid universe, I of course had to get one. I missed out on pre-orders at NCSX and Play-Asia, but luckily NCSX got more in (and now they’re still available for order at both NCSX and Play-Asia, at least as of 8/26). Freaking $45+ after shipping… at least it came in two days. Thanks to USPS Priority shipping, I was able to get this on a Saturday and have a go with my new toy.
For reference, here’s a Youtube video of, I’m guessing, the promo video for the clock from Konami:
The GA-KO (or is it Ga-Ko? Or Gako?) alarm clock comes packed in an unsealed cardboard box, with technical diagrams of the duckie decorating the outside. It’s got minimal packing, just a clear plasic baggy for protection and a piece of white cardboard to support the top of its rotund head. Because it isn’t sealed, NCSX stuck a business card in the box as reminder as to where you purchase your clock from. Along with the clock, there is a folded instruction sheet.
The clock is made of typical plastic, nothing that feels particularly extra durable. Above the feet the ducky’s surface has a matte finish, while the feet are smooth and shiny. The paint job on the eyes is okay; they look pretty even and spherical, but if you look close enough, you can see the paint job isn’t perfectly in the indented lines. On mine, the lower part of the eye white bleeds out significantly, but it still looks circular. The head is loose to allow for the head shaking, and its free movements makes the clock seem flimsier than it is. The copyright stuff is imprinted on the back of its head.
Are you looking at my butt?
The bottom of the feet hold the batteries. NCSX says three AAA batteries are required. (Edited 8/26: Looks NCSX finally fixed their listing.) Play-Asia says two AAAs are required. Both of them are wrong. The GA-KO alarm clock has a bizarre battery requirement of two AAAs and one AA battery. Kelvin guessed correctly that the different battery types were for different functions: the AA is needed for the clock, while the AAAs are needed for the alarm. Sliding the battery cover off, there is another battery cover for the AA slot, which is sandwiched between the two AAAs.
How to set the clock isn’t obvious, as the only things visible initially are the alarm on/off switch on its arse and the snooze button on one of the feet. A good push on its behind makes the tail area come off, revealing two knobs for clock time and alarm time setting. The speaker is also more visible, but the tail panel has sound slots anyway, giving away the location of the speaker.
Junk in the trunk
Setting the clock is identical to any cheap-o plastic analog alarm clock you’ve ever owned before. You turn one knob, which moves the minute and hour hands, to the right time. The second knob is turns the small yellow hand, which you place to the approximate hour hand location of your desired alarm time. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the cute timer function that Sunny seems to use in MGS4, where you twist the head and 3 minutes later you’ve got perfect eggs.
When the alarm rings, the clock sounds just like the Metal Gear Solid 4 timer. The duck shakes his head at you and says repeatedly all cute-like “Gah-gah! Gah-gah!”. The head-shaking isn’t quite as vigorous as the timer in the game.
Hitting the snooze button causes it to snooze for 5 minutes, and after 20 minutes, the alarm clock completely stops with no more snoozing. So you snooze 4 times and that’s it. This is kind of weak sauce to me, as I prefer the more traditional 9 minute snooze time, and I don’t like an alarm giving up so quickly. I can definitely snooze for more than 20 minutes. Also, even though the alarm switch is still set to ON, it won’t ring again until you turn it off and on again because of its ghetto state machine. (btw, I’m pretty sure all this info is correct because, along with actually trying out the alarm, I translated the #5 instruction on the instruction sheet with my elementary Japanese skills and a DS Japanese dictionary. Rakubiki Jiten FTW!)
I originally got this to use as an alarm clock, but I think the lacking snooze features will relegate this clock as a desk or shelf decoration. I’m not a fan of the snooze button location either; I’m pretty sure my natural instinct in the morning is to smack its shaking head. Still, the GA-KO alarm clock is a cute, somewhat useful, collector’s item that any Metal Gear Solid fan wouldn’t mind having. Would they mind paying $45+ for one? I guess that depends on the fan :P
New thing I learned today: While in the US we say ducks go “quack quack”, in Japan ducks go “ga ga”.
For more international animal sounds, check out this page, which I found through someone else’s blog post about the GA-KO alarm clock.
