Christmas comes early for Santa Yamagishi

22-year-old Santa Yamagishi has been branded "the luckiest sod around" (Hugh Hefner aside) after nabbing the first PlayStation2 on Saturday March 4. Maybe luck is the wrong word - Yamagishi-san took Friday off work and camped outside the Messe Sanoh game shop in Tokyo's Akihabara district from 9pm on Thursday.

At 9am Saturday morning, after a 36-hour wait, Messe Sanoh opened and Yamagishi-san eagerly parted with 63,000 yen (around £370) in exchange for a PlayStation2 with Ridge Racer V and Drum Mania (with Drum Controller).

After enjoying a quick nap on the subway home, Yamagishi-san unpacked his super-console, plugged in the controller, popped Ridge Racer V into the drive and turned the power on...

BANG!

"Oh no! My shiny new PlayStation2 has blown up! It must have been a power surge or something..." sobbed the not-so-spawny git.

Okay, so we made the last bit up. We're just so jealous that we could puke.