Gashapon

Gashapon or gachapon , also referred to as "capsule toy", is a Japanese onomatopoeia, made up of two sounds: "gacha" for the turning of a crank on a toy vending machine, and "pon" for the sound of the toy capsule dropping into the receptacle. It is used to describe both the machines themselves, and any toy obtained from them.

Gashapon machines are similar to the coin-operated toy vending machines seen outside of grocery stores and other retailers in other countries. While coin-operated vending toys are usually cheap, low-quality products, Japanese Gashapon are normally a much higher quality product.

They are often constructed from high-grade PVC plastic, and contain more molding detail and carefully painted features. In addition, these are not simply toys: they are collector's items, with rare ones fetching extremely high prices.

Gashapon toys are often based on popular character licenses from Japanese manga, video games, anime, popular icons and a few American entertainment licenses. These highly detailed toys have found a large following among adults in Japan, and the trend is filtering to the West with other popular culture influences such as anime and manga. It is not at all uncommon to see sets based on licenses explicitly for adults, with figures of naked or near-naked women.

Collections and sets

Virtually all gashapon are released in sets - each series will have a number of figures to collect. They are, by nature, a "blind purchase"; people insert coins and hope to get the toy or figure they desire. It may become frustrating, as one risks obtaining the same capsule repeatedly.

Most collectors will buy sets from gashapon stores in places such as Osaka's Nihonbashi (den den town), or Tokyo's Akihabara. Depending on the store, the sets are usually cheaper than buying them randomly out of a machine.

Created: October 13, 2007