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While our RocketNews24 Japanese team of writers has been having fun snatching up a variety of lucky bags during this first week of the new year, the contents of those bags have ranged from exciting to just plain meh. But the two lucky bags our Japanese correspondent Yoshio grabbed from UFO catchers (aka claw machines) have hit a new all-time low. We don’t think he’ll be going back for more next year…

On January 1, Yoshio headed over to the AEON Mall in Kita-Toda, Saitama Prefecture armed with stacks of coins and ready to try his luck at wrangling up some UFO catcher lucky bags. In the end, he ended up spending 6,400 yen (US$53.12), winning two of the shiny golden bags.

▼The site of the challenge

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There were two versions of the bags–one for boys, and one for girls. Yoshio got one of each.

On a funny side note, one of the bags was so bulky that even when he won it, Yoshio had trouble getting it out of the machine, and had to call a staff member over to remove it for him. You can watch his struggle in the following video clip:

Now let’s get right to it. Prepared to be spectacularly underwhelmed.

Here are the contents of the lucky bag for boys:

  • Big Friction Racer toy car
  • Block-type light
  • A gadget that will play music if you insert an SD card into it

▼Boys’ version loot:

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Although cool at first sight, it turned out that the toy car wasn’t so special after all. Even though there appeared to be a space to insert batteries, the label stuck to the underside of the toy said that the car still wouldn’t move on its own. Yoshio was puzzled…how strange.

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▼So you have to push it to play with it? That’s SO twentieth century.

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Next, here are the contents of the lucky bag for girls. Let’s hope they’re a bit more exciting:

  • A large stuffed animal cat (“Howaneko Miiche”)
  • A small stuffed animal cat (also “Howaneko Miiche”)
  • A puppet, probably from Monsters University (Yoshio wasn’t sure)

▼Girls’ version loot:

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As a girl, I’m slightly miffed that the boys get a mini music player and the girls get three of the same thing (as much as I like stuffed animals). It’s also kind of rude to assume that all girls like cats, and not some other bad-ass animal or mythological creature.

▼Can’t we at least get one non-cutesy shark/dinosaur/dragon stuffed animal?

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▼Although the cat’s label gave its name as “Howaneko Miiche,” a quick Google search didn’t bring up anything for Yoshio.

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Disappointed as he was, Yoshio decided to make the best of his winnings and play with them anyway. Oh well, you win some and you lose some. And OK, that puppet’s a little cuter than I originally thought:

Original article by Yoshio
Images © RocketNews24