This is one toy you should stay clear of.
Having a newborn baby often means being showered with adorable baby gifts and presents from friends and relatives to welcome the newest addition to a family.
And so when Japanese Twitter user @nyonnyon_27 received a little toy featuring the head of popular Japanese hero Anpanman, she was eager to show it to her eight-month-old daughter. Shaped like a ball, the contraption is supposed to entertain kids by playing Anpanman’s theme song while vibrating vigorously and bouncing around in random fashion.
▼ What could possibly go wrong?
https://twitter.com/nyonnyon_27/status/1052048774900543489▼ Many things, as it turns out.
(Translation below)
“When I inserted batteries into the toy that someone gave me as a present and switched it on, its movements were just so creepy… utterly different from what I had expected. My daughter burst into tears when I showed it to her for the first time.”
Having a dismembered anime character’s head bounce around on the floor as if alive can be rather unnerving, indeed.
▼ Netizens’ experiences seem to differ,
however, as some kids loved it.
これですね🍞 pic.twitter.com/Mm5lFOBqgZ
— 政成潤哉/クレインフライ/のら犬/NAi/すすめパーティーへ/うどん屋 (@thecranefly) October 19, 2018
▼ While others got ones that crawled along
the floor in a slightly less terrifying manner.
— 大橋紘一郎 (@miraru31) October 20, 2018
Nevertheless, the majority of netizens thought the mother’s Anpanman toy to be rather hilarious:
“I too have that toy in my family, and we were all shocked at first. My son was scared to the point of crying, but he’s used to it now. It has become his favorite.”
“Anpanman is intense, isn’t he?”
“Cats would go crazy over this.”
“It looks like an insect head that’s still moving after being severed.”
“Looks like a toy that YouTubers would buy 100 of and make a video from.”
Although not all such Anpanman toys are that creepy, we can’t recommend it as a baby gift since cute anime characters with frightening features have the potential to traumatize infants for life. Unless you intend for it to be a ghastly Halloween gift, something with no eerily erratic movements might be a safer option.
Source: Twitter/@nyonnyon_27 via Hachima Kiko
Featured image: Twitter/@nyonnyon_27

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