There’s even a Switch game you can shoot real bottle caps at!

One trend in toys that has been picking up steam recently is the ability to combine video games with physical toys. We saw it with the cardboard Nintendo Labo, and more recently with Mario Kart Live that turns your home into a race track.

Now we’re seeing another entrant to that world: Bottle Man by Takara Tomy, little action figures that can both wear and shoot any bottle cap you want.

▼ Check out what the Bottle Man toys are all about with this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdK_vBzIt6Y

As you can see in the video, there’s more to this than just a simple cap-launching toy. There are three different types: the red “power” type that launches its cap with the most strength, the blue “speed” type that can launch three caps quickly, and the green “control” type that can aim the most accurately with its scope.

If you’re like me you might be thinking that the blue “speed” type is just the best one. Quantity of caps over quality of caps, right?

But that’s the ingenious part: there’s not just one way to play with the Bottle Man toys. Several different games each slightly favor different types over another.

▼ For example, in the ice-hockey-like game, speed and power are king.

▼ But in this game where you have to shoot through the small gap, accuracy is the most important.

▼ There are 10 games included in the Digital Battle Set, and that’s of course not
including whatever other games kids can come up with themselves.

▼ Plus there are games you can play with your Bottle Man on the
Nintendo Switch, shooting the caps at bumpers that input into the console.

▼ Six different games that will both create and destroy friendships.

▼ There’s even a Bottle Man anime! This short episode here specifically shows the
green toy’s accuracy prevailing over the red toy’s power in the “long shot” game.

As you can expect, this is basically everything that young kids would want in a toy: lots of different ways to play, customizability with your favorite caps, interactivity with video games, and of course the ability to shoot little plastic things at parents and siblings.

So it should come as no surprise that when the toys went on sale on October 24, they immediately sold out everywhere.

▼ Tons of photos like this were posted online: hopeful shoppers running into empty shelves.

▼ “Dang, Bottle Man #SoldOut”

https://twitter.com/7thduskstar/status/1319815939219599360

▼ “Bottle Man’s first day on sale really feels like Jingle All the Way.”

Many others shared similar stories, such as lining up outside the store before it opened, only to be disappointed by all the Bottle Man toys being sold out before they even got to the register. Whether or not the boom in immediate popularity is due to scalpers buying up the toys, or simply due to great marketing that might cause the next craze remains to be seen.

In the meantime, while we’re waiting for the next shipment of Bottle Man toys, we only have one question: will we be able to use our cat-ear bottle caps with them?

Source: YouTube/タカラトミー TAKARATOMY via Hachima Kiko
Images: YouTube/タカラトミー TAKARATOMY
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