Fukubukuro merch to make any Nintendo fan say, “Oh yeah! Mario time!”

When you decide to buy a fukubukuro lucky bag in Japan at New Year’s, it can be a bit of a hit-or-miss experience.

What’s inside the bags often remains a mystery until you open them, with the only guarantee being that the contents will amount to more than the price you pay for them. So it’s best to keep your expectations low so you aren’t disappointed if the bag doesn’t turn out to be the treasure box of your dreams.

That’s the lesson learned by our reporter Hirazi, who recently purchased a Super Mario Lucky Bag from Amazon for 4,620 yen (US$40). Before it arrived, he’d spent days wondering if the mystery bag might contain new or old games, or maybe some figurines or plushies catering to adult gamers.

▼ So when his package arrived, he couldn’t wait to tear it open.

However, when he opened it, he found that the bag he’d purchased was aimed more towards younger fans of the franchise. Still, that wasn’t an entirely bad thing, seeing as Hirazi is a big kid at heart, and in his eyes, any type of Super Mario merch is good merch.

▼ The bag doesn’t contain any actual Super Mario games, but hey — check out this haul!

The bag was packed with 13 different items, and if you were to purchase them all separately, they’d come to a total of 8,600 yen. That means Hirazi paid nearly half price for them, which was an excellent deal. So let’s get to it and take a look at each of the products in more detail below!

▼ First up, we have three different drawstring bags…

▼ …plus a bag for holding shoes, a handy item for Mario-loving schoolkids.

▼ Then we have two handkerchiefs and a set of three small hand towels.

▼ Here to make school lunches more fun are a set of lunch picks, little cups and dividers for bento side dishes, and some onigiri wrappers.

▼ Rounding off the collection, we have a coin purse for, you know, collecting coins…

▼ …and a super large towel featuring Bowser!

After checking out all his new Super Mario possessions, Hirazi felt a lot better about his decision to purchase the lucky bag. Sure, it might’ve contained items that some would deem unsuitable for a self-proclaimed middle-aged guy, but hey — when you work with an ossan who pole dances in his spare time, age shouldn’t stop you from enjoying anything!

Photos: ©SoraNews24
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
[ Read in Japanese ]