A fun way to buy otaku goods.

Bandai is one of the country’s premier purveyors of anime and manga related goods, and for 45 years, they’ve been selling random small toys in capsules through their Gashapon vending machines.

These “Gashapon” or “Gachapon“, as they’re also known, get their name from “gashagasha” or “gachgacha“, both onomatopoeic words for clattering, and “pon“, the word that describes a “pop” or “plop“. It’s a perfect description of the sounds and sights you experience when turning the handle on these vending machines, but now the Gashapon as we know it is getting a whole new redesign for the otaku market.

According to Bandai, the new “Flat Gashapon” is a first in Bandai’s 45-year history of selling Gashapon, and there’s no clattering of capsules involved, as the new machine dispenses flat objects.

While it looks like a regular capsule toy machine, complete with the familiar handle and large receptacle where capsules “plop” into, the flat products will be dispensed from the upper portion of the machine.

The machine can essentially be used for either flat objects or capsules, which Bandai says reduces the use of plastic, making it an “environmentally friendly Gashapon machine”.

The type of products they aim to sell from these flat machines include shikishi boards, clear files, and mini posters, up to A4 size, and up to one-centimetre (0.4 inches) in thickness. Like a regular gacha machine, the designs are dispensed at random, so you won’t know which one you’re getting when you turn the handle on the machine.

The first collections to be sold through the new machines are as follows:

▼ “Demon Slayer Window Collection Boards” (500 yen [US$4.36] each, 8 designs in total)

Images: Koyoharu Gotouge/Shueisha/Aniplex/ufotable

▼ “Tokyo Revengers Shikishi Collection” (500 yen each, 8 designs in total)

Images: Ken Wakui/Kodansha/Animation “Tokyo Revengers” Production Committee 

▼ “Pokémon Writing Underlays” (300 yen each, 8 designs in total)

Images: Nintendo, Creatures, GAME FREAK, TV Tokyo, ShoPro, JR Kikaku © Pokémon 

The new machines will be installed at approximately 1,500 locations nationwide, including toy stores, mass retailers, and home appliance stores, from the third week of February. Bandai plans to include new collections from various franchises in future, and we’re more than ready to receive and display them, with this range of “Cinderella Fit” otaku display goods.

Source, images: PR Times
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