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gashapon (Page 2)

Mr. Hanko is here! Bringing life to your name stamp and joy to your office

Hanko are little name stamps used in Japan in place of a signature when receiving a parcel, authorising a document or filling in just about any kind of form. Being official identity markers, most hanko stamps are pretty boring – just your last name written in kanji.

These new Hanko-san (Mr. Hanko) stamps are designed to be used together with your existing hanko, allowing you to turn your seal into a little message that will bring a bit of spark to the drudgery of your working day. And they’re coming soon to a gashapon machine near you!

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Mini movie theatre seats now on general release, collectors of tiny chairs rejoice

We all love a good gashapon capsule toy. But whether it’s One Piece characters or doggy bread, getting more than one of the same toy is usually a disappointment. No wonder some collectors skip the vending machine step altogether and buy completed sets second-hand. Duplicates are no fun.

There’s one Japanese toy company that flips that idea on its head, however. Unlike conventional capsule toys, Epoch’s scale models actually look better the more identical items you have! And these miniatures of seemingly mundane items such as school desks, shopping trolleys and folding chairs have proved a runaway hit.

So when our reporter Mr. Sato heard about the latest capsule item from Epoch, he immediately grabbed a bunch of hundred-yen coins and headed out to start collecting…miniature cinema chairs! Here’s what he found.

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Adorable miniature sewing tools inspire the craftmaker in all of us

I have never thought I’d be gushing over sewing tools, but here I am, 30 minutes into staring at pictures of this new set of gashapon toys titled “The Shugei Miniature Mascot” (The Handicraft Miniature Mascot) because they are simply too adorable. Who would’ve thought you could turn things typically associated with grandmothers into such desirable collectibles by shrinking them to palm-size? Click to see more of these super cute toys!

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Bandai Japan unveils bizarre new turtle launcher capsule toys, curiously epic promo video

Capsule toy-dispensing machines like those dotted all over Japan were something of a rarity back when I was growing up in the UK. Instead, we had to make do with Kinder Surprise, the tiny chocolate eggs that came with a small plastic toy inside (which, weirdly, were banned in the US). Some of the trinkets that came in those little eggs were actually quite cool, and the build-it-yourself element was genuinely appealing to our curious young minds.

But none of those toys came even close to being as exciting – or incredibly random – as the latest release from Bandai Japan: swimsuit-wearing turtles that can be fired out of their shells.

Join us after the jump to meet the whole shell-less turtle gang and watch their needlessly dramatic promotional video.

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Sailor Moon gashapon hang out on your books and drinking glasses

Bandai is getting cutesy with its new Sailor Moon gashapon toys, offering miniature Sailor Senshi that perch or lean happily on the rims of glasses, books, and other desktop items.

The toys are already stocked in capsule figure vending machines around Japan, and are selling for 300 yen (about US$2.96) each.

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Bandai Japan releases hugely impractical “sprout” desk accessories, catchy jingle

In the world of capsule toys, there’s always room for newcomers. Part of the reason so many people buy gashapon is the tiny thrill of excitement they get as they hear the capsule drop down into the dispenser and excitedly grab it to see whether they were lucky enough to get the toy they really wanted.

The toys themselves are often quickly forgotten about, doomed to a life of rolling around in the bottom of a bag or lining a windowsill turning a weird shade of yellow in the sun. But these new “desktop accessories” from toy maker Bandai, if their accompanying commercial video is to be believed, are designed to make their presence felt at every possible occasion, to the point of making your emails indecipherable.

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