Gachapon

Gachapon (ガシャポン or sometimes ガチャポン in katakana), also referred to as "capsule toy", is a Japanese onomatopoeia, made up of two sounds: "gacha" for the turning of a crank on a toy vending machine, and "pon" for the sound of the toy capsule dropping into the receptacle. It is used to describe both the machines themselves, and any toy obtained from them. Image File history File links Gasha. ... Image File history File links Gasha. ... Katakana ) is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet. ... Look up onomatopoeia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Gachapon machines are similar to the coin-operated toy vending machines seen outside of grocery stores and other retailers in other countries. While coin-operated vending toys are usually cheap, low-quality products, sold for a quarter or 50 cents, Japanese Gachapon can cost anywhere from 100 - 500 yen (Equal to $1–$5 US) and are normally a much higher quality product. A teddy bear A toy is an object used in play. ... A two-cent euro coin A United States penny, or 1¢ In currency, the cent is a monetary unit that equals 1/100 of the basic unit of value. ... Japanese 10 yen coin (obverse) showing Phoenix Hall of Byodoin Yen is the currency used in Japan. ...

They are often constructed from high-grade PVC plastic, and contain more molding detail and carefully painted features. However, these are not simply toys: they are collector's items, with rare ones fetching extremely high prices.

Gachapon toys are often based on popular character licenses from Japanese manga, video games, anime, popular icons and few American entertainment inspire toys. These highly detailed toys based on popular culture icons have found a large following among adults in Japan, and the trend is filtering to the West with other popular culture influences such as anime and manga. It is not at all uncommon to see sets based on licenses explicitly for adults, with figures of naked or near-naked women. Manga )   (pl. ... Namcos Pac-Man was a hit, and became a universal phenomenon. ... The main cast of the anime Cowboy Bebop (1998) (L to R: Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Ed Tivrusky, Faye Valentine, and Ein the dog) For the oleo-resin, see Animé (oleo-resin). ...

Collections and sets

Virtually all gachapon are released in sets - each series will have a number of figures to collect. They are, by nature, a "blind purchase"; people insert coins and hope to get the toy or figure they desire. It may become frustrating, as one risks obtaining the same capsule repeatedly.

Most collectors will buy sets from gachapon stores in places such as Osaka's Nihonbashi (den den town), or Tokyo's Akihabara. Depending on the store, the sets are usually cheaper than buying them randomly out of a machine. Akihabara in 2007 Akihabara ), also known as Akihabara Electric Town ), is a neighborhood in Tokyo, Japan. ...

Video games

Gachapon machines and their random payouts have inspired trinket-collection mini-games in many videogames, most notably the Legend of Zelda series' similarly-named "Gacha Trees" in Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons, and, to a much higher extent, the random figurine payout in The Minish Cap. Gachapon have also appeared in some Mario games such as Mario Party 5 and well as Super Smash Bros. Melee where the player inserts a desired amount of coins and gets a trophy of a Nintendo-related thing in return. In both The Minish Cap and Super Smash Bros. Melee, the more the player spends in one go, the higher the chance of getting a new item in return. Mini-games are small, short and simple games which can be played almost anytime in the Final Fantasy game. ... The Legend of Zelda series (ゼルダの伝説 シリーズ; often shortened to just Zelda series) is a series of action-adventure video games created by Nintendo and industry legend Shigeru Miyamoto beginning in 1986. ... This article or section should include material from Like like ring, Moblin ring Oracle of Ages title screen (GBC original) The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (also known as OoA) is a video game published by Nintendo and developed by Nintendo in conjunction with Capcom. ... This article or section should include material from Frypolar Oracle of Seasons title screen (GBC original) The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (also known as OoS ) is a video game published by Nintendo and developed by Nintendo in conjunction with Capcom. ... The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is a game for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. ... Mario ) is a video game character created by Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto and is the official mascot of Nintendo. ... Mario Party 5 ) is the fifth in a series of board game style video games for Nintendo platforms, featuring popular Nintendo characters. ... Super Smash Bros. ... The Minish Cap is a Legend of Zelda game for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. ... Super Smash Bros. ...

The gachapon concept is taken to the next level in SD Gundam Gachapon Wars, a game based on the SD Gundam television series, in which a gamer can activate extra characters from the game by buying certain series of SD Gundam gachapon toys in real life, namely SD Full Color STAGE:61, then use the password bundled with the toy to unlock the corresponding character in the video game. This is the same marketing tactic used by Kinder Surprise for the online surprises, except there is no online access involved. Super Deformed Gundam or SD Gundam is a series of anime, a super deformed parody of the Gundam metaseries. ... A Kinder Surprise with Hungarian label Kinder Suprise contains a toy inside a plastic shell (varies in color). ...

The machines also appear in the Dreamcast game Shenmue, in which the main character Ryo Hazuki could spend yen to collect various figurines, including series of characters from the Virtua Fighter and Sonic the Hedgehog series of games as well as those of other known and lesser known Sega franchises (i.e. Fantasy Zone , Space Harrier , Hang-On etc.). The Dreamcast , code-named Black Belt, Dural, Dricas, Vortex, Shark and Katana during development) is Segas final video game console and the successor to the Sega Saturn. ... Shenmue ) (IPA: ) (2000) is an Adventure game for the Sega Dreamcast, produced and directed by Yu Suzuki of Sega-AM2. ... Virtua Fighter is a 1993 fighting game developed by the Sega studio AM2, headed by Yu Suzuki. ... The Sonic the Hedgehog series is a franchise of video games released by Sega starring and named after their mascot character Sonic the Hedgehog. ... Sega Corporation ) is a Japanese multinational video game software and hardware developing company, and a former home computer and console manufacturer. ... Screenshot from the game Fantasy Zone. ... Space Harrier is a forward scrolling shooter game, released by Sega in 1985. ... In-game screenshot In the arcade game Hang-On, the player controls a motorcycle against time and other computer-controlled bikes. ...

In Mega Man X: Command Mission, gachapon machines can be found in various places, and contain figures of various Mega Man characters. US Boxart for Mega Man X, for SNES. The Mega Man X series was the second Mega Man franchise which debuted in 1993 on the Super Famicom/Super NES. It is one of the spinoffs of the Mega Man series from Capcom. ...

They are seen in MapleStory, in which real money is used to buy tickets for the machines in towns. The gachapon contain scrolls and valuable items. This article is about the original game for Windows. ...

They are also seen in Killer 7, in which all of the figures are required to open a specific door. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

During the course of Resident Evil 4, the player can take part in a shooting range mini-game to unlock models of characters and enemies that are viewable in the Keys/Treasure inventory. There is one figure in each set that requires a higher score to unlock, which could be considered the 'rare' figures. Resident Evil 4 (バイオハザード4, biohazard 4) is a third-person shooter action adventure survival horror game published and developed by Capcom. ...

In Kingdom Hearts II, there is a rare type of Heartless called the "Bulky Vendor", based on a Gachapon machine. Only appearing in certain areas of some worlds, its HP bar drops quickly and it jumps and moves faster as time goes on. The player is required to catch up with it and use a Reaction command, from 'Capsule Prize' up to 'Prime Capsule' to receive a capsule which explodes into orbs and an item prize. This is the only way (besides treasure chests) to gain valuable Orichalcums. Kingdom Hearts II ) is an action role-playing game developed by Square Enix Co. ...

The PSP game Work Time Fun consists of nothing but playing small mini-games for money to spend in gachapon machines. The machines deposit trinkets whose descriptions often poke fun at common gachapon trinkets. PSP most often refers to: PlayStation Portable, a handheld game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment Corel Paint Shop Pro, a graphics editor for Microsoft Windows, distributed by Corel Corporation PSP may also refer to: Pacifist Socialist Panda, a Dutch political party Palm Springs International Airport, IATA airport code Paralytic... Work Time Fun (also known as BH 2000, Hells Part-Time Jobs 2000, Byte Hell 2000 [commonly mistranslated title], and Baito Hell 2000 [Japanese]) is a video game developed by D3 and SCEI for the Playstation Portable. ...

External links

• Gachapon Collectors
• Gachapon Collector