Gatchapon crack

Remember when you were a kid and the most basic toys could keep you entertained for days, or the most simple figurines could make your day? Now while collecting toys and figurines is definitely not limited to kids it’s not something I ever really got into so much since ‘growing up’, even if my inner geek as always craved for some.

And boy is my inner geek happy since I’ve moved to Japan and discovered the joy of gatchapons aka capsule stations. Gatchapons are small toys and figurines, which you get from a giant bubble gum dispenser style machine – put in some money, generally 200 yen, turn a big plastic handle and a plastic egg falls through holding your toy. And these machines are located everywhere – outside train stations, manga shops, video game shops, arcades, shopping centres… If you walk anywhere in Tokyo for 5 minutes chances are you’ll come across a set of capsule stations.

Since I first discovered them a few months ago, my excitement and addiction has only grown each time. So I was only happy to be introduced to another Akihabara wonder – the gatchapon shop. Which is quite simply a shop with hundreds of capsule stations, offering you more choice than you could ever want. What’s more some places like the one I was introduced to, also have floors where they sell the sets in one bag. You see gatchapons figurines and toys always come in sets – that’s how they hook you. And while you might get lucky, chances are you’re gonna waste more money trying to get a full set than is worth it, which is where the shops selling sets come in handy. For a couple hundred yen more you can have the whole set. Slightly less fun I guess but as rewarding.

At this point you’re probably already thinking I’m a nut, but gatchapons are well cool. Especially when you realise that they have them for every character you can think of – anime, video games, cartoons etc… The figurines themselves are generally of good quality PVC and come in all sorts of shapes and uses. From normal stand figurines to keyrings, mobile phone ornaments, buzzers (the Street Fighter buzzer series is a geek’s wet dream come true), even Nintendo DS pens and original NES sound cards you can use as door bells!

Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya, Keroro, Evangelion, Super Mario, Sonic, Street Fighter etc… if you’re a fan, chances are there’s a gatchapon set (or a more than one) for you. Hell there’s even sets of uber geeky stuff like Japanese train sirens – trainspotting is massive in Japan or the more disturbing hentai and porn figurines, which generally cost more but can be quite ‘revealing’.

So I’ve now gone back to my childhood days and started collecting figurines again – starting with a whole bunch of Keroro ones and some original Dragon Ball ones which are off the hook. It’s a slippery slope towards amassing huge amounts of plastic memorabilia in a flat which is already crammed though.

It’s amazing how small, insignficant things can make you so happy, such as the kid like excitement you get from twisting the big handle on the machines and waiting for your plastic egg to drop through the slot.