What Is A Gashapon Toy?
Gachapon (がちゃ): Gachapon, also known as capsule toys or gashapon, typically involves grouping several toy models of the same theme into a series. These toys are placed individually into semi-transparent egg-shaped plastic capsules, accompanied by corresponding instructions, and then set into themed gachapon machines. Customers can purchase them randomly by inserting coins or cards, similar to blind box toys or blind bags.
Due to their randomness and the inability to predict which toy from the series will be obtained, collecting and trading with friends becomes an enjoyable activity. This makes gachapon one of the most popular collectible items among anime enthusiasts.
The variety of gachapon is countless, ranging from anime characters to everyday items, offering a dazzling array of choices. The gachapon market in Japan emerged in the early 1980s. At that time, it served as a platform for model enthusiasts to launch their own custom model components. The market mainly catered to creating and commercializing models needed by hobbyists. Initially, sales were limited to a niche group of model enthusiasts, with each product selling only a few hundred units. However, due to the high standards of both creators and consumers, the quality of the products improved significantly.
In the 1990s, the market began to feature models of characters from anime stories like "Sailor Moon" and "Neon Genesis Evangelion." These bishoujo (beautiful girl) gachapon quickly gained popularity and became familiar to the general public. One of the most notable companies in gachapon production is Kaiyodo. A journalist recently interviewed Miyashuichi, a senior executive at Kaiyodo. Miyashuichi mentioned that the monster figures or hero dolls he saw during his childhood were often crude and poorly proportioned compared to their original appearances. As a model enthusiast, he found this unacceptable. "I don't want cheap goods; I want lifelike replicas identical to the characters in TV shows or anime," he said. When toy manufacturers failed to meet this demand, he decided to create and sell these character models himself.
Since then, Kaiyodo has produced and sold approximately 3,000 types of gachapon products, including superheroes, Godzilla (a monster from Japanese Toho films), dinosaurs, animals, and characters from manga or anime stories. The company's advanced techniques have earned acclaim worldwide, with their dinosaur restoration models even being displayed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Miyashuichi stated that although Kaiyodo possesses exceptional technical skills, creating anime character gachapon remains a highly challenging task.
In recent years, gachapon has also gained traction in China. It first became popular in Hong Kong, where the third Hong Kong Gachapon Exhibition was already held by March 2009.