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The first time I encountered an authentic 'gacha' machine in Osaka International Airport, I was confused. Years of seeing derivative versions in the UK had fooled me into thinking that gacha machines didn't have much to offer me, and when I found out about the kinds of delights that existed in Japanese gacha machines, I was very happy to have been wrong.
For those who don't know, Gacha machines, also known as 'gachapon machines' (and 'gatcha' or 'gasha' for people who like to spell things incorrectly) are peculiar small machines that contain a selection of small collectable toys. Typically, you insert a small sum into the machine and turn a dial which moves the capsules around with a satisfying mechanical click, and you'll receive a small plastic capsule which contains a random toy, collectable or sometimes just an unusual miniature thing! Woo!
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But what kind of 'miniature things' do you get, exactly? If you look at the image to the right, you'll see some of them. On our online shop, we've got an interesting range of gacha toys and collectables including some based on popular characters and series, as well as some more unique additions.
The Rilakkuma Mini Melamine Cup series is the prime example of something you might usually find in a gachapon capsule. These tiny little cups are adorable, with unique winter-y Rilakkuma designs on them. They would look great on display on a shelf, and I even though they're not really designed for it, because they're a high quality melamine cup, you could use them for the purpose of drinking out of although the quantity of liquid you could get into each isn't really a satisfying drink.
The Mini Melamine Cup is exactly the sort of thing you're likely to find as part of gacha capsule toy series. Not exactly useful, but definitely cute and entirely charming. This is the art of the gacha toy, you might say - condensing joy and surprise into something that can fit inside a small capsule. |
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In spirit of condensing joy and surprise into a small capsule, we wanted to do our best at Tofu Cute to pass the full gacha experience onto you, the customer. Although we have some authentic gacha machines ourselves, the process of inserting a coin and twisting a dial for that satisfying clunk isn't actually something we can bottle and ship worldwide. What we can preserve is the feeling of gacha - the aforementioned 'joy and surprise' of opening up the little plastic capsules. So that's what we're offering the Catch-A-Gacha' Mix Bags in our new Gachapon Station of the website. The
But what exactly is one of these Gacha bags? If you haven't already got one or seen our Tofu Cute TV video on the topic, you might not know. To put it simply, we've bundled together a variety of the cutest, coolest, and most interesting gacha capsules in a variety of expertly selected themed sets. Each 'Catch-A-Gatcha' mix bag has a theme, with a variety of gacha capsules selected randomly from series that match that theme. For example we've currently got Sanrio Characters, Gudetama, Rilakkuma & Friends, Cats, Magical Girls, Adorable Animals and Pop Culture themed bags. Each one has something entirely different to offer! |
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My Favourite Gacha Bag is the newly released Adorable Animals bag. This trendy new bag includes six separate capsules for one price, representing an incredible value. There's a lot of fun series included in this set - in particular, it's the first set where my beloved boy Yeastken is making an appearance, with this awesome new Yeastken Soft Vinyl Mascot series, which features classic Yeastken (bread dogs!) characters in a nice vinyl figure form - they're great for display!
This set also includes an amazing 'Yurushiba Shiba Pup Strap', which is a small but adorable charm of a shiba puppy. There's a lot of different colours and styles of shiba puppies available. I think if you can appreciate the cute charm of a shiba, you'll love whichever one you get, no matter what type it is
There's also two different rodents in this set that have been really popular - there's Spoon Hamsters, which could be described as an adorable oddity. Now that our Spoon Rabbit gacha series has been sold out due to high demand, it's clear you're going to want to get your hands on the next best thing - Spoon Hamsters. There's also the 'Japanese Food x Hamster vinyl figure' in this catch a gacha set that has a similar appeal, featuring hamsters climbing in and around a variety of delicious looking Japanese food dishes. There's also the 'Animal Parlour Mochi Mochi Purin' and 'Animal Bread Soft Vinyl' - two interesting mixes of animals and food, but I'll leave you to experience those yourself.
The combination of these gacha together makes for exciting package. If you're even the slightest bit interested in getting one of the other gacha bag themes, perhaps don't investigate the contents further - I've already spoiled what's in the Adorable Animal bag to try and explain its appeal, but if you want to get one of the other types, perhaps it's worth preserving some of the surprises. |
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| Of course, there's also a few gacha that can be purchased separately. One of my favourites is this set of Pokémon Cat Hats, which are an excellent way to add some additional charm, cuteness or humour to the appearance of your cat (who may already be charming, cute and humorous). An officially licensed product based on popular pokémon characters, you'll receive one cat hat at random, featuring iconic Pokemon like Pikachu, Mimikyu, Alolan Vulpix and Meowth. These soft one-size-fit-all hats can be stretched over your feline friends head to transform them into a Pokémon! This is the sort of quirky thing you might expect to see in a good Gacha series.
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Another excellent gacha that we're selling as single capsules is the Gremlins 2: Goodnight Mogwai series, which is an interesting and quirky Japanese gacha take on the classic 80s movie series Gremlins. This set features a range of small vinyl characters from the second movie - mogwais who have decided to take a relaxing nap.
These small vinyl figures are an excellent quality, with a variety of adorable mogwai characters in a range of cute poses. If you like Gremlins, you'll want to get the whole set. It's strange to think that something like Gremlins would end up being part of a gacha series, don't you think? But make no mistake - this is the exact sort of niche thing you should expect from Gacha. It has no boundaries. There are gacha of everything. |
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So that's just a small taste of what the Gachapon Station has to offer right now - hopefully you see the appeal. The gacha is about a bit more than just a but what about the future? We're excited to say that the Gachapon Station is something we want to cultivate for as long as we can by regularly adding new themes of gacha bags, changing up what's in the gacha bags and also adding new individual series to the overall lineup of our gacha products.
Since launching it in late 2019, we've already added two new gacha bags and whole variety of new series to the gacha station. We fully intend to add more to this throughout the year, so please let us know what you'd like to see in the future of gacha on Tofu Cute! We're already gearing up for more planned gacha releases, so as always, stay tuned to our social media for more announcements...
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The first time I encountered an authentic 'gacha' machine in Osaka International Airport, I was confused. Years of seeing derivative versions in the UK had fooled me into thinking that gacha machines didn't have much to offer me, and when I found out about the kinds of delights that existed in Japanese gacha machines, I was very happy to have been wrong.
For those who don't know, Gacha machines, also known as 'gachapon machines' (and 'gatcha' or 'gasha' for people who like to spell things incorrectly) are peculiar small machines that contain a selection of small collectable toys. Typically, you insert a small sum into the machine and turn a dial which moves the capsules around with a satisfying mechanical click, and you'll receive a small plastic capsule which contains a random toy, collectable or sometimes just an unusual miniature thing! Woo!
|
But what kind of 'miniature things' do you get, exactly? If you look at the image to the right, you'll see some of them. On our online shop, we've got an interesting range of gacha toys and collectables including some based on popular characters and series, as well as some more unique additions.
The Rilakkuma Mini Melamine Cup series is the prime example of something you might usually find in a gachapon capsule. These tiny little cups are adorable, with unique winter-y Rilakkuma designs on them. They would look great on display on a shelf, and I even though they're not really designed for it, because they're a high quality melamine cup, you could use them for the purpose of drinking out of although the quantity of liquid you could get into each isn't really a satisfying drink.
The Mini Melamine Cup is exactly the sort of thing you're likely to find as part of gacha capsule toy series. Not exactly useful, but definitely cute and entirely charming. This is the art of the gacha toy, you might say - condensing joy and surprise into something that can fit inside a small capsule. |
|
|
In spirit of condensing joy and surprise into a small capsule, we wanted to do our best at Tofu Cute to pass the full gacha experience onto you, the customer. Although we have some authentic gacha machines ourselves, the process of inserting a coin and twisting a dial for that satisfying clunk isn't actually something we can bottle and ship worldwide. What we can preserve is the feeling of gacha - the aforementioned 'joy and surprise' of opening up the little plastic capsules. So that's what we're offering the Catch-A-Gacha' Mix Bags in our new Gachapon Station of the website. The
But what exactly is one of these Gacha bags? If you haven't already got one or seen our Tofu Cute TV video on the topic, you might not know. To put it simply, we've bundled together a variety of the cutest, coolest, and most interesting gacha capsules in a variety of expertly selected themed sets. Each 'Catch-A-Gatcha' mix bag has a theme, with a variety of gacha capsules selected randomly from series that match that theme. For example we've currently got Sanrio Characters, Gudetama, Rilakkuma & Friends, Cats, Magical Girls, Adorable Animals and Pop Culture themed bags. Each one has something entirely different to offer! |
My Favourite Gacha Bag is the newly released Adorable Animals bag. This trendy new bag includes six separate capsules for one price, representing an incredible value. There's a lot of fun series included in this set - in particular, it's the first set where my beloved boy Yeastken is making an appearance, with this awesome new Yeastken Soft Vinyl Mascot series, which features classic Yeastken (bread dogs!) characters in a nice vinyl figure form - they're great for display!
This set also includes an amazing 'Yurushiba Shiba Pup Strap', which is a small but adorable charm of a shiba puppy. There's a lot of different colours and styles of shiba puppies available. I think if you can appreciate the cute charm of a shiba, you'll love whichever one you get, no matter what type it is
There's also two different rodents in this set that have been really popular - there's Spoon Hamsters, which could be described as an adorable oddity. Now that our Spoon Rabbit gacha series has been sold out due to high demand, it's clear you're going to want to get your hands on the next best thing - Spoon Hamsters. There's also the 'Japanese Food x Hamster vinyl figure' in this catch a gacha set that has a similar appeal, featuring hamsters climbing in and around a variety of delicious looking Japanese food dishes. There's also the 'Animal Parlour Mochi Mochi Purin' and 'Animal Bread Soft Vinyl' - two interesting mixes of animals and food, but I'll leave you to experience those yourself.
The combination of these gacha together makes for exciting package. If you're even the slightest bit interested in getting one of the other gacha bag themes, perhaps don't investigate the contents further - I've already spoiled what's in the Adorable Animal bag to try and explain its appeal, but if you want to get one of the other types, perhaps it's worth preserving some of the surprises. |
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|
Of course, there's also a few gacha that can be purchased separately. One of my favourites is this set of Pokémon Cat Hats, which are an excellent way to add some additional charm, cuteness or humour to the appearance of your cat (who may already be charming, cute and humorous). An officially licensed product based on popular pokémon characters, you'll receive one cat hat at random, featuring iconic Pokemon like Pikachu, Mimikyu, Alolan Vulpix and Meowth. These soft one-size-fit-all hats can be stretched over your feline friends head to transform them into a Pokémon! This is the sort of quirky thing you might expect to see in a good Gacha series.
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Another excellent gacha that we're selling as single capsules is the Gremlins 2: Goodnight Mogwai series, which is an interesting and quirky Japanese gacha take on the classic 80s movie series Gremlins. This set features a range of small vinyl characters from the second movie - mogwais who have decided to take a relaxing nap.
These small vinyl figures are an excellent quality, with a variety of adorable mogwai characters in a range of cute poses. If you like Gremlins, you'll want to get the whole set. It's strange to think that something like Gremlins would end up being part of a gacha series, don't you think? But make no mistake - this is the exact sort of niche thing you should expect from Gacha. It has no boundaries. There are gacha of everything. |
|
So that's just a small taste of what the Gachapon Station has to offer right now - hopefully you see the appeal. The gacha is about a bit more than just a but what about the future? We're excited to say that the Gachapon Station is something we want to cultivate for as long as we can by regularly adding new themes of gacha bags, changing up what's in the gacha bags and also adding new individual series to the overall lineup of our gacha products.
Since launching it in late 2019, we've already added two new gacha bags and whole variety of new series to the gacha station. We fully intend to add more to this throughout the year, so please let us know what you'd like to see in the future of gacha on Tofu Cute! We're already gearing up for more planned gacha releases, so as always, stay tuned to our social media for more announcements...
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