Gashapon

The terms gashapon (ガシャポン^?) or gachapon (ガチャポン^?) refer to a variety of vending machine-dispensed capsule toys popular in Japan and elsewhere. "Gashapon" is a Japanese onomatopoeia composed of two sounds: "gasha" (or "gacha") for the sound of a crank on a toy vending machine, and "pon" for the sound of the toy capsule dropping into the receptacle. Gashapon may describe both the machines themselves and the toys obtained from them. Popular manufacturers of gashapon include Tomy, which uses the shortened term Gacha (ガチャ, gacha^?) for their capsule machines, and Kaiyodo. In the United States, "Gashapon" is a registered trademark of the Bandai Company, and gashapon are generally referred to as blind box sets.

Gashapon machines are similar to the coin-operated toy vending machines seen outside of grocery stores and other retailers in other countries. While American coin-operated vending toys are usually cheap, low-quality products sold for a few quarters (US$1 or less), Japanese gashapon can cost anywhere from ¥100–500 (US$1–6) and are normally a much higher-quality product. They are often constructed from high-grade PVC plastic, and contain more molding detail and intricately painted features. Many gashapon are considered collector's items, with rare ones fetching extremely high prices in secondhand markets.

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