Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Gashapon Bandai Official Pop-Up Store Now In Little Tokyo

 

Woah, opened since Feb 1st is Little Tokyo's very own Gashapon store pop-up. Don't worry, you have till August to check it out. 
 
What the heck is a Gashapon? Seen in anime and Japanese video games all the time, gashapon are
vending machine-dispensed capsule toys. There different from the ones you see near super market entrances because they usually cost more with better made products and these are officially Japanese in origin. The name is from what the machine sounds like in Japanese. Two sounds happen when operating one of the vending machines. First, the"gasha" for when you hand-crank the machine and then the "pon" for the  capsule landing in its tray. And, that's how you have its cute name.
 
If you head over to Little Tokyo you can grab toys/stuff to put on your desk from anime/video games and more. What also makes them different than our capsule machines that just getting gum, sticky hands or a fake mustache is the random toys you can get. Many from Japan are just based on random subject like nature or memes. Or just your character doing something they normally wouldn't like their taxes. It's fun to try and collect all the figures in the series, sort of like collecting every toy from a Happy Meal line.

With over 200 machines stacked up high, it looks like the perfect place to try your luck and find some fun figure to stick hidden somewhere in your house or show along your window sill.

Little Tokyo
Location: 319 E. 2nd St. Los Angeles, CA 90012
Hours: Wed-Mon, 12PM - 7PM (Closed Tue)
Shop will run from Feb 1 - Aug 31. 

first spotted on Japan Up