Review – Gundam GashaPon

As Gina and I prepare for our trip to Hong Kong in a few weeks I continue to pull out toys I bought while I was there last year. And today’s review is this tiny capsule toy — technically two “gashapon” toys (Wikipedia) from one capsule — that I grabbed for less than $2 US. And I’ve gotta say I like these two small Gundam toys a lot more than I do the Gundam Mini Figure (review here) that I also grabbed while I was in Hong Kong.

Capsule Toys Everywhere

One of the things that really jumped out at me while I was in Hong Kong last year was the fact that capsule machines where on almost every city block. And not just one or two machines, but banks of machines with upwards of twenty different toys — or things — available on each block. This photo I shot last year shows one street corner with 16 different toys available. And this was an average selection.

And it’s not just toys. Coins, keychains, and other small trinkets that can fit in the machines were all available for a few Hong Kong coins. Yes there are capsule toys here in the US, but here in Texas at least (and the other parts of the country I’ve lived and visited) you just don’t see the number — or variety — of toys that I saw in Hong Kong. Thinking back on it I’m a little surprised that I didn’t come home with more capsule toys than I did; but I have to admit that most of what I saw was especially worthless junk that I just didn’t want.

But enough about capsule machines. I should really spend a few words in this review actually talking about these Gundam toys.

Some Assembly Required

The photo above shows how the two small — each is about 1-inch tall — toys come out of the capsule. The first thing you have to do is snap the parts off of the main toy, toss the “sprue” bits, and then put the pieces together. It takes a moment to put both toys together and once you do you’re left with soft, rubbery, mecha that have absolutely no articulation at all. But they’re so very cute.

Gundam M.U.S.C.L.E.s

Well, at least that’s what I think of as I play with these toys. They feel a little stiffer than M.U.S.C.L.E.s, but the more I play with both toys the more I think of M.U.S.C.L.E. toys (see Nathan’s M.U.S.C.L.E. Blog if you don’t know what I’m talking about). I do not mean this in a bad way; in fact, in my mind this elevates these Gundam capsule toys above that Gundam Mini Figure that I reviewed last month. Why is that? These make me think of my childhood and the mini figure makes me think of pre-painted plastic gaming miniatures, and childhood always wins when playing with toys. Is it fair? No, but it’s the truth.

Closing Thoughts

What’s left to say about these capsule machine toys? Not much, really, because these are meant to be disposable toys that kids waste a few coins on. But they’re cute, kinda rubbery, assembly was quick and simple, and the design and execution of the product looks to have been a professional job in every way I can think of. For simple capsule machine toys these are excellent, and playing with them makes me think that if I see these again I should drop my coins in the machine and pray for different designs/colors.

I would never go out of my way to track these down — I’m just not really a Gundam fan — but I can see where Gundam fans would love to own several of these. They’re cute, kinda fun, inexpensive, and I have no complaints at all with what I got for my $2.

Philip Reed wishes toys like these were in the capsule machines he runs across at the grocery store. Actually, the Marvel Universe Handful of Heroes toys (review here) should have been released as capsule machine toys. That would have been awesome.