Going for Gashapon

gashapon line in robinson's place ermita

Japanese merchandise (real ones, not those ones you buy in 168/Divisoria and then sell for twice the price at some mall) are hard to find in the Philippines, if you do not know where to look. It’s quite a hassle for my sister and I to order stuff from online, too, since the post office in our place is probably the most unreliable post office in the world. Most of the time, anime fans can buy anime merchandise at Greenhills (Wasabi Toys, Great Toys) or some odd anime shop in malls. The appearance of gashapon machines (capsule machines) made everything happy and gay, though. It’s both an oasis and a quicksand, those machines. They can either make you so happy you want to bust the gashapon machine … or too frustrated you want to kill the employee watching over the machine because you can’t get what you want.

Aside from gunpla and figure/candy toy collection, we’ve been into gashapon collection for quite some time rather than going to Comic Alley like everyone else and their mothers. My sister and I have made raiding gashapon stops in toy stores a hobby. We invest on our “raids” a lot. Fortunately, we often get what we want (after a number of tries? XD). We didn’t realize how big our gashapon collection was until we decided to open the capsules and arrange them on figure cases.

a few of our gashapon stashes

We have … quite a collection. The empty gashapon capsules fill half a sack (the picture is just the first plastic bag containing the capsules). There were some doubles (like 6 Yusuke from Yu Yu Hakusho). Anyway, the problem we were facing then was how do we display our stash? It’s not like they’re going to remain in the capsules forever. There’s also no way that we’re going to use the merchandise (even if they were keychains, phonestraps or key cases — okay, we used the Gundam key holders…).

a very messy situation

It’s quite a task to make all those figures meant to hang from bags or phones without them toppling all over each other.

We tried carefully making them stand in the figure case but one little move and they fall. Not to mention that they’re too many and the case was crammed (and for some reason, SM stopped selling figure cases! Horrible!).

we had to resort to adhesive

We decided to use those newfangled clay-like adhesive National Bookstore began selling recently. Of course, that might’ve been common sense, and we’re a bit stupid :P. Anyway, we put a very small piece of adhesive on the gashapon item’s underside (more for each feet, if they have feet) and stuck them on the black surface of the case’s interior.

it's a very meticulous job because of the small pieces

It’s a menial task. We had to make sure we have enough space for everything we want to put in the case and at the same time, arrange them well so they look good. It took my sister and I a good 3 hours to fill the case (and by fill we mean REALLY FILL). The results were satisfying, though. They’re all standing sturdy and firm (and hopefully stay that way).

they're crammed like sardines :D

The bigger gasha merch (Gundam 00 figures, Code Geass props, etc), don’t fit the glass cases so they go to our main display cabinet :D. No pictures right now.

The Reborn gasha were sent to me by a friend and we cannot find anything of that kind here in Manila :(. It’s a bit sad. Anyway I’m happy that they’re ordering gashapons even of anime that isn’t popular here (Hayate no Gotoku, Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei, Moyashimon). I hope it continues (please give me my Hetalia gashapon~!).

..Although, more gashapon machines means I have more to raid, more money to lose and more time to spend arranging all those little figures.