While most retro toys have fallen by the wayside, capsule toys are having a fourth revival in the mainstream thanks to a new twist on the arcade staple. Colloquially known as “gacha-gacha” or “gachapon” – an onomatopoeia describing the distinctive sound of turning the crank and dropping the prize – capsule toys have been gracing the streets and shops of Japan since the 60s.
Their popularity has waxed and waned through the years, generally following along with the popularity of the associated toys. A hit anime may lead to a big run on capsules for that IP, with fans and problematic resellers alike hunting for the rarest and most valuable prizes.
The recent revival of interest in randomized tchotchkes is driven by both tourism and novelty, with one new product setting a high bar for individuality: actual people.
Just some guy (or girl)
Imagine you get off a long day at the office, and on your way home, you pause, in the mood for a minor thrill. You scrounge up some loose change, slide it into a gachapon slot, and turn the crank full of that distinct, mundane anticipation. Good news, today’s your lucky day! You managed to get the ultra-rare, top-pull, one-per-machine prize, and it’s…just some guy.
It’s a small, rectangular headshot of a middle-aged man. He’s not famous; he’s not smiling; he’s not doing a silly pose. It’s just his face in a neutral expression, as if for a government ID. Congratulations! You’ve won the grand prize at the “complete stranger” (赤の他人) gacha, the capsule toy where you collect random people’s ID photos. And that dude’s headshot you scored is selling online for upwards of 30,000 yen ($194) on reseller sites.
This surreal hobby has been growing in popularity since it first appeared in 2022, especially among the young. It’s gained so much traction that it’s been appearing on major news networks, featuring footage of fresh graduates with the faces of their favorite strangers stuck onto their phone cases. So, how exactly did we get to the point where people are shelling out 300 yen for a chance at random people?
The history of capsule toys
The first gachapon boom happened when the tech landed in Japan in 1965. It was immediately a hit among kids, mainly featuring small erasers molded in the form of a robot or car, since it was easy to adapt the soft rubber manufacturing. At 10 to 20 yen a spin, the price point made capsule toys a good market fit for an economy still recovering from WWII.
Eraser figures carried capsule toys to their first major boom with the Kinnikuman eraser series in the 1980s. This was the inciting incident of the formula “popular character + low stakes gambling = massive sales.” At 100 yen a pop, the so-called “Kinkeshi” (Kinnikuman Keshigomu) tapped the usually ignored grade-schooler market, moving over 180 million units all told.
That first 10 billion yen market cap opened the floodgates of little plastic guys in plastic balls, spawning wave after wave of randomized characters from different IPs. Detective Conan, Dragon Ball, Jojo’s, if you know it, it’s been packaged in small translucent spheres. The market became so saturated that storefronts started running into space issues with all the requests to set up gachapon machines by the door.
The space problem was solved in the 90s with the introduction of new compact, rectangular, “Slim Boy” machine designs that could be stacked and arrayed on one wall. This way, aspiring collectors could browse the available capsules all in one place. Anyone who has stopped by the capsule toy section of a modern arcade will recognize the configuration.
The new model carried capsule toys into their third wave, but by the 2010s, there was little room for innovation left. The rhythm of new toys for new shows was well established, and the market looked to be saturated otherwise. It seemed the classic pastime had lost its edge in a world dominated by the “gacha” phone games that stole its name.
Yet halfway through the 2020s, capsule toys are in the throes of their fourth boom. The method? When people start to lose interest, you have to get weirder.
How gacha got weird
The Kinkeshi boom set the standard for capsule toys as an extension of fandom. In the digital era, though, fandom is all online; you can peruse and purchase handcrafted models, original illustrations, and analytical essays, all on your favorite social media platform. Some molded plastic inside other plastic doesn’t compare.
But as social media taketh away, it also giveth. Though capsule toys have lost ground in the IP-flipping arena, there is one thing they provide that no amount of pixels can replace: a mildly odd yet relatable experience to post about. In the world of trying to come up with something to post that millions of other people will smash that like for, a bizarre gacha full of strangers’ neutral expressions is free (300 yen) real estate.
“Complete Strangers” capsule toy creator Terai Hiroki echoes the sentiment. He originally conceived of the project during COVID as a feel-good way to see people’s faces when everyone was wearing masks, but when he tested it out, the overwhelming oddness of popping a complete stranger’s face out of a capsule convinced him he was on to something special.
While he may go down as one of the visionaries of the genre, Terai is far from alone in his surrealist strategy. YouTubers in both Japan and abroad to this day love making videos of “intriguing gachas” they’ve bought, with some buying and opening up to 100 at a time. (Assuming an average price of 300 yen a capsule, that would set you back 30,000 yen, or $194.)
And it seems that the social media-fueled era of bizarre capsule toys is just beginning. In 2022, Terai’s first round of prizes featured just 10 ID photos that he collected with permission from his personal acquaintances. As of 2025, there are now 500 different strangers you can collect. According to Terai, people keep sending him their ID photos on Facebook, hoping that they’ll be the next round’s grand prize.
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Sources
絶対要らん…でもナゼか気になる「赤の他人の証明写真」がガチャになった！？現役教頭も…26日から発売. Maido Na News
赤の他人の証明写真をガチャガチャに リアル追求、まさかの売れ行き. WithNews JP
1965年日本に上陸してからの「ガチャの歴史」を公開！Takara Tomy
ガチャガチャ 第4次ブームの衝撃 子どもも大人も外国人も熱狂! 市場規模1200億円. Mainichi Shimbun
