Editor's note: This article is from the WeChat public number "Sanwen Entertainment" (ID: hi3wyu), the author Wind.
CAPSULE TOYS (カプセルトイ, CAPSULE TOY) are not unfamiliar to all of us. You put money into a toy machine, and then you can twist a palm-sized toy with no idea what's inside, and you may have to twist it countless times in order to collect a whole series of toys.
This toy in a plastic capsule is also full of great commercial possibilities.
The size of Japan's twisted egg toy market has been counted by the Japan Toy Association in previous years, however, the association did not mention this classification in the 2018 toy market data released this year, so we can only look at it through previous data.
According to the 2017 toy market size data released by the Japan Toy Association, Japan's twister toy market returned to 31.9 billion yen. In terms of size from 2002 to 2017, it has fluctuated between 24.9 billion and 33.5 billion overall.
According to Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) data in 2015, in terms of Japan's total toy supply index, Japan's domestic production accounted for only 4.91 TP3T, and imports accounted for 951 TP3T. regarding imports of humanoid toys, about 60% of them came from China, followed by the Philippines and Vietnam.
Japan Twister Toys Market Size
When you think of Twister, you may immediately think of Japan.
It's true that Twister toys did originate in Japan, however, Twister as a game can be traced back as far as the United States.
Candy mini vending machines were reportedly popular in the United States at the time and extended to vending machines selling small toys as well.
The Penny Chamber of Commerce introduced it to Japan in 1965, and at that time Twister was also sold mainly to small children.
In the early years of its introduction, the 10-yen Twister was the mainstay, but by '73, due to the oil crisis, the Twister had risen to 20 yen.
Later, the price of the twisted egg was fixed at 100 yen in order to ensure the quality of the toy merchandise, but there are now twisted egg toys that cost 200 yen or more.
According to the Japanese media, there have been 3 Twister crazes in Japan.
The first was the craze sparked by the launch of the "Flesh Eraser" in 1983, a toy and stationery item that became a sensation with 180 million units sold in four years.
Fleshman Eraser
In 1994, the "High Grade Real Figure" series of exquisitely painted figure toys for adults was launched, and the series successively released IP toys such as Ultraman, Godzilla, Kotobukuro, and Masked Rider, which attracted a lot of adults to twisters. This was the second wave of the Twister boom.
After 2010, a variety of fun and creative twisters for adults became popular, such as the "Survivor's Series Lower Seat Charms" released by "Club Gotham", which sold 1 million units in a year and a half. The "Cup of Karma" series also sold 100,000 units in just one week.
In addition, twisters have entered the electronic age, allowing interaction with cell phones. in 2014, the twister toy market reached 31.9 billion yen, a year-on-year increase of 15%, and is therefore also known as the third twister boom.
Series Survival Togashita Pendant
Japan's two toy giants dominate market share
Currently, the market for Twister toy machines is dominated by two Japanese toy giants, Bandai and Takara Toy. In addition, in terms of twisted egg merchandise, these two toy manufacturers also have their own production of goods, in addition to these two, such as KITAN Club, Ocean Hall in the product manufacturing is also very representative of the manufacturers.
Here's a breakdown of how these vendors are doing in the Twister market.
Bandai, the world's largest toy manufacturer, has a large share of the Japanese Twister market. Bandai started to enter the Twister market in 1977, and its Twister trademark is "GASHAPON", which is an onomatopoeia, GASHA is the sound of twisting, and PON is the sound of falling toys. Because GASHAPON was launched early and sold a lot, many foreigners mistakenly refer to GASHAPON as all twisted egg toys.
Bandai GASHAPON Twister
Bandai released the Sonic Man Eraser series of twisters in 1983, which also started the first twister craze. In recent years, the popular IP Gundam, Dragon Ball, and Monster Watch Twister products have also become very popular.
Bandai reportedly sold a cumulative total of 3,083.53 million Twister toys from '97 through March '14.
TAKARA TOMY, Japan's second-largest toy manufacturer, has been in the Twister market since 1986, and its Twister trademark is Gacha. In addition to producing products based on IPs such as Pokemon, Disney, and Sanrio, TAKARA TOMY also produces a series of "three-dimensional encyclopedias" that emphasize authenticity. TAKARA TOMY has also been actively developing the female market with its twisted egg toys, and in September 2013, it launched a new twisted egg brand called "Panda's Den," and as of November 2016, 10 million units of the brand's merchandise have been sold.
Gacha Twister by Takara Toy
Gotham Club, a toy company founded in 2006, mainly develops twisted egg toys for adults. Since the launch of the "Series Survival Sushi Shimashita Charms" in 2010, it has created a craze for adult Twisters. In 2012, the company launched the "Cup of Rims" series, which by 2018 had accumulated sales of more than 20 million units.
It's safe to say that the merchandise at Club Chitam very much captures the interest of adults.
Cup Rim Series
Kaikodo is a long-established Japanese modeling company with high quality models and figures. In 2013, the company started to enter the Twister market, launching the original Twister brand "CapsuleQ Museum", which contains animals, dinosaurs, art, monsters, chariots, food culture, etc., i.e., all sorts of things are made into small Twister toys.
The series also has a lot of popularity due to the high level of finish of the toys.
CapsuleQ Museum
In addition to Twister chains, airports have become the new best-selling location
There are a lot of twisted egg stores in Japan, and one of the most famous is Gachagacha no Mori (ガチャガチャの森), which has 22 stores in the country. the stores in Gachagacha no Mori are generally large in size, and they are filled with twisted egg machines and have a wide variety of twisted egg toys.
Its largest store is in Natori City, Miyagi Prefecture, which houses 850 Twister machines and changes 170 types of toys every month. These chain stores are able to attract a lot of young people to come and spend their money, and they are gradually becoming SNS meccas for young people.
Gachagacha no Mori Natori City Aeon Plaza Store
In reality, however, there is another kind of place in Japan that attracts people to Twister other than these chain specialty stores: airports.
In July 2016, TAKARA TOMY launched the "JAPANESE CAPSULE TOY GACHA" program in collaboration with Narita International Airport. The program includes Dentsu, TAKARA TOMY, FRACTALE, and Penny.
TAKARA TOMY placed a Twister machine in Narita Airport's Terminal 2, B1F, and was surprised to see how popular it was with foreign tourists. As a result, Takara Toy immediately deployed the machine at major airports, and now has 22 locations where the machine has been set up. For example, Narita Airport has 162 Twister machines in Terminal 2, and Kansai International Airport has 145 Twister machines in both terminals combined. ......
JAPANESE CAPSULE TOY GACHA" at Narita Airport
These Twister toys are sold with a labeled
Multi-language signs such as "Use your extra coins for toys!" and "I don't know why, but it's sold out in Japan all year round" are multi-lingual slogans to lure foreign travelers to spend money. Cleverly, these slogans did work in inducing foreign travelers to spend money, with at least seven out of ten airport Twister consumers being foreigners. JAPANESE CAPSULE TOYGACHA's sales are more than the sales of the regular stores, and the sales of JAPANESE CAPSULE TOYGACHA are more than the sales of the regular stores.
3 to 5 times.
It is said that one-third of the tourists who come to spend money are exposed to twisters for the first time, and the guests who experience twisters for the first time will feel a strong sense of freshness, and most of them will not twister only 1 time, but many times.
multilingualism
Language For foreigners visiting Japan, the airport is the last place to travel in Japan. And if you want to use your leftover change to buy Japanese specialties, these twisted egg toys full of Japanese thinking and creativity are a good choice. The price of these twisters ranges from 100 to 500 yen, and there are usually more twisters in the 200 to 300 yen range.
Twisters are inexpensive, and foreign travelers have no way to exchange their leftover yen coins for foreign currency, so why not use the change to buy some interesting small items before returning home? It is this mentality of tourists that has made the airport successful in selling Twisters.
