Some time ago on facebook, there was a "Capsule Toys Singapore" page but now it was no longer found. No official announcement, it just fade away without anyone notice. The fact it seems capsule toys in Singapore can be facing lesser capsule machines in retail mall or other places.
The reason could be the craze of Gashapon is not like a decade ago where many will try and try again to get some capsule toys in their collection though the capsule machine.That does not mean Singaporean do not love Gashapon or capsule toys as before. They still do as as when Takashimaya was having SGD$10 of capsule toys where consumer can choose to squeeze all it can into a plastic bag, the sales was popular and one of all time favorite.
Personally I was one of those who went on the crazy in the early 2000 where there were lots of quality capusle toys from Bandai and YuJin. In those days one turn of the capsule is only ranging SGD$2 for 200 Yen and SGD$3 for 300 Yen which is reasonable for most consumers. Capsule toys was so hot that some actually wanted to get direct from distributor for forming own collection. However distrubutor only allow minimum order of quantity and even if you get the it, you may only able to form a few complete set leaving behind some common figure where most people do not want.
Basically the manufacturer purposely produce some popular character in the set and limit the number. With that in play it trigger secondary market and collector to pay more turns to get that rare one. However this seems to back fire from the resellers all the way to the consumer who are selective collectors.
To make matter worst, in the recent years, the pricing of capsule machine went up to today the same 200 Yen gashapon was selling SGD$4 per turn and that is not because of currency conversion. Think about it. You may SGD$4 to try your luck and calculate the odds if you can get what you wanted in the selection. I personally struggle with it as SGD$4 I can pay for a meal and would I want to "Gamble" that and I may not get what I wanted? So I ceased.
Now I do understand much of the cost goes to retail of the machine in a way it was the Shopping mall that tax the reseller rental of the space of the machine and Singapore retail rental has been all time high thanks to some familiar factor like foreign investment. So the whole playing field is not leveled.
The ranges of Gashapon that can be import to Singapore also is limited as some Anime or Manga do not have licensing for Singapore as some was just for Japan only. However you may still ask why some local retails able to sell the whole set if it was not allowed into Singapore? It is simply because Bandai cannot allow in officially but they cannot stop third parties who got from Japan retail to ship over to Singapore and the price is of course generally much higher.
In the end, the Capsule Toys Singapore Facebook originally created by the Official distributor in Singapore now it has disappeared. Some noticed that in the most recent Takashimaya craziest toys sales there was no more SGD$10 capsule bargain. That could be because the distributor already cleared all their stocks and it is possible we will not much capsule machines in Singapore.
While I cannot confirm the future of capsule and gashapon collecting, somehow most of capsule collector has weaned off this hobby in the past 5 years due to many factors like the products direction, pricing per turn and other factors.
For hardcore capsule toys collectors they may have already secure their own sources in buying set from some contacts and for those casual consumer like me already can do without.
End of the day, the seller design and sell the product and the consumer will consider to buy or not to buy. The last thing you want is to push the consumer so much they can do without. That being said, I will missed the fun of turning for capsule but then again there are other capsule machine in most local neighbourhood for other third party stuff in more affordable prices.
That being said, I think we will surely missed this sight if this is true for Bandai official capsule machines.... Fading away....
Disclaimer: This article is just a personal sharing and observation from my point of view. There are others who have their own views and we are not here to prove them wrong or right.
The reason could be the craze of Gashapon is not like a decade ago where many will try and try again to get some capsule toys in their collection though the capsule machine.That does not mean Singaporean do not love Gashapon or capsule toys as before. They still do as as when Takashimaya was having SGD$10 of capsule toys where consumer can choose to squeeze all it can into a plastic bag, the sales was popular and one of all time favorite.
Personally I was one of those who went on the crazy in the early 2000 where there were lots of quality capusle toys from Bandai and YuJin. In those days one turn of the capsule is only ranging SGD$2 for 200 Yen and SGD$3 for 300 Yen which is reasonable for most consumers. Capsule toys was so hot that some actually wanted to get direct from distributor for forming own collection. However distrubutor only allow minimum order of quantity and even if you get the it, you may only able to form a few complete set leaving behind some common figure where most people do not want.
Basically the manufacturer purposely produce some popular character in the set and limit the number. With that in play it trigger secondary market and collector to pay more turns to get that rare one. However this seems to back fire from the resellers all the way to the consumer who are selective collectors.
To make matter worst, in the recent years, the pricing of capsule machine went up to today the same 200 Yen gashapon was selling SGD$4 per turn and that is not because of currency conversion. Think about it. You may SGD$4 to try your luck and calculate the odds if you can get what you wanted in the selection. I personally struggle with it as SGD$4 I can pay for a meal and would I want to "Gamble" that and I may not get what I wanted? So I ceased.
Now I do understand much of the cost goes to retail of the machine in a way it was the Shopping mall that tax the reseller rental of the space of the machine and Singapore retail rental has been all time high thanks to some familiar factor like foreign investment. So the whole playing field is not leveled.
The ranges of Gashapon that can be import to Singapore also is limited as some Anime or Manga do not have licensing for Singapore as some was just for Japan only. However you may still ask why some local retails able to sell the whole set if it was not allowed into Singapore? It is simply because Bandai cannot allow in officially but they cannot stop third parties who got from Japan retail to ship over to Singapore and the price is of course generally much higher.
In the end, the Capsule Toys Singapore Facebook originally created by the Official distributor in Singapore now it has disappeared. Some noticed that in the most recent Takashimaya craziest toys sales there was no more SGD$10 capsule bargain. That could be because the distributor already cleared all their stocks and it is possible we will not much capsule machines in Singapore.
While I cannot confirm the future of capsule and gashapon collecting, somehow most of capsule collector has weaned off this hobby in the past 5 years due to many factors like the products direction, pricing per turn and other factors.
For hardcore capsule toys collectors they may have already secure their own sources in buying set from some contacts and for those casual consumer like me already can do without.
End of the day, the seller design and sell the product and the consumer will consider to buy or not to buy. The last thing you want is to push the consumer so much they can do without. That being said, I will missed the fun of turning for capsule but then again there are other capsule machine in most local neighbourhood for other third party stuff in more affordable prices.
That being said, I think we will surely missed this sight if this is true for Bandai official capsule machines.... Fading away....
Disclaimer: This article is just a personal sharing and observation from my point of view. There are others who have their own views and we are not here to prove them wrong or right.
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