Fun with cheap Japanese toys and sweets

3 May 2006 Category: Features, Graphics, Japan, Products

Fun with cheap Japanese toys and sweets

endless paradise of Japanese sweets and toys

After informing you about the Doraemon Shop a little while ago, I must confess I didn’t tell you the whole truth! There are actually quite a few scruffy old Omocha-shops around: toys, sweets and silly stuff perfect for brightening up a gray afternoon, buying presents for your friends or just indulging in the stylish packaging design. Time for a new infusion of bright Japanese graphics from it’s finest.

Written by Uleshka

Let’s start with some exciting “shoot the dinosaur with a rubber-band-gun” packaging.


shoot-the-dinosaur-with-a-rubber-band-gun-packaging, full pack

shoot-the-dinosaur-with-a-rubber-band-gun-packaging, empty pack revealing the underlying graphics

Here is the full pack and the the emptied one, which is almost better! Load the rubber-band around your gun aaaaaaand - shoot!

dinosaur gun pointing at poor dino

An old classic are planes, of course! Colorful graphics and dubious motives…. We found three different styrofoam ones. Number one has two sets of wings to stack in and a heavy plastic front with propeller to make the “nose” heavy for better flying.

styrofoam plane no.1

The one on the left is the deluxe version of plane number one having landing wheels, too. The following right one is powered by a rubber-band and has a suction cap on his “nose” - so try to aim for a window!


the upscale version

rubberband powered suction cap plane

Point and shoot!

KINGA with rubber band plane

Note on the side: Special thanks to KINGA for sharing the fun with us. She is currently in Japan collecting some new impressions and footage for new visuals. Look forward!

upscale plane in action

In case you never made it to be a pilot, you might want to aim a little lower and go for the profession of a ticket-puncher. Here is the full on Japanese train ticket set including a beautiful pinch! Tickets to Kyoto, Nagoya, Sendai… you name it!


punch set full pack

punch set back side

Believe it or not, but punching little holes out of those tickets was actually very satisfying. (KINGA was hard to stop!)

KINGA starting to punch

Now for a little snack in between: of course there is a lot to chose from! Rice-pop-corn in the shape of a carrot, frogs and cats filled with sweet pearls, wafers to spread Japanese jam on, milk balls and mini-ramen.

sweet mix Japanese style

cat and frog with matching sweater

My favorite packaging design are still those exclusively Japanese flat things: a dried flat sour plum bar or a dried octopus snack!

ume - sour plum snack

octopus snack

A thing that seemed to be found in all countries are cigarettes for kids. Well - I don’t want to get into what educational effect that might have but remember, how much I loved them when I was small. In Japan, they don’t only have chocolate flavor, but also Coca Cola taste! (and for the real Japanese packages, click here).


Coca Cola cigarettes

the usual chocolate cigarettes

Now at the end, try these: super-natural tattoos to play dead!


super-real-American-action-tattoos

how to look evil

Note: DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME!


shot and…

..stabbed!

Have a happy Golden Week holiday!

28 Comments

  1. Wow! what a fun article! I love all the Candy in a pile, so interesting and delicious!
    I love your articles! Toys and Candy, the best things in the world!

    Posted by: Fei on May 3rd, 2006 at 1:16 pm

  2. Those tatoos are awesome!

    Posted by: Andrew on May 3rd, 2006 at 1:34 pm

  3. I remember those styrofoam airplane! I used to collect them when I was small. Very fun indeed! :D

    Posted by: Ben Tong on May 3rd, 2006 at 1:38 pm

  4. I, too, had one of those styrofoam airplane! Ah the memories… ^____^

    Posted by: G on May 3rd, 2006 at 3:39 pm

  5. Hah yeah, those planes were the best.

    Posted by: Damien Tanner on May 3rd, 2006 at 7:48 pm

  6. the kids training to be railway workers reminded me of this classic Japanese flash: http://www.mediatinker.com/yamanote29/archives/images/shinbashi.swf

    Posted by: Claytonain on May 3rd, 2006 at 10:05 pm

  7. [...] Link. [...]

    Posted by: Sushimatic » Blog Archive » Toys and Lurid Graphics, Japan Style on May 3rd, 2006 at 10:31 pm

  8. I would venture to say that the wings on the plane in “styrofoam plane no. 1″ were assembled incorrectly. They appear to be attached backwards! In addition, the numbers on the tail of the plane are mirror imaged yet the text shown on the wrapper is not mirror imaged. Are there some Photoshop shenanigans going on here???

    Posted by: PoChop on May 4th, 2006 at 3:59 am

  9. [...] You should head your way to Pingmag. If you’re into bright colours and retro looking toy designs, they have a great article just for you, showcasing some cheap toys and sweets they probably found in their local supermarket or stores. I must confess, I often have to drag myself past the toys section in MacroMart. The temptation to buy a rubber dart gun with targets is too much to bear from time to time. [Via PingMag] [...]

    Posted by: 2dayBlog - Technology Journal, New Gadget everyday! » Blog Archive » Toys N Lurid Graphics, Japan Style on May 4th, 2006 at 12:28 pm

  10. PoChop - no photoshop magic! those were printed on the planes the wrong way. don’t know why, though ;-)

    Posted by: Uleshka on May 8th, 2006 at 1:05 pm

  11. I loved this article (recently discovered pingmag :D )!! I remember when I was young and still lived in Japan, there was this store by my house that used to sell all those treats and retro toys, including that punching your train ticket gadget and the fake cigarette goodies. I remember going all crazy with the hole puncher that after punching out all the tickets, I went around the house punching random things, which my gradmom was not too happy about I’m sure!

    The last time I went back to Japan, the store was closed. I felt a little of me die! I hope it was that they just had the day off…

    Thanks for this piece! It made my day! tears

    Posted by: Biki on May 9th, 2006 at 9:58 am

  12. i was wondering: do they sell little bobdog cigarettes in hicago? or are you willing to sell me some?

    Posted by: yumi on June 21st, 2006 at 9:22 am

  13. i remember those styrofoam planes when i was a small kid. We(me, my brothers and cousins) used to buy quite alot of them (they break easy) and yes they are a fun cheap toy to play with

    Posted by: leviN on September 5th, 2006 at 2:45 pm

  14. [...] this nice Japanese collection of sweets and toys, I found a pack of Coca Cola flavoured Cigarettes. You can discuss about the sense of that product - [...]

    Posted by: Zlurp! - Coca Cola Cigarettes on May 6th, 2007 at 2:30 am

  15. i was wondering…where can i buy little bobdogs??? me and my friend are looking everywhere

    Posted by: Lauren on July 18th, 2007 at 9:50 am

  16. thank you for the great pic

    Posted by: Anonymous on January 30th, 2008 at 5:46 pm

  17. there was this store by my house that used to sell all those treats and retro toys

    Posted by: kurye on February 23rd, 2008 at 8:48 am

  18. [...] Top photo via. Share This [...]

    Posted by: Ticket Mosaic on April 23rd, 2008 at 12:34 am

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