I had to escort a student to the Narita Airport in Tokyo so he could fly back to his country. We arrived very early before his flight so he could get a PCR test and be cleared to fly. We walked around while waiting for the results, and I found a pretty amazing sight.
It was a capsule machine that gave out miniature capsule machines! I absolutely had to have this thing. I got some change and turned the crank. My first pull gave me a pack of capsules! Pretty meta. I got a capsule ball full of tiny capsule balls. Well, now I needed to roll again to actually get a machine. My second pull was a success! I got the red version of the machine.
Given all the moving parts of this little capsule machine, it was best to leave everything in its package for later. I said my goodbyes to my student as he got on his flight, and I returned home. At home, I assembled the machine together.
Success! A miniature capsule machine for my shelf.
Now that I had one, I needed to have them all! I searched for the set on the Internet and learned what I could. This particular set was called ガチャガチャマシーン３ (or Gatcha Gatcha Machine 3), and it was released in December 2021. So, it was already out in the wild for 3 months. I learned that you can buy full distributions of some capsule times on Amazon. For Gatcha Gatcha Machine 3 that consisted of 24 capsules, which was 3 complete sets of 8 items: 3 red machines, 3 white machines, 1 pack of capsules, and 1 set of metal shelves. So, the Capsules I had gotten were a 1/8 rare pull. The red machine was a typical 3/8 pull.
I continued searching on Yahoo Auctions to find someone selling the missing items in my set, but most people were selling a full set of 8 or selling the rare pulls for a lot of money. Eh. I gave up. One capsule machine is good enough. :)
This has continued to nag at me over the last year. The other day, I was back on Yahoo Auctions looking around and I saw an auction for the two unique pieces of the set I was missing: the white capsule machine and a set of the shelving. It was only $10, so why not?
Not long after they arrived in the mail. The White capsule machine was in perfect condition, looking amazing and working well. The shelving was not. The piece had clearly been sitting in the sun for an extended period of time because the rods were warped. You can notice this in the photos below.
When it sits on my shelf, you can't really notice. But I notice, and it annoys me.
Given this is the 3rd release of the Gacha Gacha Machine, the company had the foresight of expanding your collection of machines. If you happen to get two sets of shelving, you can combine into an expanded shelf that can hold four machines.
Now that I had a complete set, I could easily buy another complete set and combine them together. There was one on Yahoo Auctions for only $22.
It came in the mail pretty quickly, and the shelves were not bent whatsoever. The seller really took care of these compared to the last person. The shelves easily snapped together, and the machine easily snapped to the shelves.
In the end, it looked pretty great. The shelves themselves are a bit flimsy, though. It's easy to understand how the sun could have warped them. If I were a real craftsmen, it might be worthwhile to try and make metal replacements. Or maybe 3D print slightly thicker ones.
But my collection is now complete, and I think it looks really nice on my shelf.
