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I decided to
go Toy Room on 11th as I planned before. With a budget of $20, my girlfriend,
Corin by my side 
and the knowledge that people have managed to complete the
entire set of Binchotan girls (variants included) within 10 tries, I
decided I can break my "tikam" curse. By the time I reach there by
around 2.30p.m, I spotted a familiar face of my sgcollect
forum friend, Alvin (Shininagito) with his girlfriend scouting around. We take a
brisk walk about the area around 100 square feet, I could spot a wide variety of
Bandai (on the left) and Yujin (on the right) gacha machines, and specifically,
I targeted the few machines offering Binchotan and gang. Then I strode towards
the counter in the shop to exchange the dollars into the golden $1 coins. I took
out a $50 note and uttered, "$30 coin" please... Oops, shouldn't I be
just changing $20 instead? Yeah right, like you believe me.
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Overview |
Immediately
we proceed to the nearest Binchotan gacha machine just facing the shop. So 2 $1
coins into the mouth, a tilt to the left and a full turn to the right, a nice
little girl came out. It's the 
full uniform Aroe which is the normal version but
a much rarer version than the variant black swimsuit. The next 2 rounds and on
came Yukaritan and Rentan. Lucky3 turns and all different. At the meantime Corin
is trying another machine with Binchotan and she got the normal Binchotan with
stick. Then her 2nd trial faced a usual problem when the 2 coins got stuck. The
staff of Toy Room was kind enough to rectify the problem patiently and we
continue our adventure. After a few trials, we started to get some extras but
luckily Alvin was "tikaming" for Binchotan too as well as 2 office
guys who obviously been "tikaming" for a while. From them I
manage to get the swimsuit version Aroe, and now I'm just down with the variant
Binchotan with the rice ladle....
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200¥ Stuffs |
Full Metal Alchemist |
Great Display |
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HG series |
Kamen Rider 555 |
Bandai gacha machines are suffering from some lukewarm response but I must say I was pretty impressed with the series been featured in the fair. There was a good range of 100¥ gashapons including 5 stages of SD Gundam, One Piece Grand Battle part 6, Dragonball Z and One Piece Full Color R. 200¥ stuffs include One Piece Swing (keychain), Naruto Swing, Pocket Monster Advanced series, several HG-if series including Capcom girls part 2, and the latest Full Metal Alchemist and Saint Seiya Part 6. There's only a few 300¥ gashapons like Sunrise Imagination Part 3 which I think might be a star buy for $4 a piece. I was really impressed with the arrangement of the machines including the display casings on top for you to preview the gashapon figures collectors could expect. And you can look Kamen Rider Faiz fans would be yearning to take the placard advertising gashapons of the famous KR series. Lighting within the display is adequate and attractive. I had a try of a One Piece Swing and got Luffy though I want a Luffy's ship. I also tried a Naruto Swing and got the piece I want, the evil Itachi.
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Gacha Machines Galore |
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Ocha no Ken |
Toy Story Large |
Simpson Keychain |
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Pokemon |
Yujin gacha machines are receiving a much boisterous response perhaps the gashapons are more appealing to a younger or more feminine crowd. Pricewise as I have mentioned it's better to get Yujin gashapons. 100¥ gashapons include Simpsons minidome figurines, Disney characters remake, Toy Story mini dome, and Astroboy mini blister collection in which Corin had tried her luck on. 200¥ gashapons include the likes of Binchotan, Toys Story 2 Large Figures, Gasha Poke machine Plus which I got the red monster machine I want, and Ocha-Ken keychains which also prompted Corin to play a couple of times as well, not getting Hana (with the ping pong bats she wanted). Other interesting Yujin machines include Kiki and Lala jewelries and Nabe (claypot) series.
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Astroboy here I come |
Got what I want! |
Ocha Ken is so cute! |
Back to Binchotan, went on to change another $20 ($50 in total!!!) aiming to get the rice ladle Binchotan, but to no avail and got like 6 extra pieces of Kunugitan..urgh... seemed like rice ladle Binchotan and full uniform Aroe are the chase of the lot, so felt I had enough, I went over to the counter to return all the capsules which I didn't want to drag home with. In Japan, it's also a practise by many to return the capsule for recycling purposes. The attendant then counted that I had above 20 capsules, and gave me memorabilia (see below). I also did not hit any jackpot with the lucky draw. Well I never had a Lady Luck to shine on me anyway. After this expedition, I went to La Tendo and sold them my 6 extra Kunugitan for half price but thanks to Rene, managed to get the rice ladle Binchotan to form my complete set (power of Katoots working here).
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Gift of Appreciation |
My rewards (not including Corin's stuffs) |
All in all, it was an enthralling experience especially if you are on a quest to complete a set you sorely wanted, in this case it's the SR Binchotan for me. The gut feeling of seeing your $1 coin diminishing from your grasp as the number of extras you didn't want keep increasing. It always pay to open up and liaise with fellow collectors beside you, you never know you guys could do some meaningful barter trade. Kudos to the considerate and friendly Toy Room staff for bringing such a rare occasion to our shores. So for those who yet to go down to Toy Room, do hurry and feel the magic of gacha!
© Copyright KK Heng 2004
