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Creative Japanese office installs awesome full-size vending machine made out of cardboard【Video】

Casey Baseel May 26, 2020
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Japan has a lot vending machines, but there’s only one like this.

In just about every Japanese office building, you’ll find a vending machine, serving as an oasis of refreshment and also a convenient excuse to get up and stretch your legs when you’ve been sitting at your desk for too long and need a change of scenery to restart your brain.

But at the offices of Hacomo, a company based in Kagawa Prefecture’s Higashi Kagawa City, there’s a vending machine that’s different from any other, because it’s made out of cardboard.

https://twitter.com/dancreator/status/1262942808543039488

The full-size machine can be stocked with a dozen different kinds of drinks, and in the demonstration video we see a woman put a coin into the slot and hit the button for a can of coffee, which drops right into the drink retrieval tray. The camera then swings around to the backside where we see a man in a cap open up the machine’s back panel, revealing a network of heavy-duty rubber bands and intricate interlocking tabs as he replenishes the stock of beverages.

However, the Hacomo employees aren’t just using the machine, they put it together too. That’s because Hacomo is a cardboard craft kit manufacturer, and the cardboard vending machine is their latest creation. As the video shows, it’s fully functional as a drink-dispensing system, although it seems that it operates on the honor system, since you can press the buttons and get a drink without actually putting a coin in. Also, since it uses no electricity, it can’t really keep the drinks chilled or heated, which is why the buttons for the cans of coffee are marked “lukewarm.”

Unfortunately, Hacomo isn’t currently offering the full-scale vending machine kit for sale, but it does say that it’s essentially a multiplied and connected version of its smaller, three—drink design, which can be ordered on Amazon here for 990 yen (US$9.25).

Some of Hacomo’s other creative kits it’s recently shown off include cardboard crane games and gacha capsule toy machines…

とんでもなく先日の自動販売機の動画がバズっておりますが、
弊社ではその他にも hacomo WOW! という作って遊べる
工作キットシリーズを展開していますのでそちらも見ていただければ幸いです( ´∀｀)

(個人的には飛び出せ海賊くんがなかなか乙です…)#ダンボール工作 #hacomo pic.twitter.com/ik6lcktBUM

— hacomo株式会社【公式】 (@hacomo_official) May 22, 2020

…and also this adorable dragon cosplay set.

ダンボールドラゴン#ダンボール工作 #3歳 https://t.co/EhiL3eF6u2 pic.twitter.com/W21DL2MH7O

— hacomo株式会社【公式】 (@hacomo_official) May 13, 2020

Though while we’re waiting with fingers crossed for the full-size vending machine to go on sale, we might have to order one of their cardboard play houses…