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Japan’s craziest gadget maker made this gadget that was too crazy to succeed, but what is it?

Casey Baseel Feb 18, 2023
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Even by Thanko standards, this is seriously weird.

Japanese gadget maker Thanko is our favorite supplier of innovations we never knew we needed until the company invented them. We never would have thought of the Whole Pie Maker or drink-at-home Secret Base on our own, but we’re glad Thanko did.

When thinking outside the box is your business model, though, there’s always the risk that your designers might think a little too far outside the boundaries of conventional logic, and Thanko recently shared a photo of one of their past products that ended up being a sales failure.

これ、なんだと思いますか🤔 pic.twitter.com/JX1h42GFcf

— サンコー【公式】 (@thanko_web) February 9, 2023

So what is it? That’s exactly the question Thanko itself posed in its tweet, asking “What do you think this is?” and following up with “Hint: It was a sales dud.” After staring at the pronged handle, with its bright green color and techno-insectoid aesthetics, Twitter users’ guesses included:

“It’s a Power Rangers-type weapon, right? One of the powerful ones that they use for the tough enemy at the end of the episode.”
“But only the Green Ranger can use it.”
“Probably transforms you into Ultraman.”
“Ghostbusters P.K.E. Meter?”
“Is it a fly swatter?”
“Some sort of anti-grasshopper weaponry?”
“Special cockroach killing scissors?”
“Umm, is this something that’s appropriate to be showing outside of late-night time slots?”

But no, this isn’t tokusatsu hero equipment or ghostbusting gear, and while Thanko has offered some pretty crazy ways to deal with cockroaches before, this isn’t one of them. And no, it’s not for adult purposes either, unless by “adult purposes” you mean mature and responsible pursuits, such as keeping a tidy home, because this gadget is a dish washer!

“Wait, how are you supposed to load all of your pots, pans, and silverware in that thing?” you might be asking. You don’t, because this is a dish washer in the most literal sense of the term…

正解は食洗機でした！https://t.co/omLMdwZ5bf https://t.co/kqEIFWChwW pic.twitter.com/17HZ7qX8ok

— サンコー【公式】 (@thanko_web) February 9, 2023

…in that it’s a motorized device specifically engineered to wash a single dish (i.e. plate) at a time.

As the video shows, the prongs fold back inwards to clamp the dish in place, then motors rotate the dish in a counterclockwise motion. The underside of the central tip of the handle has brush bristles, and the automated spinning ostensibly eliminates the need to do any manual scrubbing.

It’s definitely an original design, but it’s not hard to see why it never became a sales success. It doesn’t seem to be any faster than hand-washing would be, and since the brush is stationary, the gadget really only washes the very center of the dish, not the outer edges. It also looks like in order to keep the clamps in place, you have to apply continual pressure on the handle’s trigger, which looks like it’d get tiring for your fingers very quickly.

Add up all those inconveniences, and we can understand why Thanko didn’t even bother to put one of these dish washers in their Lucky Bag this New Year’s Season. Oh well, not every new invention can be a hit, even if, in Thanko’s case, they can all be weird.

Source: Twitter/@thanko_web via IT Media
Featured image: Twitter/@thanko_web
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