SoraNews24 —Japan News—

Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.

TOP

» Japan
» It’s blind-buy bliss as adorable Full of Poses Totoro and Mei figures solve gacha paradox【Photos】

Featured

Weird
Studio Ghibli
Jobs

It’s blind-buy bliss as adorable Full of Poses Totoro and Mei figures solve gacha paradox【Photos】

Casey Baseel Aug 30, 2024
Tweet

Testing your luck never felt so easy.

For many fans, the appeal of blind-buy gacha toys is a paradox. On one hand the random nature adds a bit of excitement, as you won’t know what you’ll get until you open up the capsule or box, so too few possible outcomes spoils some of the fun. On the other hand, though, the more possible prizes there are, the lower your chances of getting one you really, really want, right?

But every now and again a gacha toy series comes along that elegantly solves this problem by giving us a nice variety of prizes, and also making them all things we’d be very happy with, and that’s what’s going on with these My Neighbor Totoro figures.

Studio Ghibli specialty shop Donguri Kyowakoku has just issued a rerelease of their “Full of Poses” figure lines of cuddly forest spirit Totoro and his adventurous pal Mei. Of the five designs shown for each of them, there’s not a bad one in the bunch, so the surprise isn’t if you’ll be happy with the results of your blind-buy, just how.

For the Totoro lineup, you might end up with Totoro playing his ocarina…

…roaring as he flies though the sky…

…spinning his top pre-flight…

…fiddling with his umbrella…

…or taking (or at least trying to take) a nap as he meets Mei for the first time.

Moving over to Mei’s set, each figure is a callback to a memorable moment from the Hayao Miyazaki-directed anime classic, such as Mei’s bewilderment at the soot sprite she thought she’d caught between her clasped hands having magically disappeared.

▼ Excitable kid that she is, when Mei feels something, she feels it strongly.

In addition to the figures seen in the photos, there’s also a sixth, “secret” figure for both Totoro and Mei.

The figures are available through the Donguri Kyowakoku online store (Totoro here, Mei here) and are priced at 1,320 yen (US$8.90), which is decidedly on the higher end for blind-buy figures. They appear, though, to be of really nice quality, and at approximately 7 to 8 centimeters (2.8 to 3.1 inches) in height, they’re a little bigger than the typical capsule toy too.

Oh, and getting back to that comment at the start of this article about how “many” fans appreciate the random excitement of gacha goods, yes, we realize that to some people that’s actually a negative aspect, especially if you’re looking to put together a complete set and don’t want to waste money on duplicates. For you, Donguri Kyowakoku is also offering these figures as complete box purchases (Totoro here, Mei here), with all six designs, including the secret one, for 7,920 yen.

Source: Donguri Kyowakoku
Top image: Donguri Kyowakoku
Insert images: Donguri Kyowakoku (1, 2)
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!