After picking up our child from daycare, we headed to a specialty confectionery chain called “Machioka.” This store sells numerous boxed candy toys known as “Pokémon Kids.”
However, these small boxed items often sell out quickly.
What Is Pokémon Kids?
“Pokémon Kids” is a series of candy toys containing a small vinyl Pokémon figurine and one piece of gum.Each one costs about 250 yen, and each time you get a different kind of Pokémon figure.
Why Do They Sell So Fast?
Character Popularity
- Certain Pokémon disappear first.
- Kids know what they want.
Collection System
- Lineup printed on the package
- Desire to complete the set
Limited Shelf Space
- It is not infinitely obtainable.
These aren’t expensive, but they’re not something you buy every day either. We’ve purchased several of these candy toys and give them as small rewards when our child keeps a promise or does something good.
Not Just for Kids
The three Pokémon I purchased this time—Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur—are characters from the original Pokémon series released 30 years ago. People who were children back then are now adults, and sometimes they buy them out of nostalgia for the past.
Which one did you choose from these three?
Candy toys are little treats
In Japan, there’s a consumption style called “treats” where people spend a few hundred to a thousand yen（2～7USD） to slightly enhance their quality of life, enjoying things like convenience store cakes or slightly luxurious foods from department stores. These “food toys” also play a part in improving quality of life by allowing people to acquire and display toys of characters they like or used to like.
It’s just a small toy.
But it reflects how character culture, pricing strategy, and collecting habits work together in Japan.
Everyday Tokyo 