How Authentic and Safe is Your Gashapon Toy?

To be honest I have never tried buying anything from gashapon machine.  

 

They're too random for me.  All the possible toys you can get are displayed on top, and 9 out of 10, I only like one, in which case I dread the moment the gashapon drops something on my lap which I do not like at all.  

Which is to say I don't like leaving things to chance (which ironically enough can't be said of my life in general).   Anyway.  This same randomness of gashapons just might be the very appeal of gashapons to toy collectors everywhere, kinda like the fortune in a cookie.  (Do gashapon toys really drop randomly?  Maybe I'm getting it all wrong.)

Anyway.  A Guide to Fake Anime Goods warns about fake low-quality gashapon toys.  

"Fake toys are by and large poorer in quality and even in rare cases poisonous materials are used in paints or plastics.  Official products are higher in quality and are put through rigorous health and safety checks.

The painting and moulding on fakes is usually poor and the low quality materials used often begin to degrade or warp shortly after manufacture.  Simply put, faked Japanese toys and goods are not quality products; they often look noticeably bad and are likely to fall apart within weeks of buying them. "

 

I once saw an army of gashapon Ultraman action figures in a thrift store, all lying in a row, smelling funny and sticky too on the fingers like they were all going to melt in the next five seconds.  It's the tropical climate, maybe, not good for plastic figures.  

I started being paranoid thinking the paint might leach onto my skin, toxic paint fumes diffusing and released slowly even if it's just miniscule amounts.  I had to ask myself what's so collectible about them.  Considering the amount of gashapon toys manufactured and bought each day by eager young hands, shouldn't health officials be issuing a health safety seal on the toys they've actually deemed safe?

Anyway.  More excerpts from A Guide to Fake Anime Goods in general, not just gashapon toys.

"Spotting pirated or unlicensed goods is not always easy, and even experienced collectors can be fooled on occasion - especially if buying online.  However, there are often some tell-tale signs that indicate when an item is not official, we will go into more depth in the following sections, but here are some general tips.


Quality - A lot of official anime merchandise is aimed at collectors, and quality is therefore paramount.  Although some items are not as well made or impressive as others it is very rare to find badly made anime merchandise, so give items a close look.  If the painting or printing is shoddy, parts don't connect well or the materials look cheap, steer clear.

Price - Japanese merchandise is generally expensive to buy in the UK.  This is due to a combination of high wholesale prices, limited stock and import duties.  Fake/unlicensed merchandise is often cheaper due to poor manufacturing and mass distribution.  If a price seems too good to be true, it often is.

Packaging - Official boxes are well printed and with the correct colours and Japanese spelling.  If the colours are pale and muted, the printing blurry or low quality or the logo is different to the one you have seen before then it is probably a fake.  Always look for the holographic or coloured stickers that denote official merchandise, these are always present on real items and often feature the anime studio logo. Also based on the agreement between toy companies and the JTA (Japan Toy Association), some Japanese toys that have been approved by the designated testing bodies of the ST standard are allowed to put an ST Mark on their products or packages. "ST Marks" on the toys show that the Association ensures that the toys were carefully manufactured in the safety aspect. If a product has this mark on it is a genuine product.

Oldness - Some series have revivals on anniversary years, and some never go out of fashion, but many series are of a particular time.  Once an anime or manga series finishes in Japan, the merchandise generally dries up.  If you find merchandise for an older series, particularly ones that were relatively short, you should take more care before buying unless you are willing to pay very high prices for those rare goods.

Newness - If a series has just come out in Japan there will not be a great deal of merchandise for it.  You may get the odd piece early on, but the Japanese merchandising machine usually kicks into gear once a series becomes more popular.  If a series is new and you see lots of merchandise for it - particularly if it is mostly posters, bags and clothing - then there is a very high probability that the merchandise is fake or unlicensed. Be aware that in most cases Japanese series are generally released well in advance of screenings in the west so some legitimate merchandisers may have certain figure goods in their store before a western release.

Colouring/Design - The Japanese know what the characters look like, and so do Japanese fans.  They will not buy something that doesn't look like the series, and neither should we.  Always look at the characters or the designs on the merchandise - do they look like they do in the anime or manga?  Are the colours the same?  Official manufacturers will not get things like this wrong, even if the colours are only slightly off then you could be looking at a fake....

HOW TO LOOK FOR FAKES

Quality

So what are the main differences?  Fake toys are by and large poorer in quality and even in rare cases poisonous materials are used in paints or plastics.  There are different levels of fakes, the higher the price the better the quality of the fake.  Telltale signs of fakes are poor painting, bad moulding, warped or ill-fitting parts and incorrect details or painting colours.  Basically, the official companies know what the characters look like, and they won't get something like the colour of a character's clothing or the number of markings on Totoro's chest wrong.  Suffice to say, official products are higher in quality than fakes and are put through rigorous health and safety checks.

Price

Genuine goods are expensive to buy and import from Japan due to shipping and tax.  Here is a rough price guide pertaining to anime figures.

Gashapon figures are between £1 and £3 in Japan, so for a set of 5 figures in Japan you can pay between £5 and £15.  In the UK and US they range from £10 to £20 due to import customs costs, exporting tax costs and shipping.  From China you pay £5 no matter what they cost in Japan.  Boxed Candy Toys range from £2 to £4 per figure in Japan and for a set of 5 figures you expect to pay between £10 and £20.  In the UK and US they range from £20 to £30 due to the costs mentioned above.  From China you pay £5 to £10 no matter what the originals cost in Japan.  Sad to say it, but if you see a price that looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Unfortunately fake retailers are wising up to this and have started selling their goods at a much higher price to confuse buyers in to thinking that their goods are genuine..."

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To sum it up,

a. If it smells funny, it's a fake and probably not safe for your health

b. Ditto if it's sticky on your fingers.

c. If the paint job is sloppy and not faithful to the original, Son Goku's hair rendered bright blue for instance.

d. If the sculpting likewise is sloppy (plastic remnants still sticking out of the action figure's armpits, calves, nose, etc), it's a fake.