egg capsule vending machines
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some take 30 dollar coins, some guzzle 100 dollars (NT$50x2), most take NT$50. turn the knob and if you're lucky you get a cool toy in a clear little egg capsule. each machine houses toys of a particular series (usually 5 or 6 toys in that series). most of the series are "limited edition", which makes them very valuable.
a lot of "scalpers" buy in bulk (in some stores the proprietor allows you to pay for a whole set; because if you just drop coins and leave things to fate the chance of getting the same toy is high); and these scalpers in turn sell the toys for high prices on the internet.
there's a wide variety of toys that can be found in these egg capsule vending machines. I have two little ancient Sega game console replicas (photos next time), a Thunderbirds jet, a freaky japanese "witch" character playing a harp, a convenience store, a Steamboy action figure, and like two more that i don't remember.
some of the toys, like the convenience store, are actually made of many parts that when attached together, leave quite a large footprint. you can't imagine that it could've fit in that little egg capsule!
there are tofu action figures, little airguns with little bullets in little magazines, little revolvers, nightmare before christmas figures, very very detailed doraemon figures among the eggs capsule toys. there's even a magazine dedicated to collecting these.
each series could consist of action figures of characters from a particular movie or cartoon or comic book. it could also consist of parts that could be built together to form a big playset. for example the other toys in my convenience store toy series include other establishments with roads that you can attach to each other to form a long street. there are also super mini train track sets. there was one i particularly wanted, it was a control switch for the train, but alas i wound up with a lousy train car.
more photos in the next post.
