Gashapon Bandai Official Shop — Local services in Troy

When prices here were $2/token, it felt expensive but fine as an occasional treat. Now that the price has increased to $3/token, it feels like it edges into gouging territory. These same toys cost roughly 60-75% less at the machines in Japan, and while I realize tariffs must now be included in addition to existing shipping costs, gambling $9 to $12 (or more - a handful of machines are now as much as $27 for one toy!!) that you get an item you want is not worth it. Never mind that the inventory here feels beyond stale; the official site shows at least 10-15 new lines of gashapon a month; this location hasn't update its stock in months, far as I can tell. As a result, there are multiple machines with the same tired junk that never seems to sell. Every time we come it's been a longer interval than the last time. What's the point, when nothing changes and it's just...

My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Gashapon store tonight! There were so many machines with many varieties of toys to choose from. It was easy to use a credit card to get tokens for the machines, and we received a couple of cool clear bags to put our treasures in. They also had a really cute area where you could take pictures of your toys, plus bins where you could drop empty capsules, I assume for recycling. They said that there will be some additional Bandai items at the back of the store soon. I would recommend taking your time to view all of the varieties of items they are offering. Some are duplicated, which would be expected to fill that many machines, but others are not, and we almost missed some toys of particular interest to us. There was a nice variety of anime series represented, but I hope to see some additional titles...

People are out here expecting gumball prices for high quality figures, the quality and detail in the Gashapon are top notch, the prices are a little bit higher than standard yen prices but the exchange rate is always changing more than the stock market so standard pricing is fine here in the west. I agree with the pricing options for using a card is needed, was a surprise for me as well. I spent $80 over two days and was highly satisfied with what I pulled, likewise for my elderly aunt who enjoyed our visit there. My suggestion is simple. Give it a look for yourself, if you don't want to spend $20 on tokens I do suggest a $10 bill. Remember that you get what you pay for. I do hope that their stocking problems get fixed in time for the winter crowd. I'd argue they're far better in every way than the miniso that feels like a sanrio center across...