A model collection that fits in the palm of your hand: have a ball with CapChara mini gacha figures
Buying figures as a hobby can be fun – right up ’til you run out of shelf space. Collecting smaller figs gives you more room to add to your collection, but how small do you wanna go?
Nendoroid size? 1/12-scale? Q posket petit?
Here’s an idea, one maybe you didn’t think of yet: tiny figures of popular characters that arrive all curled up in a ball. In other words, CapChara.
Bottle cap? Nope. Cap like a hat? Nope…
CapChara’s short for ‘Capsule Characters’ – gacha capsule machine prizes that look like your famous faves. The mini fig is inside the capsule, but in pieces you assemble yourself.
Putting the parts together’s meant to be part of the fun. They’re way less complicated than Gunpla model kits. Some CapChara sets are listed as for over-15s only, but other simpler ones are okay for age 6 and up. And if you’re reading this we’re almost 100% sure you’re older than 6, so…
In many CapChara kits, the character’s round head becomes the storage capsule. All the body and accessory parts are inside, like you’re breaking their brain open then putting it back together. Kinda weird, at first.
(Most of the ‘heroine doll’ Disney Princesses are hidden inside their dresses and skirts instead. A supersized head on a princess? Never gonna happen.)
Keeping the kits small keeps them cheaper – at standard gacha prices (300 to 500 yen each), CapCharas are easily some of the most affordable mini figs around.
Enough to keep fans happy – and super occupied
This is a series that’s grown fast. Basically, anything works as long as it has a head. If you can think of a popular character, it’s been made into a CapChara by now:
- Disney Friends
- Pokemon
- Rilakkuma
- Sumikkogurashi
- Marvel
- Crayon Shinchan
- Sanrio characters
- Doraemon
- Kamen Rider
- Star Wars
- Care Bears
- Miffy
That’s not even half of what’s out there – and most characters star in more than 1 CapChara series. We’re at over 4 Sanrio releases already, for example. New collections come out so often that the list grows every week.
With that many options, keep your eyes peeled for the weirder sets. Like Chicken Ramen’s Hiyoko-chan, or Oshiri Tantei (the ‘Butt Detective’). The lineup’s also grown to include special editions: CapChara Flocky, and CapChara Premium.
At the time we posted this, you could only get CapChara Flocky Sumikkogurashis. (They’d already been featured in a normal plastic set.) You can see the difference straight away – they’re covered in soft material.
The other thing you’ll notice is… there’s nothing to put together. Keeps things simple!
CapChara Premium versions have movable parts, like arms and legs, when they’re complete – real similar to poseable figures. Again, when this went live not many of those existed. Mostly Snoopy/Peanuts and Mickey/Minnie Mouse.
Capture some CapCharas – we’ll show you how
Use DEJAPAN to buy Japanese items in English, with no service fee or commission on orders. As well as linking to pretty much every other type of figure from Japan, we’re here to help you collect CapChara sets:
- Look out for pre-orders on places like Rakuten and Yahoo! Shopping
- Check Yahoo! Auctions for collections or individual figure resales
- Find them on other websites and use our item request form to order
