Nikon’s Vending Machine Mini Cameras Are Now Available in the US
Last year, Nikon announced a collaboration with Bandai Namco to bring a new set of camera miniatures to its gashapon (sometimes called gachapon) vending machines. The series became available in Japan in December and has now made its way to the US.
The Nikon Miniature Collection includes two classic analog cameras and two modern cameras, all of which come paired with lenses. For fans of film, there is a chance to pull a Nikon F with a Nikkor-S Auto 55mm f/1.2 lens (as seen above) and the Nikon SP with a W-Nikkor 3.5cm f/1.8 prime. For more modern mirrorless fans, there is also the Nikon Zfc with a Nikkor Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR lens and the flagship Nikon Z9 equipped with a Nikkor Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S pro zoom lens.
The miniatures feature a removable lens and body cap as well as an included set of small stickers that can be used to enhance the detail of the model further. For the Nikon F mini pictured above, the “F” logo, Nippon Kogaku Tokyo logo, shutter speed dial, and film counter are included stickers. The mini features one moving part: a spring-loaded shutter button.
Like all Bandai Namco miniatures, these tiny recreations are very small and measure approximately 20 millimeters (0.8 inches) tall.
Gashapon used to be difficult to find outside of Japan, with limited selections available even if machines could be found elsewhere. The first capsule shop in the US opened in LA two years ago, but in recent months Bandai Namco has aggressively expanded the availability of its capsule machines around the country. There are now 28 “official” Bandai Gashapon shops in the United States and Canada but multiple other states have licensed Bandai gashapon machines that expand availability to 166 locations.
One such location is in the Uwajimaya grocery store in Beaverton, Oregon which completed a conversion of its home goods section into a gashapon location on March 5. In just the past three weeks, the selection at this location has already changed multiple times, so the availability of the Nikon cameras isn’t guaranteed. That said, PetaPixel confirmed they were available over the weekend.
As expected, the cost of the US-based capsules is higher than in Japan. The machines take tokens which can be purchased from nearby cash and credit card machines and each pull costs $8, which is more than double the price of a pull in Tokyo.
Bear in mind that gashapon machines are randomized, so not only will the right machine need to be available at a particular location, but there is only at best a one in four chance that a particular model will be pulled. Luckily, unlike other gashapon machines, there are only four possible camera minis which makes it a bit easier to pull a particular model.
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These Nikon minis were added to the North American batch of machines in March and it appears Bandai Namco is adding new machines into the rotation monthly. Information on new locations and additional machine availability is published in regular intervals on the official US gashapon website.
Image credits: Photos by Jaron Schneider for PetaPixel
