Gachapon are balls dispensed from machines.
They are a trademark of the toy company Bandai.
They can be found in many locations in Japan in particular, but I remember something similar in stands outside newsagents when I was growing up.
They used to be more common in the UK, although I never quite understood the attraction.
This is a strategy to encourage consumption by providing a 'random' choice of which item somebody receives after paying the cost of the item. This is a sort of gambling which mirrors items such as blind bags (e.g. Lego minifigures, although those can be identified by those with patience and sensitive fingers) and loot boxes in some computer games.
I guess another example would be the toy in a Kinder egg.
What are your experiences of these
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