Revision history: Gashapon

Gashapon are Japanese capsule-toy vending machines: insert coins, turn the crank, and a random toy inside a plastic capsule drops out. The name is onomatopoeia, "gasha" for the crank and "pon" for the capsule landing. "Gashapon" is a registered trademark of Bandai; "gacha-gacha" and "gacha" are the generic terms, and the last of these became the name of the digital mechanic. [2]

The machines derive from American bulk-vending machines. Ryuzo Shigeta, founder of Penny Shokai in Tokyo's Taito ward, set up Japan's first capsule-toy machine on February 17, 1965, adding capsules to protect the prizes, and sold turns for 10 yen. [1] Bandai entered the market in 1977, selling character-licensed capsules at 100 yen when rivals charged around 20, and built capsule toys into a durable national industry. [1] [2]

Two properties of the physical machines carried directly into digital gacha: the fixed price per random draw, and collection-driven demand, since toys shipped in themed sets that invited completion. The set-completion impulse later produced the kompu gacha mechanic, whose 2012 ban is the genre's first major regulatory event.