On my last trip to Japan, I picked up a Canon F-1, Canon 7S, Canon IV and Canon EOS R1 complete with top-grade lenses for just $15 – but there were a couple of huge asterisks attached!
These are miniature camera replicas, about an inch in size, and are part of Canon's gachapon collection made by Japanese toya manufacturer Bandai – the brand behind iconic toys like Tamagotchi, Power Rangers and Gundam.
Gashapon (aka capsule) machines can be found all over Japan and they work a bit like gumball machines, except that they dispense collectible miniatures instead of candy. This is how they work:
For ¥500 (about $3.13 / £2.37 / AU$4.62) you get a capsule containing a random miniature Canon camera. When I was visiting, there were five to collect (the fifth being a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV).
If you sit through the video, you'll see that I only managed to snag four of the five – and it was hard to resist the temptation to pump even more coins into the machine to get the last one!
But Canon and Bandai have just updated the collection, adding two new models (one in two colors, the other in four) and slightly reducing the price – but with what appears to be an accordingly cheaper finish, with lenses being single molds instead of having separate plastic elements for the lenses).
As reported by Digital Camera Watch, the new capsule collection turns all the cameras into keyring charms and adds the Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III in black and silver, along with the Canon Ixy 210F (known as the PowerShot Elph 100 HS in the US and Ixus 115 HS in the UK) in pink, orange, blue and silver.
The miniatures, now priced ¥400 (about $2.50 / £1.89 / AU$3.69) were available to pre-order exclusively for Japanese customers direct from Bandai earlier this month, with shipping set to begin in February 2027. And what do you know – I'm actually going to be back in Japan around then…
You can try to score these on auction sites like eBay, but be warned – they're going to cost you a lot more than $3 a pop, as gashapon minis are limited edition and highly collectible, so you can easily add at least a zero on the price (and that's before you add shipping from Japan).
But your boy has a few spares, if you're interested!
You might also like…
If you want full-size cameras that actually take pictures, take a look at the best Canon cameras along with the best Canon lenses for DSLRs and the best Canon RF lenses for mirrorless bodies.
