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Bandai: Capsule Toys Are a 31-Billion-Yen Business
posted on by Egan Loo
According to the Sankei Shimbun paper, Bandai calculated that the capsule vending machine business grew from approximately 20 billion yen (US$168 million) in 2000 to 33 billion yen (US$277 million) in 2005. The total dropped slightly to 30.5 billion yen (US$256 million) in 2006. The newspaper cites nostalgia among adults for the continued popularity of these toy dispensing machines, which evolved from the imported American peanut vending machines of the 1940s.