ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

I spotted this on the fantastic Trends in Japan blog this morning. I had woken up to the radio talking about economic woes and it soured me, but then I saw this.

The Mugen (infinite) series of toys from Bandai Asovision has now brought us the Mugen PeriPeri, a keychain toy that aims to replicate the pleasure of opening a package for the first time. Snacks, boxes, and other tear-open packages tend to reveal good things, so perhaps experiencing this sensation boosts endorphins and sends us into pleasure mode.

This is fantastic news for those of us who have pretty much stopped buying blind-box toys. Now we can still revel in the safety of buying open-box toys, but not miss out on those precious endorphins! For a brief moment, I mistook this portable device as having the practical purpose of re-sealing small boxes, but no! It really truly exists just to replicate the motion/fulfillment of tearing open a box. As you see below, there’s no need to limit this to just small boxes either; these corporate-looking dudes created the world’s biggest PeriPeri. Well, it’s not going to solve our economic crisis, but perhaps PeriPeri is a temporary panacea–the non-chemical equivalent to a Xanax. Check out the video too.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lFEUo1ckHY]