$70 for a Happy Meal toy? Resellers snap up popular characters
TOKYO -- Chiikawa Happy Meal toys offered by McDonald's Japan unit delight not just the children they are marketed to but online resellers -- critics call them scalpers -- who are cashing in on their popularity with collectors at home and abroad.
Since the fast food chain began including the toys in its Happy Meals in mid-May, they have been showing up on e-commerce sites at inflated prices in Japan, as well as on eBay and other platforms abroad, highlighting the insatiable demand for Japanese anime characters among fans.
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SoraNews24
3 hours ago
- SoraNews24
McDonald's Japan's Very Hungry Caterpillar Happy Meal toys are very cute【Photos】
Classic children's literature star takes big appetite to McDonald's. We've seen a number of McDonald's Japan's Happy Meal toys featuring beloved children's franchises such as Chiikawa, Super Mario, and Sanrio. Today we're looking at yet another, but this time it's not a Japanese anime or video game series that's in the spotlight, but a classic work of American children's literature. As of June 13, McDonald's Japan's Happy Meals, or Happy Sets, as they're called in Japanese, each come with a The Very Hungry Caterpillar toy, based on the star of the 1969 picture book from author and illustrator Eric Carle. Though not a homegrown hero, the little (and temporary) caterpillar's cute artwork has made the book well-known and much-loved in Japan too. McDonald's Japan's Very Hungry Caterpillar lineup consists of six toys split up into two batches. With the first group available between June 13 and 19, most of the toys have some sort of water connection, like the Apple Bubble Blower, based on the Very Hungry Caterpillar's meal on its first day. Flipping it open reveals that the rest of the caterpillar is curled up to act as a bubble-blowing ring and rests inside a reservoir for bubble liquid, which you'll need to source separately and pour in. Also part of the first batch is the Sunflower Waterwheel. Spoiler alert: this one shows the book's protagonist at both the start and end of his character arc, with the butterfly resting on the flower and the caterpillar hanging out on one of its leaves below. The blossom is actually a water wheel, and as you pour water in the flower spins and the leaves shimmy, giving it a dancing effect that doesn't require any batteries. ▼ As for what we're using to pour the water, we'll get to that a little later. Rounding out the first round of toys is the Tree Stump Bucket, which lets you reposition the caterpillar depending on where you want the handle to be. Officially, this is for playing with in the bath, park sandbox, or on the beach, but there's nothing stopping you from using it as a little decretive container for whatever you'd like to store inside. Moving on to the second round of Very Hungry Caterpillar toys, which will be available starting June 20, we come to the character's fourth-day fare with the unusually (but not inaccurately) named Hiding Strawberry Shower. The shy little caterpillar starts off with only a bit of its head sticking out of the fruit, but submerge the strawberry and it comes out to get a better look around as the toy fills with water. Squeezing it then pours the water out with a showerhead-style multi-flow and the caterpillar retreats back inside. The Leaf Board is the most figure-like toy in the line, but still has some functional play with-ability, either as a ring toss game on dry land or a balance game in the tub. ▼ Or you could go for the double challenge of a bathtime ring toss game, if you're not worried about splashes from missed throws. Finally, we promised we'd explain the spout we were using to pour water into the Sunflower Waterwheel up above, so now it's time to pay off that foreshadowing with the Flower Watering Can. In addition to the pitcher-style watering can, you get a base piece and three flat flower illustrations in the style of Carle's artwork. Well, they start out flat anyway. Pour a little water on them though… …and they perk right up, with their petals stretching out until the material dries, at which point you can water them again. The second batch of Very Hungry Caterpillar toys will be available from June 20 to 26, and from June 27 McDonald's will be giving out remaining toys from both batches while supplies last. Photos ©SoraNews24 © 2025 Penguin Random House LLC. ERIC CARLE, THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR, THE WORLD OF ERIC CARLE logo, the Caterpillar logo and related designs, logos, and names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' is published by Penguin Random House LLC. ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! [ Read in Japanese ]
SoraNews24
6 hours ago
- SoraNews24
Official Spirited Away cookbook teaches how to make food from the Ghibli anime classic
From Haku's rice ball to cursed chicken and charred newt cookies, this book will show you how to make Spirited Away's fantastic fantasy fare. Mouthwateringly detailed depictions of food have become as much a symbol of Studio Ghibli anime as fanciful flight sequences and plucky heroines. Food takes on the most narrative and thematic significance, though, in Spirited Away, where different dishes are used to symbolize greed, compassion, or sacrifice, serving as edible milestones on the characters' arcs. So it was a reasonable expectation that the official Ghibli anime cookbook series would eventually get around to Spirited Away , and now it finally has. Like the other books in the line, Ghibli's Table: Spirited Away is a collection of recipes that recreate food seen within the Hayao Miyazaki-directed classic, and also mix in a few new creations inspired by the setting and characters. Publisher Shufu no Tomo says that the 64-page volume contains instructions for how to make the onigiri rice ball Haku gives to Chihiro, the tempura rice ball devoured by the spider-like Kamaji, a non-bitter version of the bitter dumpling Chihiro receives as a sign of thanks from the river god, charred newt-shaped cookies, and 'the chicken eaten by Chihiro's mother.' ▼ You can spot Zeniba's cake on the book's cover too, so it feels like a safe bet that there'll be a recipe for it too. Like all of the Ghibli cookbooks, the Spirited Away volume is meant to be simple enough for adults or kids to follow along with. The ingredients used are all things that can be found in a typical Japanese grocery store, so even if you're outside of Japan, odds are you'll be able to source what you need as long as you've got an Asian market nearby or an online ingredient source. The series also tends to have detailed photos of the cooking process, and the descriptions, though in Japanese, are written to be easy for kids and inexperienced home chefs to understand, so they shouldn't be too hard to decipher for non-natives with some basic Japanese language proficiency. ▼ For example, here's a page from Shufu no Tomo's Castle in the Sky cookbook, showing photos for the recipe steps and including phonetic readings for the kanji characters. Ghibli's Table: Spirited Away is priced at 1,760 yen (US$12) and goes on sale July 31, but can be preordered now through Amazon Japan here. Source: Shufu no Tomo via Ghibli no Sekai Top image: Studio Ghibli Insert images: Amazon Japan, Studio Ghibli, PR Times ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
Nikkei Asia
14 hours ago
- Nikkei Asia
$70 for a Happy Meal toy? Resellers snap up popular characters
TOKYO -- Chiikawa Happy Meal toys offered by McDonald's Japan unit delight not just the children they are marketed to but online resellers -- critics call them scalpers -- who are cashing in on their popularity with collectors at home and abroad. Since the fast food chain began including the toys in its Happy Meals in mid-May, they have been showing up on e-commerce sites at inflated prices in Japan, as well as on eBay and other platforms abroad, highlighting the insatiable demand for Japanese anime characters among fans.
