How Gashapon Machines Inspired Asia’s Blind Box Craze

What started as gashapon machines has not only become one of the biggest crazes in the world, but also a multi-billion dollar market. From SKULLPANDA to Labubu to Sonny Angel, tiny figures are being collected and traded by millions of consumers, turning the blind box trend into a multibillion dollar industry. Blind boxes can be traced back to Japan, decades before the current craze. “Lucky bags” offered shoppers mystery assortments of merchandise, while gashapon machines let customers insert money to receive a randomly selected toy inside a capsule. Japanese toy company Bandai entered the game in 1977 and developed its GASHAPON brand around the concept of these “mystery capsules”. These machines were originally made as fun toys for children, but eventually developed a large adult following as manufacturers introduced more popular figures and higher-priced collectibles. By 2024, Japan's capsule-toy market alone had grown to approximately 80 billion yen and the modern blind box took this element of surprise and repackaged it for the new generation. Now consumers are buying identical sealed boxes from a collection without knowing which design is inside. Your average series contains several common characters and one extremely rare "secret" figure. This idea encourages collectors to continue buying boxes in hopes of completing the set or finding the rarest character. No company has capitalized on this idea more than Chinese brand Pop Mart. Founded in 2010, Pop Mart’s earliest hit came from MOLLY, a wide-eyed girl created by Hong Kong artist Kenny Wong. Pop Mart turned MOLLY into one of their signature figures and began building a business model centered around artists and blind-box collections. Their strategy produced an entire universe of characters, including SKULLPANDA, HIRONO, and LABUBU and these characters are generating enormous amounts of money. In 2025, SKULLPANDA generated approximately $490 million in revenue, while MOLLY generated $431 million and HIRONO generated nearly $259 million, making it known that the business is no longer dependent on one viral character. Altogether, Pop Mart reported 5.5 billion in revenue in 2025, but Pop Mart isn't alone. Japanese collectibles have also found an entirely new generation of fans in the U.S. with Sonny Angel and Smiski which have both gained their own followings with glow-in-the-dark figures hidden inside mystery packaging. According to a Hong Kong Stock Exchange filing, the global pop-toy market grew from approximately $19.8 billion in 2019 to $38 billion in 2024 and is projected to surpass $104 billion by 2030. So why are adults spending so much money on these mystery toys? Part of the reason comes from the element of surprise. A blind box creates anticipation and buyers don’t get to choose what character they will receive. Knowing that there is a figure that is more rare than others also makes the experience more exciting. Social media has amplified the craze even further as unboxing videos and rare pulls generate millions of views, basically turning each purchase into a potential viral video. It is clear to say that blind boxes have evolved beyond a simple toy trend into a combination of art, entertainment, and collecting. These tiny characters can be hooked to your purse or be displayed on your desk, giving consumers a new form of self-expression, and with the blind box market expected to surpass $100 billion, the mystery inside each box has turned into a very big business.