Talk:Capsule toy

Requested move 20 June 2025

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. It seems like the consensus is to merge this article to Gashapon rather than moving it to another title. (closed by non-admin page mover) Jeffrey34555 (talk) 05:01, 15 July 2025 (UTC)

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Capsule toy → Capsule toy vending machineCapsule toy vending machine – The current name of this article is very misleading, suggesting it is about the toys sold by this type of the vending machine. Instead, the article is clearly about the vending machines themselves. The article should be renamed accordingly. I am unsure if capsule toy should have its own article one day. For now it can safely redirect to the "capsule toy vending machine" article (note: it did not exist, I just created it now as a temporary redirect here). Side note: there is also confusion about how this topic is different from Gashapon, which on en and ja has a stand-alone article. But most interwikis here - i.e. to capsule toy (vending machine) article are known as gashapons in other languages. Compare: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11294641 vs https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1204526 . From what I can tell, Gashapon is a specific brand name of a capsule vending machine. I am unsure if any merge is needed (leaning no), but I wanted to mention this before someone suggests renaming this article here to Gashapon. Interwikis at wikidata might merit some cleanup too, sigh;in fact the Wikidata article is about the capsule toy (not capsule toy vending machine), although most of the interwiki'd articles, like ours, are about the vending machine. A mess. PS. What needs to be done: Wikidata needs a page about capsule toy vending machines, pretty much all interwikis from Q11294641 need to be switched to that page (it can be an intentional sitelink to redirect to our capsule toy redirect). I'll do it later this year if nobody jumps on this first. _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 06:23, 20 June 2025 (UTC) — Relisting. TarnishedPath^talk 12:20, 29 June 2025 (UTC) — Relisting. TarnishedPath^talk 12:06, 7 July 2025 (UTC)

• Comment @Piotrus: This may merit a merge into Gashapon or vice-versa. If it is merged into the other page, a move may not be necessary. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 03:49, 21 June 2025 (UTC)

  @Zxcvbnm True, but I don't have time right now to look into whether those topics have separate stand-alone notability on Wikipedia (on Wikidata, that's easy, they need three pages - their inclusion criteria is just proof of existence :P). _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 04:27, 21 June 2025 (UTC)

  @Piotrus: The problem is that even if Gashapon was about a specific brand of vending machine, the article itself is about capsule toy machines in general and has been since its creation. As the Gashapon article was created much earlier, I'd probably merge capsule toy to it, therefore oppose this move for procedural reasons. I would then move the Gashapon article to Capsule toy vending machine instead, an alternate move. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 04:49, 21 June 2025 (UTC)

  @Zxcvbnm Well, that article in the lead states that is about a specific brand machines, but likely we would need to verify each reference and see what it refers too. A lot of the content is not very clear, and the Gashapon#Video_games section seems mostly off topic, sigh. If someone would want to merge this, I wouldn't object; I think the difference between capsule toy vending machines and gashapons is small - the latter likely would merit just a subsection. But I'd suggest merge the other way, or at least, use the "Capsule toy vending machine" name, per WP:USEENGLISH. I don't think "gashapons" is much more common, nor is it undestandable to most folks outside those who know about J-culture. GS gives gashapon 5:1 popularity, but it's just 250:50. Here, I'd prefer to use a descriptive term that folks can understand. _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 06:50, 21 June 2025 (UTC)

Note: WikiProject Japan and WikiProject Toys have been notified of this discussion. TarnishedPath^talk 12:20, 29 June 2025 (UTC)

• Merge with Gashapon, the more mature article on this topic, per Zxcvbnm. Then maybe propose a move to Capsule toy; I don't agree that the topic is the machine. Maybe propose a merger of Gashapon into Capsule toy to make it more generic, less brand-specific. Dicklyon (talk) 03:07, 30 June 2025 (UTC)
• The name certainly suggests this refers to the toys and not the machine, but the article is rather confusing. The article opens with: A capsule toy… is a type of small vending machine in Japan… but elsewhere capsule vending machine is used. The article seems to be about the toys, the capsules themselves, and the machines; it seems reasonable to discuss these all together. It's not clear to me that this is distinct from Gashapon, except that that article states it refers to a specific manufacturer. It's also not clear why this article only discusses Japan. We certainly have these in the US. If there's a special name for them, it's not coming to mind. I could support keeping the current name but cleaning up the description in the lead, or possibly a merge, with more clarity. --MYCETEAE 🍄‍🟫—talk 00:00, 7 July 2025 (UTC)

• Merge to Gashapon, clear WP:CFORK. 162 etc. (talk) 21:55, 7 July 2025 (UTC)

  @162 etc. Do you think that title would meet WP:USEENGLISH and WP:COMMONNAME? _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 06:42, 8 July 2025 (UTC)

  I am not an expert on the subject and will leave that discussion to those who are. WP:USEENGLISH and WP:COMMONNAME should definitely be considered when deciding on the best article title. 162 etc. (talk) 16:26, 8 July 2025 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Merge into Gashapon

No opinion on the matter, just opening up a discussion because of consensus above in the RM. Jeffrey34555 (talk) 06:31, 16 July 2025 (UTC)

A merge would be helpful, but, as several noted in the move discussion, WP:USEENGLISH and WP:COMMONNAME suggest that a better idea would be a merge to Capsule toy. Klbrain (talk) 17:47, 1 August 2025 (UTC)

Wouldn't WP:COMMONNAME make it gashapon if it has more results? This article is a WP:OR piece trying to explain its difference from other established articles. WP:ESTABLISHED is perhaps your main point.

• Gumball machine is really similar and it looks to have a "See also" link to gashapon.
• Candy machine → Vending machine ...maybe "bulk vending"?
• Bulk vending needs clean up and also has a "See also" link to gashapon
• Toy machine?

The "capsule toy" name is something I don't think has common usage in the US. It sounds like the English version of the term...which looking it up we have a combination of gacha + pon. We have Gacha games. Applying English here is backwards. – The Grid (talk) 17:23, 6 February 2026 (UTC)