Arcade Machine Coin Slots Gashapon Toys: Insert Coin to Play Anything

Modeled after the coin gobbling slots of vintage arcade machines, this Japanese gashapon (plastic toy capsule) series from Tama-Kyu features life-size realistic coin slots. They’re perfect for providing a constant reminder of just how many quarters you’ve pumped into machines over the years. My personal guess is somewhere in the tens of thousands.

The toys come in four styles: black and silver ‘light up’ models (probably the ones we’re most familiar with in the U.S.), and more traditional Japanese style black and gray flush coin slots with a return button, which also includes a faux coin return. All include an adhesive backing so you can stick them anywhere. I’m going to stick one to my forehead and pretend I’m a pinball machine!

It’s a shame that arcades aren’t as popular as they once were. I remember when I was a kid, my family would go to the mall on weekends, and I’d bee-line it straight to Time-Out. There I’d turn my weekly allowance into quarters and line them up one by one on the Street Fighter II machine, only to get my ass handed to me by an opponent much more skilled than I was while I repeatedly tried and failed to perform Chun-Li’s Spinning Bird Kick. Looking back, those were the days – I just didn’t know it at the time.

[via SoraNews24]

Solid Gold Death Star Coins: That’s No Beskar

Released by the New Zealand Mint, these 1-ounce Death Star Coins are engraved with an image of the Empire’s moon-sized superweapon on one side and Queen Elizabeth on the opposite. A nice combo. Personally, I would have gone with an Ewok on the other side to commemorate the Battle of Endor, but I wasn’t asked. I’m never asked.

Limited to an edition of 500, the 0.9999% gold coins are available for $2,900 apiece. And, with the current price of gold hovering around $1,900, you’re paying roughly a thousand extra bucks for that Death Star engraving. Should you just buy an ounce of gold, mint a coin shape, and engrave your own? I’m not here to tell you what to do, but you absolutely should, and make me one while you’re at it.

If I had the money, I would buy all five hundred of them, then slowly release them on eBay for an even steeper profit. Or end up selling them for less than I paid for them – it’s happened before. I’m not really a great investor. Take, for instance, the time I invested in a complete set of original mint-in-package Kenner Star Wars action figures from 1977, then tore them all out of their packaging and played with them in the bathtub. I… have regrets.

[via DudeIWantThat]

A Commemorative Coin to Celebrate the End of 2020

2020: it was an inextinguishable dumpster fire. And to celebrate its end/our survival, Antsy Labs is releasing this A.D. 2020: This Is Fine’ commemorative coin. Emblazoned with the year’s lowlights like the coronavirus, Australian wildfires, and murder hornets, it serves as a reminder of all the hardships we’ve overcome.

The coins are available via an already-funded Kickstarter campaign. A single coin costs $7 plus shipping ($5 to the US, $13 to Canada, $10 – $18 to Europe). I just bought a dozen, which I’ll inevitably slowly lose in the couch cushions, until, God willing, 2020 is but a distant, horrible memory.

There’s no doubt people will tell their grandchildren about the great toilet paper scare of 2020, the whole while scanning the skies for robotic drones sent to identify and extinguish human lifeforms. Ha, and you thought 2020 was bad, just wait till 2050! Not being able to find toilet paper or Lysol is going to sound like a dream you’d wish to come true.

Super Mario Coin Bank Deposits Into the Mushroom Kingdom

The currency of choice in the Mushroom Kingdom is the Gold Coin. But here in the real world, it’s pretty rare that you’ll come across coins made out of anything besides nickel, zinc, copper, or if you’re really lucky, silver. Sure, gold coins used to be common currency, but now, our coins don’t have much in the way of actual value unless you save up a whole lot of them. For Nintendo fans, this Super Mario coin bank could be a good start for your coin collection.

This small-ish piggy bank has a 3D layered effect that makes it look like your coins are dropping in-between some of the pipes, bricks, and question mark blocks from a Super Mario Bros. game level. Measuring in at just 7″ square, it’s not going to hold enough coins to purchase a new Nintendo Switch, but it might be good for collecting laundry money.

You can pre-order the Super Mario Coin Bank over at Big Bad Toy Store for $19.99, where it’s expected in stock sometime this month. I wonder if Mario or Luigi ever tried to use Koopa shells to pay for things. I know that puka shells were used as currency many years ago, so why not Koopa shells?

Admiral Ackbar Coin Purse: It’s a Trap! (for Your Money!)

One of my favorite characters in the entire Star Wars saga has to be Admiral Ackbar. Not only does he have an awesome alliterated name, he sounds like Doc Brown from Back to the Future, and looks like a giant bipedal fish. Now you can carry Ackbar with you seven days a week.

This fun coin purse is perfect for carrying all your loose change and galactic credits, and reminding you whenever something is a trap. While it’s not made from Mon Calamari skin, it is made from a soft and lovely looking faux leather.

So take command of Home One over Endor, and hyperdrive on over to ThinkGeek where you can grab this coin purse for just $19.99.

Game of Thrones Coins: GoT Money?

Game of Thrones season 7 premieres on July 16, which is only a couple weeks away. I’m both excited and annoyed at season 7 of the series. We only get seven episodes, and then we wait a year or possibly more for the next season. In preparation for the season premiere, it’s time to get your Game of Thrones decor right.

These Game of Thrones coins might be the perfect way for you to pay for your part of the pizza and beer on premiere night.These aren’t crappy plastic coins your kids might play with either, they are struck from solid brass and copper, right here in the US. Since each set of coins are individually struck, the colors and patinas will vary. You can get the coins in House Targaryen or House Stark designs.

Each set includes four coins of various denominations for $29.99(USD) per set at ThinkGeek.

Make Your Own Cardboard Coin Sorting Machine

These days you can pay for things in all kinds of electronic ways, but if you still find yourself with a bunch of coins, here is a fun way to sort them.


The Q channel shows us how to make a coin sorting machine using just cardboard, a knife, a metal ruler, and some glue. That’s it. Just build this thing, slide your coins inside and get them all sorted. This DIY tutorial video will show you how. As long as your country’s coins have different sizes, this will work perfectly.

Then you can take your sorted coins and put them away so they collect dust again. Or you know, spend them.

[via Laughing Squid]

Hollowed-Out Spy Coins

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Unless you’re getting yourself into Edward Snowden territory, we can’t quite figure out when you would need something like the Spy Coins. Still, it’s cool to know they exist and if you want to add some imaginary pizzazz to your life, we suppose there’s not harm in using them. What they do is pretty obvious: there’s a hollowed-out center in which you can easily stuff a MicroSD card. You can also easily lose a MicroSD card by accidentally using one of these to pay instead of a regular coin, so be careful. They’re about $30 each.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ ThisIsWhyImBroke ]