- Japan’s Gachapon machines now offer detailed miniature rack server collectibles
- Each 1/12 scale server model replicates real brands like Cisco, Dell and A10
- They feature tiny cables, ports, fans, and stackable racks, but they’re only toys
If you live in the United States or the UK, you’re probably familiar with vending machines in grocery stores and shopping malls that dispense tiny toys or collectibles in plastic capsules. You insert your money, turn the handle, and out pops a prize, typically something like bouncy balls, fidget toys, collectible characters, and so on.
Japan offers something similar, but with genuinely desirable products that are of far better quality. Gachapon machines are a part of everyday life there and can be found everywhere, including train stations, shopping centers, arcades, and even on the sidewalk. The name Gachapon comes from two Japanese sounds: “gacha,” the cranking of the machine’s handle, and “pon,” the sound the capsule makes when it drops.
These machines offer an enormous range of themed products. As you’d expect from Japan, they include everything from the cute and quirky to the oddly specific or completely bizarre, including tiny versions of animals, people, food, or characters from anime and manga. MiniMachines recently spotted Gachapon machines (via @Kalleboo) dispensing miniature rack servers.
Just like the real thing
The rack servers don’t serve any practical purpose – you can’t actually use them, so banish any ideas you might have of creating a shoebox-sized data center – but the attention to detail is remarkable.
Made for collectors “aged 15 and up”, each “Palm-Sized Network Device” is just 105mm tall and built to a 1/12 scale. The server blades are only a few millimeters thick and are modeled after real products from Dell, Cisco, A10 Networks, Furukawa Electric, and Fortinet. You can build them, take them apart, and connect the different elements. Ethernet ports, cables, rack-mount cooling systems, power strips, logos, vents, and other details are all meticulously replicated.
If you happen to be in Japan and you’re lucky enough to find a Gachapon machine offering these, you can get the tiny rack server of your dreams for 500 yen each (about $3.50). Keep an eye on eBay too though as Gachapon collections do get sold there, but you’ll pay a premium.
They may not do anything, but for IT enthusiasts or anyone who loves oddly specific, incredibly detailed miniatures, they’re weirdly tempting. I’m not much of a collector personally, but these might just change that.
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