Japanese supermarket branded candy + shokugan toy premiums

In Japan, there's a long tradition of selling branded candy, snacks, and other goodies. That might be a pack of gum with Ultraman images, potato chips with Doraemon packaging, and so on. Sometimes just the package is branded, and other times there's a card, sticker, or toy inside. These "candy premiums" (aka shokugan) from companies like Glico, Meiji, and Morinaga go back many decades, making for a cool area of collecting.

The tradition continues at convenience stores, supermarkets, drug stores, and tons of other outlets. Here are images I snapped at a Tokyo supermarket.

The marketers have been hitting it hard with Kamen Rider Drive, the 25th (!!) installment in the legendary series. Interestingly, the top left of the box says "Sofubi hero." I believe this is a straight up mini toy, which you'll also see sold in supermarkets.

You can see the other figures in the series pictured.

Chococlate peanut snacks. Interestingly, this is completely Bandai branded. In the past, it was more common for companies like Bandai to pair up with snack makers. Looks like with this KR shokugan, they've driven past the competition by knocking out the middle man.

 More after the jump:

Info about a car toy promotion.

Pretty cool biscuits in the shape of the character, again with a toy car promotion.

Gummy candy

I believe these Dragonball Z snacks come with a card.

I'm not familiar with this new sentai series, which is called Shuriken Sentai Ninninja. (Isn't "Shuriken!" what Ryu said in Street Fighter?) Looks like it comes with a toy and a pack of ramune snacks. Once again, this Bandai product says "Sofubi hero" at the top.

Pokemon just won't quit. This chocolate biscuit snack comes with a sticker. (There are 24 different ones in the set.) If the biscuits taste anything like the ones that come with the Bikuriman stickers, you might be better off just collecting the stickers. Man, I tried some of those Bikuriman things...ugh....

Mario remains the Caesar of the video game branding empire.

These are chocolate eggs. I guess they come with a toy as well.

There's also a sizable section aimed at girls.

Rilakkuma towers over any pretenders to the kawaii throne.

This is Go Princess PreCure. And with that I exhaust my knowledge of the latest magical anime character. Having said that, it's an interesting genre that goes back some 50 years.

Dream Step Candy

Finally, here's an end cap featuring a straight up marketing blitz for Yokai Wochi (Yokai Watch). The Wikipedia hive mind tells me it's a video game series. Here you've got Glico, Pocky, and Bandai in the mix. Now that's a trifecta of power hitters!

Pocky makes some tasty snacks. I prefer the ones dipped in chocolate and covered with nuts, like Almond Crush.