My passing obsession: Fuchiko on the cup

Ten years ago, before Pop Mart and NFTs were a thing, I went through a phase where I was hooked on blind boxes. I had just finished my master’s degree and moved to Japan to chase my dreams, and I kept spending my modest salary on all kinds of blind box figures.

Out of everything I collected, my favorite was Fuchiko on the Cup (コップのフチ子), which was huge in Japan at the time.

Fuchiko is a tiny girl figure designed to hang on the rim of a cup. The basic version is an office lady outfit, but they kept releasing new ones. At just 200 yen per pull, there was zero psychological barrier. It was dangerously easy to get addicted.

What drew me to her was how neutral she was. Not trying to be cute. Not trying to be sexy. Just a girl with no expression on her face.

Each series had 7 types. Once you accidentally had a few, you’d want to complete the set. And once you completed one series, you’d want the next.

Even better, each series had a so-called ultra-rare “Secret” figure. Just hearing the word “rare” made me need to have it.

To get the Secrets, I eventually stopped pulling blind boxes altogether. Instead, I’d buy complete sets online at a premium (roughly the price of 12-20 individual pulls). Whenever a new series dropped, I bought the whole thing. I even bid on rarer ones at auction. I ended up with over 200 figures. Spent tens of thousands of yen in total, probably two or three months of my salary at the time.

I fantasized that someday Fuchiko would become valuable like some kind of antique, and my collection would be worth a fortune. Like luxury watches or handbags. (But luxury watches don’t actually appreciate.)

At the same time, both my parents are collectors, so I’d told myself since childhood to never collect anything. Cash and index funds are king! Fuchiko figures were tiny and didn’t take up space, but spending my hard-earned money on them still made me feel stupid. I kept asking myself, “What am I even doing?”

Inspired by my obsession, I pitched an app idea at work: overseas users could pull blind boxes on their phone, see the result instantly, and “return” duplicates at a discount. Once they’d pulled enough, everything would ship at once via international logistics, saving on shipping costs.

I thought it was a genius idea. The company had the logistics network and partnerships with all the blind box makers. But the higher-ups weren’t interested. They just wanted to be the Amazon for foreigners buying Japanese toys. That experience planted a seed in me: someday I’d build things on my own terms. (Long live indie creation!)

I was really into portrait photography back then, but being shy, I couldn’t find a girlfriend. So I started photographing my Fuchiko collection instead. Little did I know this made me even less attractive to women. キモい! (Gross!)

For about two months at the end of 2015, I carried a few Fuchiko figures in my pocket every time I left the house. Whenever I found a good scene in Tokyo, I’d pull them out and shoot.

I even created a dedicated Instagram account. I honestly thought my photos were better than the bigger Fuchiko accounts at the time, but I couldn’t get any traction. And I was too lazy to promote it.

Eventually the fever broke. I realized this was something you could never finish buying. A few months later I found a girlfriend, and the Fuchiko collection was sealed away in a drawer. I deleted the Instagram account.

I only take them out when I move. Can’t bring myself to throw them away. They’ve followed me from one country’s drawer to another country’s drawer. When I was getting ready to move to Malaysia, I looked them up out of curiosity. Nobody talks about them anymore.

I haven’t taken photos in years. My camera is collecting dust.

Now the bigger Fuchiko figures sit on the bookshelf behind me as background decor. The kids play with them. Maybe someday the 200+ smaller ones can be passed down as family heirlooms. Toys for the next generation.

Or maybe one day, when I finally own a house, the obsession will come back and I’ll build a display case for all of them.

P.S. I just wanted to test my new Cloudflare R2 setup with this post. Maybe I’ll start adding more photos from now on?

Alex Hsu

Indie developer, AI music miner, aspiring writer, ADHD.
Documenting my journey of personal growth and the pursuit of simplicity.