SD Gundam, Dragon Ball Lead Bandai Carddass Mini 35th Anniversary Machines

Bandai is celebrating the 35th anniversary of its “Carddass” card vending machine line. To commemorate the occasion, it opened pre-orders for a special set of Carddass Mini replica vending machines. The line consists of three specially designed machines based on Dragon Ball, SD Gundam, and Battle Spirits cards. The machines are sold separately via the Premium Bandai website in Japan, and each costs 8,800 Yen (about $67 USD). [Thanks, Famitsu!]

The 35th Anniversary Carddass Mini machines are small, desktop-scale replicas of the original Carddass 20 machine. Each is decorated with art based on its series. Buyers actually need to put two 10 Yen coins (or two of the special 10 Yen-sized coins included in the set) in order to turn the handle and extrude a card. Each machine comes with a set of blank white cards. The cards can be decorated or used as the buyer wishes, such as for parties or fortune-telling.

Each Carddass Mini machine also includes an exclusive card replicating a rare or popular card once served by the original device. The Dragon Ball machine includes a card showing Son Gohan learning the Kamehameha. The SD Gundam machine includes a card of the RX-93 ν Gundam. The Battle Spirits machine includes a copy of The DragonEmperor Siegfried, the game’s very first X-Rare card.

Bandai first created Carddass in 1988 with the “Carddass 20” machine. The name of the line was originally inspired by the AMeDAS, the Japan Meteorological Agency’s weather data gathering system. Just as AMeDAS was a “source” of weather info, Bandai wanted its card vending system to be a source of character info. It also reworked the name into a portmanteau of the English “card” and the Japanese word “dasu” (“to put out”). The machines were used to sell trading and collectible cards akin to baseball cards overseas. They also sold cards for use in collectible card games, including Bandai’s own Battle Spirits game.

The 35th Anniversary Carddass Mini machines are available for pre-order in Japan.