Electronic bubblewrap toy

Japanese toymaker Bandai's Mugen Puchi-Puchi is a handheld electronic gizmo that makes the sound of popping bubblewrap when you press on the plastic bubbles. From Mainichi Daily News:

...Once in every 100 squeezes of an air bubble, instead of emitting a "popping" sound, the noise will be replaced by the sound of a fart or a woman moaning in ecstasy.

To avoid any embarrassing situations, Sunday Mainichi notes that Mugen Puchi Puchi's are made to automatically turn off the sound on the train, so people can squeeze their air bubbles in peace knowing that they're not going to produce any unseemly noises.

Link to Mainichi Daily News, Link to pre-order Puchi Puchi from StrapYa.com (Thanks, Paul Saffo!)

• [Peter]

  But to me the reason for popping bubble wrap isn’t the sound, it’s the feel. Unless the gadget also replicates that, it’s useless.

• [billy]

  it’s useless anyway you slice it

• [CommieNeko]

  Something like this could destroy modern civilization.

• [ernie]

  What kind of packaging does this toy come in?

• [Anonymous]

  I actually have this device. It is quite addicting and helps prevent stress. It’s almost like the real thing too. It’ll cost you $10 bucks tho. I’m trying to figure out if it will prevent other OCD acts like cracking knuckles. BanDai actually made an American version. I got the Japanese one. The package it comes in is Hilarious on the Jap version, so is the commercial which can be found on the internet. There are people on crying with joy on it. I cant read anything on it tho =).
  To answer questions: It doesn’t know if it is on a train I have no idea what you are talkin about. If you want it off put the tab that blocked the battery on the back or just take out the batteries. This does not destroy civilization, besides nobody would chuck this into a landfill =). Just order it kthx

• [Anonymous]

  yeah the feel matters too! i’ve never tried it before but i think nothing can be better than the real thing!

• [Personman]

  How does it turn itself off on trains?

• [gyusan]

  Garbage like this does destroy modern civilization. Let’s see, we have a plastic injection factory, an electronics factory, a battery factory, a packaging factory, shipping, etc. for what? Five minutes of giggles? and then it gets chucked and all that shit goes straight into the ground. Can we get any more toxic industries involved in the manufacture of anything more useless?

• [Anonymous]

  I would never buy this! What a nightmare! Don’t get me wrong, I love popping bubblewrap, but I get the biggest feeling of satisfaction and content after FINISHING the wrap. But in the case of this little device, there will be no end!

• [Ian Holmes]

  Reminds me of Red Dwarf’s “tension sheet“…

• [Moltz]

  The Japanese for the sound is “puchi-puchi!” They probably have a special counter for hemispheres full of air.

  I’ll always remember a metro ride in DC back in the late ’80s. I kept hearing this snapping sound and I finally turned around and there was this dude at the end of the car incessantly popping a big sheet of these suckers. For half an hour.

• [vrempire]

  I love playing with the original plastic when I have the chance to find one. I don’t have any idea who really get the idea to commercialized it based on the simple human behaviour. That guy must be a genius in disguise!!

• [vrempire]

  That guy who created this thing must be a genius for successfully commercializing product based on unthinkable simple human behaviour.

• [Anonymous]

  How does it know if it’s on a train?

• [strider_mt2k]

  There’s a great Palm OS application that does this as well, but I was never persistent enough with it to get any “bonus” sounds out of it!

• [Anonymous]

  The interesting part here is that this is a device that knows when it’s on the train and changes its behavior accordingly. How does it know?

  Also, it seems like the japanese like their tech a bit more polite than we do in the states.