How Doraemon’s Giant Robot Became a Choco Egg Figure

Doraemon and Zandacross: Furuta Choco Egg Movie Selection 2

What the Choco Egg Format Actually Is

These figures come from Furuta Confectionery’s Choco Egg line — a format where a chocolate egg-shaped shell conceals a plastic capsule, and the capsule contains a miniature figure. The “Movie Selection” variant within that line was dedicated to characters and machines drawn from Doraemon’s theatrical films, and Movie Selection 2 was the second release in that sub-series. The figures are rendered in chibi style — compact, exaggerated proportions — mounted on rounded bases. The lineup includes Doraemon himself, the blue cat-robot defined by his red collar and yellow bell, and Zandacross, the large humanoid robot from one of the most recognized films in the franchise.

Zandacross and the 1986 Film Behind the Figure

Zandacross originates from Doraemon: Nobita and the Steel Troops (1986), the seventh theatrical Doraemon film. In that story, Nobita and his friends discover and reassemble a dormant giant robot, which becomes central to the plot as the children confront an invading mechanical army. Zandacross’s design — a humanoid frame in white, with red shoulder armor and blue-tinted limbs — gave it one of the more striking silhouettes among the franchise’s run of theatrical mechs. The film left enough of a cultural impression that it was remade in 2011 as The New Nobita and the Steel Troops: Winged Angels, carrying Zandacross forward to a new generation of viewers. That continuity across 25 years is part of why the robot holds a recognized place within the Doraemon universe even today, standing out among the many one-film mechanical designs the series has produced.

Shokugan: Japan’s Food-Toy Collecting Culture

The word shokugan — a contraction of “shokuhin gangu,” meaning food toy — names a Japanese product category in which candy, gum, or chocolate is sold alongside a small collectible, with the toy isolated inside a capsule to meet food safety standards. Furuta Confectionery launched its Choco Egg line’s animal collection in 1999, and the format expanded from there into licensed characters and franchises. Many releases used a random-insert system: buyers didn’t know which figure they’d receive until the chocolate was opened. That uncertainty fed collecting habits, since completing a full set required multiple purchases. The Movie Selection line brought that same structure to Doraemon’s theatrical universe, covering characters and mechanical designs that routine merchandise rarely featured in miniature form.

Furuta’s Choco Egg series built a reputation for solid sculpt quality within the shokugan category. Production on older series like Movie Selection 2 has since ended, and physical stock outside Japan is limited — these were domestic products sold through Japanese convenience stores and supermarkets, not goods intended for export. For collectors outside Japan, much of Furuta’s output has stayed effectively out of reach simply because the listings where it circulates are almost entirely in Japanese. Doraemon’s recognition across Asia and beyond, combined with the specific SF appeal of the Steel Troops film and its mechanical lead, makes figures like these a natural point of interest for fans who encountered the franchise anywhere in the world.