Doraemon’s Missing Ears and the Furuta Choco Egg Figure

Doraemon With Ears Takecopter Figure by Furuta Seika (Choco Egg)

What This Figure Is and Where It Comes From

This small PVC figure was produced by Furuta Seika as part of their Choco Egg line — one of Japan’s most recognized shokugan, or food-toy, products. Launched in 1999, Choco Egg took the form of a foil-wrapped chocolate egg with a sealed capsule inside, and inside that capsule, a miniature collectible figure. The identity of the figure was unknown until the package was opened, making it a blind-box product by design. That uncertainty drove collectors to buy multiple units in pursuit of a complete set, and Furuta’s Doraemon series was among the most eagerly chased themes the line ever offered.

The figure depicts Doraemon posed with his Takecopter — the small bamboo-copter-style propeller that attaches to his head and lets him fly. The Takecopter is one of the most instantly recognizable gadgets in the entire franchise, appearing throughout decades of episodes and annual films, and its inclusion here grounds the figure squarely in Doraemon’s most iconic visual language.

Doraemon, His Ears, and Why This Figure Stands Apart

Doraemon began as a manga by Fujiko F. Fujio, first serialized in 1969 in Shogakukan’s children’s magazines. The story follows a robotic cat sent back from the 22nd century to help a boy named Nobita by supplying futuristic gadgets from a “four-dimensional pocket” in his belly. The television anime adaptation most widely known today began on TV Asahi in 1979, underwent a full cast renewal in 2005, and continues airing to this day. The franchise holds a firm place as one of Japan’s most recognized cultural exports, with substantial audiences across Asia and a growing following in English-speaking countries.

One piece of lore sets this particular figure apart from the vast majority of Doraemon merchandise: in the established canon, Doraemon has no ears. A mouse chewed them off when he was a newly built robot, and the resulting earless silhouette became so defining that even official franchise branding reflects it. This figure, however, shows him with ears — a design that appears in scattered early manga panels and occasional variant merchandise, but is far from the standard form. For anyone familiar with the character’s backstory, that detail registers immediately. It gives the piece a distinct identity within the broader world of Doraemon collectibles.

Furuta Seika and Japan’s Food-Toy Boom

Furuta Seika was founded in 1952 and is headquartered in Osaka. Their Choco Egg series arrived at the height of Japan’s food-toy boom, a period in the late 1990s and early 2000s when manufacturers competed to pack increasingly detailed figures into confectionery packaging. Quality rose sharply during those years, and Choco Egg figures drew notice even from adult collectors who had no particular interest in the chocolate itself. The Doraemon figures in the line were officially licensed products, manufactured under agreement with Fujiko Pro and TV Asahi. The exact release wave this figure belongs to is difficult to pin down, but based on the Choco Egg line’s active period, production most likely dates to somewhere in the late 1990s through the early 2000s.

Because Choco Egg was sold exclusively in Japan in limited production runs, and because individual figures were only available through the blind-box format at the time of sale, obtaining a specific figure today means turning to the secondary market. Examples in good condition from that era have naturally grown harder to find as the years accumulate.