Totodile’s Banpresto Prize Eraser and Japan’s Arcade Culture

Banpresto Pokemon Hexagon Eraser Featuring Totodile

An Arcade-Exclusive Eraser From the Early Pokemon Era

The item is exactly what it sounds like, and that directness is part of what makes it interesting: a hexagonal eraser — six-sided in cross-section — encased in a bright green paper wrapper printed with Pokemon franchise artwork. The wrapper displays the text “POCKET MON,” an abbreviation that appeared frequently on early Pokemon merchandise and points to the item’s origins in the franchise’s initial expansion years. The top face of the eraser itself is yellow, and the wrapper illustration shows Totodile in a lively open-mouthed pose, consistent with how the character was typically depicted on goods of this period.

Crucially, this was never a retail product. The wrapper carries a “prize use only” designation, indicating it was manufactured specifically for distribution through Japanese arcade crane games — the claw machines known internationally through the UFO Catcher name that became a defining fixture of Japanese game centers through the 1990s. The manufacturer is Banpresto, whose name and logo appear on the wrapper.

Banpresto, Prize Culture, and the Distribution Gap

Through the 1990s and into the early 2000s, Banpresto was one of the major suppliers in Japan’s arcade prize goods market. The company held licenses for a wide range of popular franchises — Pokemon, Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, One Piece, and others — producing merchandise specifically for game center operators rather than general retail. Prize goods moved through an entirely separate distribution channel: players obtained them by winning crane game rounds, not by buying them in a shop. At the time, obtaining one outside Japan required being there in person; the items simply did not flow through international retail or export channels in any organized way.

Banpresto no longer exists as an independent entity. The company was absorbed into the Bandai Namco group and the brand was retired. Products still carrying the Banpresto name on their packaging belong to a specific, bounded chapter of Japanese licensing history, which is part of what gives them their identity as objects.

Totodile and the Johto Generation

Totodile — Japanese name Waninoko, Pokedex No. 158 — is the Water-type starter from Pokemon Gold and Silver, which launched in Japan in November 1999. A bipedal blue crocodile with a yellow diamond pattern on its belly, Totodile was one of three starter choices for the Johto region games, and the character later appeared alongside the anime’s main cast. As one of the franchise’s original second-generation starters, Totodile holds a recognized place in Pokemon history.

For many international fans, Gold and Silver defined their early Pokemon experience — the games arrived in North America in 2000 and 2001, making Johto the formative generation for an entire wave of players who are now adult collectors. The graphic style of this eraser — the “POCKET MON” lettering, the vivid green wrapper, the illustration approach — places it squarely in the moment when the franchise’s visual identity was still taking shape. Japan had a long-established culture of character-branded erasers as collectible stationery goods; this item sits within that tradition while being tied specifically to the arcade prize system that kept goods like it out of reach for most buyers outside Japan at the time.