I have this casual collection of keychain items, and the best ones always somehow come out of Japan – little adorable characters, Sound Drop devices that play a single sound from Super Mario Bros., and flashing solar-powered things, among other neatness. The most curious set of keychains to come out of Japan has been the ‘Mugen’ series.

‘Mugen’ means ‘infinite’ or ‘endless’ in Japanese – and these Mugen keychains are meant to simulate a certain feeling or experience infinitely,  usually focusing on experiences that are exhausted after one use : tearing open a new toy package (Mugen Peri Peri), popping soy beans out of their pods (Mugen Edamame), and now, popping bubble wrap with Mugen Pop Pop, which has recently entered the states via Bandai.

Of course, popping bubble wrap is something that translates to most cultures, whereas popping open soybeans isn’t something that the US does on a regular basis (though I do suggest going to your local Japanese eatery, ordering a plate of steaming edamame and trying it out!). The real question is this : is infinite bubble wrap worth $6, and does it suitably simulate bubble wrap, and does it warrant precious keychain real estate? I know that my PVC Batman mini-figure is looking fairly ragged, but I have no plans on evicting him until his thin little plastic arm gives way.

Mugen Pop Pop comes in four colors, and each has eight buttons across its face. These are pressed, and they make a clicking noise, and respond with that visceral little bubble-wrap-like ‘pop’. This has led me to analyze exactly what is it about the experience of popping bubble wrap that makes it enjoyable, and why that differs from the unique experience of this toy. Is is the louder sound of bubble wrap, or is it the very fact that bubble wrap remains defeated after it deflates, and doesn’t fight its way back into fullness?

One would also think that the general experience of a well-executed bubble wrap simulacrum would be enough, but this bubble wrap is battery powered. Two tiny batteries rest in its back, right neat a small speaker, and emit this quiet digital popping noise reminiscent of an 8-bit video game. Every 100 ‘pops’, the device also emits one of five or six alternate noises – a hiccup, a bark, a flatulent noise, and so on. If we’re going to digitize popping, we might as well add little animal noises and Hilary Duff song clips and hell, why not a button that shoots vanilla pudding at your face? That’s what bubble wrap is all about, right?

Most telling, though, is that after I put it down, I actually and genuinely picked it up again subconsciously and started popping away without realizing it – until the spell was broken by what sounded like a little digi-cat meowing at me from my hands. Popping during commercials, popping between writing paragraphs as I ponder my next hilarious and cutting observation – it’s unstoppable, and it’s a perfect little bizarre stocking stuffer, and I have little doubt that it’ll infectiously spread through the keychain owning population, and on into the younger generations who don’t have any use for keys just yet as well.

---

================

Gotta Collect? Then You Gotta Connect - Join our Collectors’ Community!

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 16th, 2008 at 2:00 am and is filed under reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.