It was all cold and wintry today. Time for something cute!
We picked up these little Frog Style bank toys in Japan a couple years ago, and they’re still one of my all-time favorite toys. They came out of a capsule machine, for just about one dollar.
The tiny charming key opens the “vault.” It’s a rather sturdy mechanism, for a little plastic toy.
Playing with these again has got me thinking about knitted piggy banks…
If you can believe it, here is an even more awesome Frog Style capsule toy:
This frog tells fortunes with teeny tiny baby frogs of various colors hiding inside him, which you receive with a twist of the crank. (Sort of a meta capsule toy, if you will.)
You decode the colors into messages by the key on the back.
These frogs came in several different varieties, to tell your “work luck,” “money luck,” and “love luck,” respectively.
Check out the Frog Style website to see more cute frogs. (I love their nonsense slogan: “Can a frog save the world?”) It looks like they’re concentrating on t-shirts these days, instead of amazing capsule toys. That’s a shame, but the shirts are pretty cute too.
Knitted piggy bank? That was my idea! ;)
The frogs are really cute and I was wondering if you knew of anywhere outside of Japan I might be able to find them? I?d really like to buy one. The knitted piggy bank also sounds pretty cool too. I honestly would like to figure out a basic pattern for the frog and then knit myself a series of some of my favorites out of the frogs in their style archives and create my own. I might actually attempt it but I?m not sure I?d have a lot of success, I?ve been knitting for about three years now but I actually haven?t tried making any of my own patterns yet.
that is the BEST thing I ever saw! I wish I were Japanese.
That last frog has my name written all over it!!
Hee hee, aren’t they the coolest?
Candais, if you’re looking for these specific frogs, which I don’t believe are being made anymore, you might try e-bay. The current Frog Style frogs might be available in some specialty collector toy shops, or in an online shop for Japanese stuff, like jbox.com.
Good luck with knitting them! That would be awesome.
Sally, you are totally welcome to the piggy bank idea. Let me know if you make it!
I had some this kind of the toys frog, i bought it from Japan.
check it out my photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fifthyip/sets/72057594052768614/
If you like i can sell for you only :)
Because your are so kind to share the knitting pattern :)
Hey, you finally helped me solve the mystery of Frog Style! When I was living in Taiwan, I was puzzled by this weird sidebar that kept running during the newscasts on TV. It was labelled (in English) Frog Style and it looked like some kind of horoscope, but I couldn’t figure out what frogs had to do with it. Now I know!
I’m zipping right over to order the Uh-Ohs pattern for my upcoming baby–motivated by that adorable reindeer bonus. Thanks!
Hi! I found this blog through a Frog Style google search, so I hope no one minds me posting.. It’s so cool to see that some other people out there know what Frog Style is! I’ve been buying the keychains/DX plushes/phone straps from ebay and Anime Conventions for a while now.. They’re so cute,I can’t get enough of them! :D