Hasta La Gadget!

It’s clear that we love piggy banks in Japan. Not only have the Japanese, through sheer force of personal financial responsibility (or fear of going broke), managed to save money even in 20 years of near zero interest rates, but they have fun doing it as well!

This latest offering from Takara Tomy is a nice retro version of the classic tabletop Space Invaders game. Yes, Space Invaders has been huge in the last year due to the game’s 30th anniversary and has been celebrated in a number of items from fashion to alarm clocks.

The bank is unique in that it’s strikingly similar to the full-scale original in detail, and also has an LCD screen that acts as coin counter. Since it only takes 100 yen coins, each one lights up the screen and adds another invader to the tally. After 80 coins it’s time to empty out the machine and start all over.

It may not help you manage your finances, but after filling it up once you will have saved nearly twice as much as it cost. Sometimes nothing beats the old coffee can, but that’s not nearly as fun.