My New Favorite Toys: One-Shot Bug Killer

These little robots were the stars of a Japanese manga written by Kunihiko Tanaka and published by MediaWorks. The manga, titled "Ichigeki Sacchu!! HoiHoi-san" (One-Shot Bug Killer!! Hoihoi-San) was actually aimed at young men, but it's kind of a satire on advertising, technology, and consumerism, so most people could probably read it and get something out of it. It was enough of a hit that Konami created a video game spin-off for the PlayStation 2.

The robots in the comic book, in case you haven't guessed by now, were built to kill bugs. The story begins on the premise that sometime in the future, insects have finally become immune to pesticides. So a pharmaceutical company invents a line of little robots that patrol houses and kill pests where they find them. The robots become very popular, and some people begin collecting them. To take advantage of people who collect them, the company starts designing new accessories, releasing the same robots but in different colors, and doing absurd things like selling sausages that may or may not include a robot in the package. Two other companies start making bug-killing robots to compete. The competing companies also design their robots to not just kill bugs, but also to destroy the robots of competing companies when they encounter them.

The manga mostly followed four different characters. One was a young man (with a head shaped like an eggplant) who collected the bug killing robots. The second is a young woman who works at a corner drug store that sells the robots. As might be expected, there is a romantic subplot between the two. The young man is a hopeless fan and gets into terrible debt buying robots and all the accessories. The last two main characters work at the company that make the robots. They end up having a humorous rivalry that turns especially sour when pictures of one of them dressed up in a cosplay dress show up on the Internet.

The little robots are built in the form of female dolls. They walk around with machine guns, knives, pistols, hammers, and even something resembling a chainsaw. In a video short that was produced as a spin-off, the robots are portrayed as having shoes that squeak like dog toys when the robots walk around.

Because of the popularity of the book and the video game, Japanese toy maker Kotobukiya has created some model kits so that you can have a little Hoihoi-San in your apartment. Here are some of them.

As mentioned above, the company that made these robots, in order to capitalize on collectors, released the robots in different colors. This one is an awful salmon color. It comes with a giant hammer and sake bottle for smashing insects to death, as well as an intimidating machine gun.

This is the first robot that a competing company created. As mentioned above, these robots would kill bugs too, but when they encountered a Hoihoi-San robot, they would try to destroy it as well. Collectors soon came up with a device to plug into the Combat-San robots that would keep them from destroying their Hoihoi-San robots. This model is the tactical suit version.

Later in the story, one of the engineers is hired by an American company to make yet another rival to the Hoihoi-San robot. This one is called Pest-X. It comes with a cool motorcycle that can transform into big robot arms to help the robot fight (you guessed it) the other bug killing robots.

So that explains a lot about the One-Shot Bug Killer toys, which are my new favorites! Don't miss my other hub pages about toys. I have one on Alice in Wonderland toys, another on Coraline Dolls, and a third on why dolls make such good gifts. I would be remiss if I didn't include a link to the site where I first encountered the One-Shot Bug Killer models. You should check it out! I've ordered two of these and will post some reviews when I get my hands on them.

Sayonara for now!!!