User blog:Raidra/Awesome and/or Creepy Coin Bank

Recently I was on a website and found out about a Japanese coin bank with a face that eats coins. Some people find this bank creepy, some find it awesome, and some find it creepy and awesome. This is the video I came across, and it’s my new favorite video. http://brog.engrish.com/2014/11/12/japanese-piggy-bank/

I found out it's called a Facebank, and if you Google "Face bank" you'll find lots of articles and pictures (When I typed it into the search engine the term “face bank creepypasta” also came up, so I’m probably not the first person on here to learn about this thing). There are also a number of YouTube videos, and collectively they show the mixed reaction. Some videos have people enjoying watching the Facebank eat their spare change (One video has a guy in an office feeding it coins and then snickering as he unsuccessfully tries to feed it a bill of some kind), but on the other hand the Facebank is also listed on some creepiest children’s toys countdown videos. There’s one that shows the mixture perfectly. First someone feeds the bank a piece of chocolate (four squares in the shape of an L, like a Tetris piece). Then he sticks his finger in the Facebank’s mouth and shakes as though he’s suffering great pain. I don’t know if he’s serious or playing (I’m guessing the latter), but he gives the bank a few smacks afterward, like that will teach a mechanical device a lesson. Of course, everyone in my household agrees that he shouldn’t have stuck his finger in its mouth in the first place. If that guy keeps up then he’s going to lose a hand someday. Some of you are probably wondering, “How do you induce vomiting to get the coins back?” You don’t; there’s a door on the bottom.

The Facebank comes in many varieties and is available on both Amazon and eBay. Here's another website. http://www.japantrendshop.com/facebank-dodeka-robotic-coin-bank-p-534.html (I can’t make any statements for or against this particular site since I've never bought anything from it, but it does have a variety of Facebanks for sale.)  Even some of the sites selling these banks talk about it being creepy. One asks something to the effect of “Is it the face of a monkey, or of a demon that stares into your soul as it eats your coins for sustenance?” (For the record, my aunt described it as having eyes like a chimpanzee) Now if you'd rather have your coins stolen by a cat or by Godzilla, they have those too. http://www.japantrendshop.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=bank

I’m interested in hearing people’s thoughts about this, but let’s not make it all about the Facebank. This site has users from a variety of countries- not just the United States, but also Korea, Greece, the U.K., and other places. If you have any awesome and/or creepy coin bank stories, feel free to share them. [Note that no lewd or offensive comments (such as comments disparaging any race, ethnicity, nationality, etc.) are permitted] On the negative side, I once saw a news segment about racist coin banks from the 1800s. Yikes! On the positive side, I still have an old wind-up coin bank which has a ghoulish hand coming out of a box and pulling the coin inside. I also have a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle bank I got when I was maybe eight or nine. It originally held small cookies, and the gimmick was that after all the cookies were eaten, a parent could turn it into a coin bank by using scissors or a knife to open the slit in the back. The turtle’s head and shoulder area could be pulled off (to get to the cookies), so it could be used to store paper money and other items too. Aw, memories!