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The story
Reports have piled up on 5ch that the printed designs on prizes from Bandai Spirits’ “Ichiban Kuji Splatoon” lottery — including glass cups — easily peel off when hand-washed or run through a dishwasher.
The thread filled up with photos showing the peeling in action, and opinions split over whether the blame lies with Bandai Namco, who manufactured the goods, or Nintendo, the IP holder.
What people said
Yeah, dishwasher damage — there's no defending that
The Splatoon ones are unusually low quality.
Like, egregiously bad
And Nintendo somehow manages to sink even lower than that
Come on, a peeling label doesn't mean it's trash
Is this actually Nintendo's fault though?
Ichiban Kuji is run by Bandai Spirits.
Funny how past sets, like the "Kojake" plush toys (a Splatoon character item), got nothing but praise
It peels even when you hand-wash it
Shueisha >>>>>>>>> Nintendo
This one's on Bandai Namco though
They caught flak over Kamen Rider goods too — they've been cutting corners hard lately
And even if the sample passed inspection, it's not unusual for mass production to turn out defective
It's just a slapped-on sticker job — they should've caught that at the sample stage
They're not taking manufacturing seriously at all
Bandai Namco makes these within the budget Nintendo sets, so ultimately the responsibility is all on Nintendo
Wait, do you mean "foam Splatoon"? lol (a mocking nickname for the game's bubbly, soap-like visuals)
Really built with everyday use in mind, huh
All they had to do was hand over the licensed artwork to print onto mass-produced glass cups
Seriously, this
That's a problem, but the bigger issue is Nintendo not checking at all
Nintendo should issue an official apology and hold a press conference
This is way too low quality
Seriously, this
Nintendo, please actually explain yourselves
Feel bad for the people who bought these
Wish they'd make goods featuring Inkling girls or the humanoid characters instead
I kind of think making the prizes this underwhelming is intentional
Just being Nintendo merch is enough to draw scalpers, which drives up competition
I love Splatoon too, but with a lineup like this I don't feel like I need to force myself to draw
The Ichiban Kuji cups I bought back in the day weren't this flimsy
I've still got a glass cup I won from the K-On! Ichiban Kuji
Been washing it in the dishwasher like normal and it's still going strong
Forget hand-washing, this garbage peels just from opening the package lmaooo
This isn't even "low quality," it's on a whole other level lmaooo
Nintendo needs to apologize and recall these already
Apparently soaking it makes it peel even easier
Makes me nervous whether even condensation droplets could peel it
Re: #74
Seriously?
There were a few people who said they used a dishwasher and it was fine, but who knows
It's confirmed Bandai Namco is at fault
As for Nintendo, if they were kept in the dark about it, there's no way for them to have known
Background and Key Points
Splatoon’s Ichiban Kuji (“Number One Lottery”) is Bandai Spirits’ long-running lottery-merchandise format, sold in convenience stores and hobby shops across Japan: fans pay per draw for a chance at exclusive prizes, with premium items like glass cups typically reserved for higher tiers. Bandai Namco (the manufacturing arm) produces the goods under license from Nintendo, which owns the Splatoon IP. This division of labor — Nintendo licenses, Bandai Namco/Spirits manufactures and sells — is the crux of the dispute, since it means quality-control failures don’t automatically implicate the IP holder.
The thread’s actual fault line wasn’t whether the peeling glass cups were defective (everyone agreed they were) but who should be held responsible for it. Some posters pinned it squarely on Bandai Namco as the manufacturer, pointing to similar recent complaints about their Kamen Rider merchandise as evidence of a broader quality slide. Others argued responsibility traces back to Nintendo regardless, either because Nintendo sets the production budget Bandai Namco has to work within, or because Nintendo should have caught the flaw when approving pre-production samples.
What the thread doesn’t address is that sample-approval and mass-production runs are separate stages with separate quality risks — a poster raised this once (a passed sample doesn’t guarantee defect-free mass output) but the point didn’t shape the discussion further. Readers unfamiliar with Ichiban Kuji’s licensing structure may also assume Nintendo directly manufactures these prizes, when in practice IP holders in these lottery deals usually have limited visibility into the contracted factory’s actual production process.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Geha)) thread「[Sad News] Splatoon Ichiban Kuji Prizes: Reports of Peeling Prints Keep Coming In」.
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