【明報專訊】The Smarties are in great danger! They have become capsule toys (扭蛋玩具) trapped in a vending machine. Eason is taking capsule toys out one by one!

Vending machines that dispense capsule toys are very popular in Japan and Hong Kong. Put in small round-shaped plastic capsules, such toys are often licensed figures from popular comics like Disney, Pokemon and Sanrio series. Most capsule toys are released in sets and each set consists of a number of items to be collected. Consumers can obtain the toys they want from vending machines only by luck.

In Hong Kong, to get a capsule toy from a vending machine, a consumer may either insert coins into it or pay with his or her Octopus card. Many shops have recycle boxes for collecting plastic capsules.

■Game

Three capsule toys are left in the vending machine. One of them is a metal key chain; the other two are plastic key chains. Bill is the first to draw, MoMo the second, and Pat the third. Who has the highest chance of drawing the metal keychain?

(See the picture)

(answers on the next text)

■ Vocab Cards﹕Collect them all!

collector (n) 收藏家

out of stock (n phr) 缺貨

lucky (adj) 幸運的

draw (v) 抽出

■Glossary

vending machine (n) 自動售貨機

dispense (v) 分發

plastic (n) 塑膠

license (v) 特許

《Smarties》