I would never think of judging someone for collecting things like that (I've spent the last week or 2 making a phaser model from Star Trek, I'm not in a position to judge!).

It's just, who would have ever come up with that? Who would think "you know what people will buy? Tiny gas canisters!"

Yeah, Japan has some weird gachapon machines. Anime characters, game characters, even bugs, and cars I understand. But they'll have ones with replicas of food or random work equipment. And not just one or two of them, loads of the fucking things!