Totally a knock-off of GeGeGe Kitaro. Twelve keshi from the Japanese toy line were copied and stuck in vending machine bubbles along with these booklets that gave re-imagined back stories to the stolen characters, purporting each to be an avatar of a shinto-esque deity with specific wish-granting powers.
From what I understand, these did not last too long in U.S. vending machines. This was not due to any copyright infringement claims, but because the themes of the books, which are obviously based on Far Eastern spiritualist concepts, frightened western adults that could not think of the word "devil" beyond the christian concept of the term. This was in the mid-late 80's when the Satanic Panic was a real media phenomenon, so it isn't hard to believe that a few complaints could have gotten such a low-level toy pulled without much fanfare.
There is one other incarnation of this "franchise" of which I am aware: Lucky Yuckies and Yuck!
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I can see where they get the "yuck" from, but am unsure as to how a head that oozes slime could be considered "lucky."
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I suppose this could be considered the second series of Lucky Yuckies, unless D.V.S. released another line with that name between 1987 and 1990.
And as far as I know, John Adams was the second president of the United States. Perhaps he wrote and illustrated these pamphlets in between correspondences with Thomas Jefferson!
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