Yo-kai Medals (merchandise)

In real life, Yo-kai Medals are available as collectable toys. They're either found in blind packs, gasha machines (only in Asia), or bundled with Yo-kai Watch toys. On the back, there is a QR code that can be read in the game to obtain coins that can be used in the Crank-a-kai or special key items that would allow the player to fight certain Yo-kai.

The Yo-kai Watch is also available as a real-life toy, and can be used to insert Yo-kai Medals. If one of them is inserted, the Watch will act if it is summoning a Yo-kai by playing the tribe song and the Yo-kai's name will be said. The Medal can be taken out of the Watch at any time, and can be stored in a real-life Yo-kai Medallium.

Asian Medals
Yo-kai Medals that are sold in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, or English-speaking countries like Singapore and Hong Kong are all manufactured by Bandai. They first came out in Japan around early 2014, when the animated series was making it's debut and when the first set of regular medals were released throughout the year.

They became a big selling point when Yo-kai Watch 2 was released in Japan, causing Bandai to expand the franchise into other Asian countries. Medals were released in South Korea in 2015, with the Japanese names being replaced with several Korean ones.

Ever since the success, Bandai has gone on to reprint the first two sets of Yo-kai Medals, with fan-selected Yo-kai getting holo variants and released two types of Medals in 2016 to coincide with the release of the Yo-kai Watch Model U.

Western Medals


Yo-kai Medals sold in North America, Europe, Oceania and Middle Eastern territories were manufactured by Hasbro before being discontinued in the summer of 2018. They were released in line with the Yo-kai Watch anime and video game back in Winter 2015, and has grown to expand in other international territories. Unlike Medals released in Asia, those types emit the name of the Yo-kai so it could function properly with other-language watches.

In Fall 2016, Hasbro released their version of Z Medals, going by the name of "Yo-motion". It allows the Model Zero watch to display holographic animations of the Yo-kai that was being summoned by the watch, after the tribe summoning song was played. In North America, the Yo-motion Medals only lasted for two sets but four more were sold in France, Spain and Italy.

In Spring 2018, An upgrade to Yo-motion technology known as "Yo-motion X2" was released only in Europe. It features a version of the U Medals, which are now colored blue likely to distinguish between the green Yo-motion Medals.

Unlike Japanese and Korean Medals, Hasbro-manufactured Medals are not compatible with Japanese watches, nor Asian Medals are compatible with Hasbro-manufactured Medals. This is due to the medals themselves having a different bump pattern at the bottom, as both medal types cannot completely go inside the watch.

Yo-kai Watch Apps


To coincide with the release of Hasbro's Yo-kai Watch merchandise, an application for iOS and Android devices called Yo-kai Watch Land was released. On the App, QR codes can be scanned, which would allow to take augmented-reality pictures of Yo-kai and view 3D Wiki entries for them. It would eventually end up being taken off the app store on December 31, 2018 due the discontinuation of Hasbro-produced merchandise in western territories.

Like in the Japanese version, Yo-kai Watch: Wibble Wobble could read Yo-kai Medals direct from the Yo-kai Watch Land app. The more medals that are read, the more the player could exchange them for new titles and profile icons.

Criticism
The western release of Yo-kai Medals was met by controversy and criticism by fans and collectors because of poor stock issues, region-restricted Yo-kai Medals or lack of demand.

In the first game, only Hasbro-produced medals can be scanned via a QR Code, leaving the Gemnyans completely unobtainable for some time without hacking. In 2016, Hasbro released a limited-edition set involving the five Gemnyan Medals, which caused controversy in the fandom due to the high price and limited availability. Later, the Gemnyan QR Codes were officially distributed on the internet by Hasbro themselves and the second game now accepts QR Codes from their Asian counterpart as Yo-motion Medals share the same ones.

More issues arose when the second season of Yo-kai Watch Medals were released, going by the moniker of of "Yo-motion". The Medals didn't sell enough to warrant a Series 3 and Series 4 release to come out in North America, leaving the overall collection incomplete, and the brand to be discontinued in North America around late 2016. The artwork on the Medals were also criticised for being down-scaled to make room for the Yo-motion circles.

By the time Series 3 and Series 4 Yo-motion came out in France, Spain and Italy, they were produced in limited quantities to the point of the Medals themselves going for high prices on auction sites. It was unknown if a second printing happened with the sets.

At the beginning of 2018, the western version of the Yo-kai Watch Model U was released in France, Spain and Latin America only with no English-language support. While the Yo-motion feature was upgraded, the SD Card slot was completely removed from the product. The voices were also different from the ones in the anime or games and some of the summoning songs had the exact sames as the Model Zero.

All of this lead to negative reception from fans, especially in Europe. The Hasbro Yo-kai Watch brand was discontinued in summer 2018. When Yo-kai Watch Blasters was released, the official Yo-kai Watch Twitter confirmed that they would be giving out QR codes on their profile from that point on.