Tomy Space-Invaders Piggy Bank video demo

The Space Invaders Piggy-Bank was one of the more recent gadgets to make us wail at not living in Japan, and just to rub it in the Akihabara team have been playing with one.  Made by Takara Tomy, the 1/6th scale table has a working game built into its lid, triggered by feeding it coins.Video demo after the cut

While Takara Tomy say you'll need a 100 Yen coin, in actual fact it will work with pretty much anything that will fit into the slot.  Altogether the piggy-bank holds 80 coins, while the game and its sound-effects require three AA batteries.

The game counter keeps track of how many coins you've pumped in, and unlike the real thing you're allowed to open it up and retrieve your money, rather than see the arcade manager pocket it all.  Still no word on a US release, but over in Japan you'll need to have saved up 5,775 Yen ($59).