A Japanese precision part manufacturing factory recently went viral for its bizarre new product – a line of hammers shaped like realistic bananas.

Hiroshima-based Iron Factory Ikeda is not your typical precision metal manufacturing plant. They specialize in precision metal processing for creating original products with the potential to go viral online. Over the years, they created all sorts of geeky products, from anime-inspired robot masks, figurines, and realistic metallic replicas of various fruits and vegetables, from pineapple to broccoli, but their most popular product so far has to be the banana hammer. It has been around for a while but the company recently launched a new variant and it went viral on social media again.

In 2019, Ikeda made national headlines after launching its first banana hammer modeled after real bananas grown in the Philippines. The sheer novelty of the hammer, along with the quality of the manufacturing turned what was supposed to be a one-off prototype into a commercially viable product that you can actually buy if you’ve ever dreamed of hitting a nail with a banana.

The steel banana hammer was officially launched in 2020, with a promotional video that showcased how it could be used to hit nails into wood, and boasted that the hammer worked properly in extreme environments with temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees Celsius.

Apparently, the banana hammer was such a big hit, that Iron Factory Ikeda now sells a mini version as well modeled after a smaller banana variety. They make great paperweights as well. Both the big banana hammer and the mini version can be purchased online for 11,877 yen ($80) and 3,287 yen ($22), respectively.

Iron Factory Ikeda has been boasting on Twitter about having the biggest market share for banana hammers, making no secret of the fact that they are also the only company in the world making such a product.

 

For more unusual Japanese products, check out the ultimate ear hair tweezers and this awesome-looking sword tweezers.