T.G. やつきよく® Magazine for Factory Boys is a catalog of discontinued and faulty products produced by the fictional T.G. やつきよく® corporation. There’s a photograph for product, showing off their memorable branding that is cutesy verging on terrifying like the grimacing girls with X-ed out eyes on the “Uh Oh! Sick Girl” line of medicines.
Each product’s text contains a list of the product’s ingredients (the Bodega-Plus™ Black Apple Soda contains: “carbonated water, reduced jet engine oil, high fructose corn syrup, diluted silicone (as preservative), artificial flavor, citric acid, sucralose, liquid pantone yellow”) and a description of its uses (the Ok Yasuko® 18650 Collectible Battery is a “rechargeable LI-ION cell “Young Boy” fuel pack for common robotics. Internal fuel cell for cordless robots. Consumable among party robots.”)
Several of the products include horrifying warnings: the T.G. やつきよく® Rocket Cola advises consumers to contact the T.G. やつきよく® hotline “IF ANY OF THESE UNLIKELY BUT SERIOUS SIDE EFFECTS OCCUR: DIZZINESS, MENTAL/MOOD CHANGES (E.G., NERVOUSNESS, AGITATION), SHAKING (TREMOR), FAST/IRREGULAR HEARTBEAT.” And almost all the medicines, as well as a hand salve for dry skin are intended to relieve symptoms caused by “general working conditions” at a T.G. やつきよく® subsidiary factory.
T.G. やつきよく® Magazine for Factory Boys paints a picture of a hellhole of a society, where working conditions are poor, where consumer products make us sick, and where the only comforts come through the same channels that create this misery to begin with. And there’s robots, too.