Toy Hunting in Tokyo

[cjefferys]

Hey, that's great that you got to hit that toy show after all, Ed! How much was that Tsukuda Alien, more or less than the 9500 I paid for mine? Guess you're getting ready today for the loooong trip back to Canada.

I just woke up and will be battling jet lag today (back to work tomorrow!), I was awake for nearly 30 hours by the time I finally made it back home (90 minute drive to Narita airport from Yokohama, 12 hour flight, then nearly 2 hour drive home from Toronto airport, plus the various periods of waiting in between). Whew! I'll start posting some pics later today. Have a safe flight home Ed!

[cjefferys]

My wife is still in Japan with our camera, but I managed to save some pics to bring back with me.

Ed and I hit Mandarake in Shibuya last Friday, and they have really relaxed their policy regarding photos. This time I saw other folks snapping pictures blatantly in full view of the employees, so I whipped out my camera and finally took my first photos inside the store after nearly 15 years of regularly visiting the place!

Here's an outside pic I took last year. A cool, steampunk looking entrance that really gives no idea of what awaits inside:



After that, you decend four dimly lit flights of stairs into the sub-basement of the building. And then you enter a huge labyrinth of shelves filled with books, manga, toys, DVDs and much more. Nothing can prepare you for it, it's a vast maze. I lost Ed several times! Here's what's down there:





[img]









Close ups of some cabinets:









Some US toys:






And if you like manga, they have countless rows of shelves like this:

[cjefferys]

After Shibuya, we took a short train ride to Harajuku, the home of Hot Toys' headquarters, and their flagship store, Toy Sapiens. It's more like a toy museum than a store:












Ed took waaaay more pics than I did, so I'm sure he will share much more when he gets back home.

[samurainoir]

Hey, that's great that you got to hit that toy show after all, Ed! How much was that Tsukuda Alien, more or less than the 9500 I paid for mine? Guess you're getting ready today for the loooong trip back to Canada.

currently on a 5 hour layover at the Washington Airport. likely won't be home until after midnight.

Yeah, it was at the Science Museum adjacent to the Emperor's Palace/Gardens. Lucked out totally... the garden was on Jen's list of things to do on "her" day (and we still managed to hit the temple in Asakusa, and all the fun stuff out in Odaiba as well0. My wife is a very understanding and patient woman. That was the fourth straight day of toy shopping. My budget is blown for the rest of the year.

Tsukuda Alien was only 4800! Boy was I tempted, I already have him, but the box on this one was much nicer.

Hot Toys '66 Batman and Robins were only 1500 yen each ($150). I'm currently waddling around the airport with three HUGE carry on packages.

[cjefferys]

currently on a 5 hour layover at the Washington Airport. likely won't be home until after midnight.

Ack! That's terrible! Now I know why we always take the direct Air Canada flight from Toronto (even though it isn't cheap). Could you imagine dealing with the long trans-Pacific flight along with two little kids, then you have to wait with them at an airport for several hours before another several hour flight back home (and in my case a min. 90 minute drive after that). Impossible! Hope time doesn't go too slowly for you man!

Yeah, it was at the Science Museum adjacent to the Emperor's Palace/Gardens. Lucked out totally... the garden was on Jen's list of things to do on "her" day (and we still managed to hit the temple in Asakusa, and all the fun stuff out in Odaiba as well0. My wife is a very understanding and patient woman. That was the fourth straight day of toy shopping. My budget is blown for the rest of the year.

Tsukuda Alien was only 4800! Boy was I tempted, I already have him, but the box on this one was much nicer.

Crap, I wish I hadn't asked! That's great that you managed to hit the show, it looks like it was a good one. I would have totally went with you, if only I had known I would have scheduled one more day for my trip. Oh well...

Oh man, don't tell me that those King Kong header cards were also for sale along with the keychains. So in my wheelhouse!

Hot Toys '66 Batman and Robins were only 1500 yen each ($150). I'm currently waddling around the airport with three HUGE carry on packages.

Congrats, glad you were able to pick them up, they look great! Somehow I managed to fit all my acquisitions into two hard shell suitcases, I didn't think it could be done, but my wife has Tetris-like packing powers. She even managed to get most of my clothes and some of her stuff in there as well, and they also still came out under the airline weight limit!

[Saroyan]

Oh my........I can't believe those pictures.....I would........ some of those stores......just.....I mean......wha......wow.

[Confessional]

Sweet mothership of godhead toy madness!!! Kneel down and make offerings at the gateway of vintage sofvi. Damn!

[samurainoir]

Ack! That's terrible! Now I know why we always take the direct Air Canada flight from Toronto (even though it isn't cheap). Could you imagine dealing with the long trans-Pacific flight along with two little kids, then you have to wait with them at an airport for several hours before another several hour flight back home (and in my case a min. 90 minute drive after that). Impossible! Hope time doesn't go too slowly for you man!

Crap, I wish I hadn't asked! That's great that you managed to hit the show, it looks like it was a good one. I would have totally went with you, if only I had known I would have scheduled one more day for my trip. Oh well...

Oh man, don't tell me that those King Kong header cards were also for sale along with the keychains. So in my wheelhouse!


Congrats, glad you were able to pick them up, they look great! Somehow I managed to fit all my acquisitions into two hard shell suitcases, I didn't think it could be done, but my wife has Tetris-like packing powers. She even managed to get most of my clothes and some of her stuff in there as well, and they also still came out under the airline weight limit!

Yeah, I couldn't imagine putting two young kids through this.

I'm currently snug in a Hilton hotel suite near Dulles airport, that is literally 8 times larger than my double occupancy hotel in Tokyo. Still doesn't quite make up for 9 hours of hell in the airport. But since I went on Jen's points, I probably can't complain too much.

If we do this again next year, we can see if the universe aligns to schedule around this show... it really was a good one for a bit of everything. Vinyl/Art Toys were huge there, but vintage and others were plentiful too. At pretty good prices. Some real deals to be found at the show compared to the shops, which undoubtably have huge overhead with the crazy rent in Tokyo.

Yeah... I should have gone back and asked how much for the Kong keychians w/card. I picked up that King Kong vinyl in baggie for twenty bucks.

[samurainoir]

This piece proved a HUGE temptation for me at the toyshow... $200/20000 yen. I already have the vinyl figure, but imagine a utility belt that FIRES MISSILES!

[EmergencyIan]

So much eye candy! Thanks for sharing.

Great Gatchaman (Battle of the Planets) stuff there. Wow!

Love that Takara Spectreman. I think that's the same brand Spectreman I had a few years back in the Deluxe (DX) version.

That and the Battle of the Planets stuff is really nostalgic to me.

- Ian

[mahseer]

Ghetto prince!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cjefferys]

If we do this again next year, we can see if the universe aligns to schedule around this show... it really was a good one for a bit of everything. Vinyl/Art Toys were huge there, but vintage and others were plentiful too. At pretty good prices. Some real deals to be found at the show compared to the shops, which undoubtably have huge overhead with the crazy rent in Tokyo.

Yeah... I should have gone back and asked how much for the Kong keychians w/card. I picked up that King Kong vinyl in baggie for twenty bucks.

I will almost certainly be back in Japan next spring, so if we can arrange something around this show it would be great. That was a great price on that Onda bagged vinyl Kong, glad you picked it up.

I really scratched my "Alien" itch this trip, not something I was really expecting, but you can never predict what you will end up finding. It was great toy shopping with you, sir!

[samurainoir]

So much eye candy! Thanks for sharing.

Great Gatchaman (Battle of the Planets) stuff there. Wow!

Love that Takara Spectreman. I think that's the same brand Spectreman I had a few years back in the Deluxe (DX) version.

That and the Battle of the Planets stuff is really nostalgic to me.

- Ian

I'm basically a BotP/Gatchaman and Superheroes Collector when it comes down to it, and boy was it hard to stay on track (and on budget) with all the other cool stuff.

If I hadn't of picked up (actually my wife picked them up as early birthday/anniversary gifts) the Hot Toys 66 Batman and Robin, they also had terrific prices on the Fewture Gatchaman ships at the Fewture booth at the toy show. Those were really hard to pass up at 9800 yen (less than a hundred bucks... I have yet to see any that low on ebay)











I got this Jinpei/Keyop Vinyl for about fifty bucks at the show... probably overpaid given how scuffed and dirty he was, but it's so hard to find any vintage Gatchaman stuff that isn't Ken/Mark, I had to jump on it. Still had the vinyl cape at least.



and boy was this an... INTERESTING shop at Nakano Broadway, to say the least! Chris and I could barely move around in this store, so we can only imagine how our much larger toy brethren around these parts would fare in there. Again, probably overpaid... especially for the small Mark/Ken vinyl, which i'm guessing isn't vintage at all (in the 70's/80's sense). Jun/Princess figures are missing their capes, and kind of worn.

[samurainoir]

I will almost certainly be back in Japan next spring, so if we can arrange something around this show it would be great. That was a great price on that Onda bagged vinyl Kong, glad you picked it up.

I really scratched my "Alien" itch this trip, not something I was really expecting, but you can never predict what you will end up finding. It was great toy shopping with you, sir!

I FINALLY made it out of the Dulles airport, more or less intact after the short one hour flight and subsequent 18 hours of much needed sleep!

As fun as it was, it was also equally exhausting too! To be honest, I wasn't sure I had the endurance for a FOURTH day of Toy shopping... the three previous days had felt like a Marathon... leg cramps and all. But once that toy-hunting adrenaline starts in, I was fine until we starting hiking around the Emperor's Garden afterwards (carrying bags of toys). Although I think you are about on-par as well, since you went to the Osaka Mandarake the day prior to meeting up with me! Did they still have their "no cameras" signs up at that location I wonder? Would have loved to have seen pictures of that location.

It's totally true, you never know what you are going to end up with... I was certain at the start of our toy hunt that the Big Boxes you were lugging home would be Jumbo Machinders or Godzillas instead. Can't wait to see your toy-room next with the new Aliens in place!

Really surprised that there weren't more Jumbos at the show... I saw these beat up ones, but they wanted a few hundred for them, missing arms etc.


Totally forgot to pick these up! I was going to go back for them. ah well. Can't get everything.

[cjefferys]

As fun as it was, it was also equally exhausting too! To be honest, I wasn't sure I had the endurance for a FOURTH day of Toy shopping... the three previous days had felt like a Marathon... leg cramps and all. But once that toy-hunting adrenaline starts in, I was fine until we starting hiking around the Emperor's Garden afterwards (carrying bags of toys). Although I think you are about on-par as well, since you went to the Osaka Mandarake the day prior to meeting up with me! Did they still have their "no cameras" signs up at that location I wonder? Would have loved to have seen pictures of that location.

Yeah it's weird, but that's so true. So much walking, carrying big bags on cramped trains and in cramped stores (no cars, it's all tons of walking and public transportation. It's not after a toy show here where you just throw your purchases in the back seat and drive home), and the sheer multitude of stuff you see just make your brain tired after several days straight. Don't get me wrong, it's all worth it, and I feel incredibly lucky to be able to experience this so often, but on the last day this trip I told my wife "I can't believe I'm saying this but right now I am sick of toy shopping". Predictably, her answer was "Good!"

As far as the Osaka Mandarake, I don't remember any signs, but man that whole visit was just a whirlwind. We had only 20 minutes to look in the store before we had to catch a train back to Yokohama, with my wife and I switching off carrying our daughter (who was a little sick, mostly needy at the time). I barely remember what the store looked like, I guess kind of like a smaller version of the Shibuya one. But I met a friendly British (?) gentleman in there who said there was another Mandarake nearby that was better. Maybe next time!