Mandarake!

[evandouglas86]

If you guys ever...EVER get a chance to visit Akihabara, Tokyo, Make sure you visit Mandarake...I was in geek paradise lol. The place just reeks of nostalgia, It has so many G1,G2, Beastwars, masterpiece transformers, pretty much everything. I was so blown away. Akihabara surprisingly doesn't have many stores selling transformers.. Sofmap Amusment store only had 1 G1 omega supreme... I found way more in other suburbs like Asakusa, and Shinjuku. Its pretty cool seeing the tak/tom transformers as normal toys with the mean paint jobs just in the shelves, they just seem more 'finished?'

[lancalot]

It looks so cool from some of the picture of those store ....ill be in there for hour on end just looking at all the stuff they have !

[swoop]

I'll be there 19/1 can't wait

[phealey]

Mandrake is a great store, there are 3 levels if you go to the Nakano (tokyo) one. Each level has different types of toys, Transformers/Anime/Star Wars. I visit their regularly, the prices are not too bad either, but do your homework.

[theshape]

damn awesome store. I found the nakano store was a bit better for transformers

[GoktimusPrime]

If you guys ever...EVER get a chance to visit Akihabara, Tokyo, Make sure you visit Mandarake...I was in geek paradise lol.
Heh, I couldn't do it when I was in Tokyo last time because my wife had already given me an entire day to hang out with Transfans and visit various stores in Osaka... that was my "Transformers day," and the rest of the trip was meant to be focused on other stuff. :p Still, I had great fun in Osaka just talking with fans... you get some interesting insights from Japanese fans that Western fans don't necessarily discuss or think about and also vice versa -- so it was like a geeky cultural exchange. :D


Mandrake is a great store, there are 3 levels if you go to the Nakano (tokyo) one.
I'm sure that was just a typo, but I've noticed some people here say "Mandrake." For those who may not know, it's "Mandarake" (say "Mun-dah-rah-keh"). :) One problem w/ writing Japanese words in Romaji is that your brain does sometimes 'autocorrect' them into English words. :o

[drifand]

thanks for the info Gok, I am unsure I been there before. perhaps I missed it.

I was in one of those buildings where they have like lockers below where people sell private stuff, then upstairs were like heaps of kits etc...

[Megatran]

Tried buying TF toys on their online store on 3 different occasions in the space of 2 months with no success. The last being only yesterday. On every occasion I 'purchased' the items only to get an email the next day notifying me that they are really sorry the item is no longer available. They need to update their stock availability more regularly. Won't be using these guys again.

[Cleon]

Tried buying TF toys on their online store on 3 different occasions in the space of 2 months with no success. The last being only yesterday. On every occasion I 'purchased' the items only to get an email the next day notifying me that they are really sorry the item is no longer available. They need to update their stock availability more regularly. Won't be using these guys again.

Coincidentally, I've recently discovered their online store. Reading other people's experiences, which were mostly positive, I gave it a crack (bought a 2010 predaking). It is on it's way, so I'll post some final thoughts when it arrives, but this has been my experience so far.

The descriptions on the website are pretty much useless (everyone is pretty much box opened/damaged), and the photo's are usually 1 or 2 max.

However, I found contacting the store that has the stock is a worthwhile exercise, because they respond within 24 hours (my experience), even on weekends. I did so for shipping quotes (tempted by a few things on there), and got responses each time. Their english is limited (or brief), but I got the info I needed each time (so comprehension isn't an issue). So I'd recommend emailing them first if you haven't been doing that!

The only sour points for me during the process was 2 parts.

Firstly, they took 3+ days to invoice me after the sale. The cynical side of me thinks they were holding off in case they could sell it locally. They themselves say the invoice process takes 2 days. That thought certainly isn't helped by the poor experience I had when inquiring about photo's of the figures themselves (as all items seem to have opened boxes). They were really helpful with pictures of box damage (5 or 6 photos), but when it came to figures, I got a response implying that photos will not show the condition of the figures....

My first thought was, rightttttttt.... :rolleyes: I agree to a certain extent (i.e. Joint tightness), but things like scratches, dints, QC issues etc can clearly be shown by photos. Sounded like just plain laziness.

I responded very politely disagreeing with that sentiment. After a impatient (borderline rude) response from them, photos came through, with the figures' covered by the blister packs!

At that point I was willing to give up, but reading other people's experiences, it seems like these guys take care in the toys they acquire for resale, so I took the plunge (it certainly helped that a reissue predaking sold for $150 excl shipping on ebay just last week, and my price + shipping was very reasonable imo). I won't condemn the store due to one employee (my correspondence with the Nakano store has been quite good).

Anyway, I'll post my thoughts on the figures condition when they come in (fingers crossed this week).

[Bidoofdude]

I'm planning to visit when I go to Japan this September. Is it very easy to find? I'm pretty sure the group is going to Akihabara, hopefully I can find it quickly, since I don't think we have much time around.

[Jetfire in the sky]

I wish Mandarake would open a store in Australia, say in Sydney as it's flagship, I think it would do well, I mean the market is there, we have the big nerd conventions Oz wide now; the closest I have seen in terms of a pop culture superstore is Minotaur in Melbourne. Mandarake having their roots in Japan would have access to items that many of us would snap up in a minute.

[Trent]

Tried buying TF toys on their online store on 3 different occasions in the space of 2 months with no success. The last being only yesterday. On every occasion I 'purchased' the items only to get an email the next day notifying me that they are really sorry the item is no longer available. They need to update their stock availability more regularly. Won't be using these guys again.

I buy stuff from there quite regularly. It just depends as the stuff is displayed in-store as well so if someone physically buys it before they read and process your order, well that's the name of the game.

It also depends on which store the item is in as some are better then others.

[Cleon]

I wish Mandarake would open a store in Australia, say in Sydney as it's flagship, I think it would do well, I mean the market is there, we have the big nerd conventions Oz wide now; the closest I have seen in terms of a pop culture superstore is Minotaur in Melbourne. Mandarake having their roots in Japan would have access to items that many of us would snap up in a minute.

Whilst I think it would be great as a consumer, I think it wouldn't be a great idea from a business perspective.

My understanding is that these stores trade exclusively in used goods (correct me if I'm wrong), so you'd require an existing pool of consumers selling their goods to start up and be sustainable. Japan has this because the market for anime and pop culture is huge over there, where as here, it's a comparatively smaller (but very vocal) market.

Also, this is just my assumption, but I would think there'd be a larger "collector" market in Japan, with more adults owning these types of figures. So then in terms of the second hand market, the condition of these figures would be of better quality as well (and fit for resale).

If they did ship goods from Japan, it would be an added cost they don't currently bear (as we pay shipping costs), which they'd either absorb or pass on to customers.

Lastly, I would think that they'd essentially be a "cash converters" but for a very niche audience, an audience I would guess would be more savvy than the regular person. I can't imagine anyone here going to a cash converters to offload some of their stuff over an ebay or gumtree (unless time was an issue), because you'd be low balled to make a margin. A local mandarake style store would surely have to do the same.

I think they should try and increase their online presence to reach the AU market more, because even this forum (which is by no means a measure for the Australian market as a whole) only has a few threads talking about them, none of which reviewing the online store (a few have people talk about using them).

Anyway, one can only hope! (I certainly would love to see the figures before buying them)

[drifand]

I'm planning to visit when I go to Japan this September. Is it very easy to find? I'm pretty sure the group is going to Akihabara, hopefully I can find it quickly, since I don't think we have much time around.

Not hard, get out from the station, is just there actually unless I am wrong.

This isn't the best place for MISB collectors. But they do sell sealed condition occasionally.

My only critic is that EMS is the only method they be using if not DHL.

[TAAUBlaster]

I love going to Mandarake! I go just about everytime I'm in Japan. But I've always felt that Mandarake prices are a little high on a lot of TF stuff. And they occassionaly (not always) have KO stuff listed as originals (saw a full set of MISB G1 KO Dinobots listed as originals.) Granted, it's hard to spot them these days, but you still need to keep an eye out. But they have a lot of cool stuff! I spend hours checking everything out :D

[griffin]

I'm planning to visit when I go to Japan this September. Is it very easy to find? I'm pretty sure the group is going to Akihabara, hopefully I can find it quickly, since I don't think we have much time around.

Study the map on this page (http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/hkjp7.html) (ignore the food sections :p ), as the first map has Mandarake noted as red 1... and make sure you visit the other two stores noted as red 2 and red 3.
(sorry, lots of photos on that page... but if you save a copy of that map and print it out, or have on your phone, you can find it fast from the train-station as it is a bit of a maze of tall buildings)

[Lint]

I'm planning to visit when I go to Japan this September. Is it very easy to find? I'm pretty sure the group is going to Akihabara, hopefully I can find it quickly, since I don't think we have much time around.

The Akihabara one shouldn't be hard to find. It's a big black building on a street corner with multi-level pop-culture madness.

The Shibuya store is in the basement of the BEAM mall, however keep a lookout for the sign/logo on street level.

The Nakano stores were a pain in the arse to find as they were inside a mall and up on the 3rd floor or something. However it was closing time and I was in quite a rush.

There's better stores in Akihabara but most will take effort to find, which may not be fun if you're travelling in a group.

[TAAUBlaster]

The Akihabara one shouldn't be hard to find. It's a big black building on a street corner with multi-level pop-culture madness.

The Shibuya store is in the basement of the BEAM mall, however keep a lookout for the sign/logo on street level.

The Nakano stores were a pain in the arse to find as they were inside a mall and up on the 3rd floor or something. However it was closing time and I was in quite a rush.

There's better stores in Akihabara but most will take effort to find, which may not be fun if you're travelling in a group.

The Nakano store was the easiest to find I thought:p You basically walk straight out of the Nakano station, and right across the road is Nakano Broadway. Mandarake is inside towards the end if I recall? The manga section is on the ground floor, and a couple floors up is the TF section.

[GoktimusPrime]

Don't forget that if Mandarake opened a store here, it would be subject to loads of Australian govt. import taxes, levies, duties -- that's why a lot of import stores are so expensive, many of which have now closed down in recent years. 10 years ago, Sydney had a good number of specialist import stores, now there's what? Two? Most likely because it's always been cheaper to directly import toys privately from Japan; and I guess with the increase in online shopping, most specialty import stores just haven't been able to compete.

I've never ordered anything online from Mandarake, but I have purchased from their stores in person, and I found their service to be pretty good. One thing I quite like is their honest policy about the nature of the toys; each toy has a sticker on it which tells you the condition of the toy. For example, I got my Alternity Convoy there for about 3000JPY; I was wondering why it was so cheap, and it was because it wasn't sealed. It had been opened and resealed, but never actually transformed or played with... so it was in loose mint condition. And while I personally don't agree with them selling unlicensed toys (incl. counterfeits), at least they do label them explicitly telling you if the toys are fake. So I've had pretty good experiences with their in-store shopping, but no experience with their e-shopping so I can't comment on that. :o

[TAAUBlaster]

And while I personally don't agree with them selling unlicensed toys (incl. counterfeits), at least they do label them explicitly telling you if the toys are fake. So I've had pretty good experiences with their in-store shopping, but no experience with their e-shopping so I can't comment on that. :o

I don't want to badmouth Mandarake too much, but they have sold KO's marked as vintage on a few occasions. Things like US TF's Dinobots and the Decepticon cassettes have been spooted in their stores. Granted - I don't think they label them as vintage to deceive buyers, but it doens't change the fact that they are there. So you should still be cautious.

Don't get me wrong - I love Mandarake, and I will shop there everytime I visit Japan. But just because they mark it as vintage, doesn't mean you shouldn't do your homework first. :)

[Jetfire in the sky]

Whilst I think it would be great as a consumer, I think it wouldn't be a great idea from a business perspective.

My understanding is that these stores trade exclusively in used goods (correct me if I'm wrong), so you'd require an existing pool of consumers selling their goods to start up and be sustainable. Japan has this because the market for anime and pop culture is huge over there, where as here, it's a comparatively smaller (but very vocal) market.

Also, this is just my assumption, but I would think there'd be a larger "collector" market in Japan, with more adults owning these types of figures. So then in terms of the second hand market, the condition of these figures would be of better quality as well (and fit for resale).

If they did ship goods from Japan, it would be an added cost they don't currently bear (as we pay shipping costs), which they'd either absorb or pass on to customers.

Lastly, I would think that they'd essentially be a "cash converters" but for a very niche audience, an audience I would guess would be more savvy than the regular person. I can't imagine anyone here going to a cash converters to offload some of their stuff over an ebay or gumtree (unless time was an issue), because you'd be low balled to make a margin. A local mandarake style store would surely have to do the same.

I think they should try and increase their online presence to reach the AU market more, because even this forum (which is by no means a measure for the Australian market as a whole) only has a few threads talking about them, none of which reviewing the online store (a few have people talk about using them).

Anyway, one can only hope! (I certainly would love to see the figures before buying them)

Pretty sure at the five or so Mandarake stores I visited in Japan that they had a mix of brand new and second hand, and these just aren't a little dinky corner store, there a multi story stores and huge single story floorplans but they deal in every pop culture item imaginable A point in my initial post is with the tie to Japan they could have most of the second hand stock direct from Japan. You and Goktimus raise a good point about import duties and shipping (although when you ship a 40' container it's actually not that expensive comparative to the value of the goods) but yes these obviously add to the costs.
I'm not going to go into the whole ins and out of a bricks and mortar businesses but please note, my first two words were I wish in my earlier post :):)
Also have tried to shop on their website and it is a horse's arse. But that is not their market, and perhaps they make enough money with over the counter sales that online is seen as a waste. Anyway, they are awesome in person and that's what a lot of shopping is to a lot of people. :cool:

[Skullcruncher]

Mandarake is great, except I must be the only one who struggled to find nearly every store we looked for!! A couple we actually stumbled on thinking we were at least a block away, we even missed the Akihabara store on our second visit :o Nakano mall was like a sauna so don't go in the middle of summer!

Shibuya was actually the easiest to find, except I found it least interesting but my wife thought the mall was the great, mega high heel shoes etc

[Cleon]

Pretty sure at the five or so Mandarake stores I visited in Japan that they had a mix of brand new and second hand, and these just aren't a little dinky corner store, there a multi story stores and huge single story floorplans but they deal in every pop culture item imaginable A point in my initial post is with the tie to Japan they could have most of the second hand stock direct from Japan. You and Goktimus raise a good point about import duties and shipping (although when you ship a 40' container it's actually not that expensive comparative to the value of the goods) but yes these obviously add to the costs.
I'm not going to go into the whole ins and out of a bricks and mortar businesses but please note, my first two words were I wish in my earlier post :):)
Also have tried to shop on their website and it is a horse's arse. But that is not their market, and perhaps they make enough money with over the counter sales that online is seen as a waste. Anyway, they are awesome in person and that's what a lot of shopping is to a lot of people. :cool:

That's good to know (re: New and Used figures), as my experience with them has purely been online. My big regret in my last visit to Japan was not visiting one of their stores!

But I am 100% with you regarding the shopping experience at a brick and mortar store. It can really make an experience (Heck, if a local store had prices and range in the ball park of what you'd find online, I would happily drive 1hour+ to reach that brick and mortar).

[GoktimusPrime]

I don't want to badmouth Mandarake too much, but they have sold KO's marked as vintage on a few occasions. Things like US TF's Dinobots and the Decepticon cassettes have been spooted in their stores. Granted - I don't think they label them as vintage to deceive buyers, but it doens't change the fact that they are there. So you should still be cautious.

Don't get me wrong - I love Mandarake, and I will shop there everytime I visit Japan. But just because they mark it as vintage, doesn't mean you shouldn't do your homework first. :)
Are you certain that the sticker explicitly stated it was original and not fakes? :confused: Did you mention/complain to management?

[TAAUBlaster]

Are you certain that the sticker explicitly stated it was original and not fakes? :confused: Did you mention/complain to management?

As far as I can remember. The prices certainly seemed to indicate they were vintage - and they were in one of the big display cabinets outside the store (at the Nakano branch) surrounded by other original items. There was one other KO inside the store that was in a cabinet with some loose figs. I'm sure the tag said "KO" (I thought it was strange because I didn't think KO was a commom term in Japan) whereas the other tags didn't have it. I didn't complain because my Japanese was not anywhere near good enough to converse with, and I wouldn't have been able to get my point across.

[noel0leon]

Love this place. I haven't used the online store as of yet but when we visited Japan last year I dragged my girlfriend to no less than 4 different stores in 4 different cities.

Wicked place. It seemed to me that it was a department of geekery heaven and that they buy and sell second hand stuff as well as new items (There was a special section for people selling their collections to the store in the Kyoto branch).

It is an excellent resource for Macross Stuff (which is what I was after) as well as a healthy collection of Transformers (both Japanese and US)

Its also a heck of a lot of fun to just browse through as well. The first one I spent 2 hours on there.

[ampoldj]

I think i have been here when we went to Akihabara. We only have 8 hours because it is only a 1 day trip, or we will miss the last train. My comment is simply "TOYS OVERLOAD". I only have about 20,000 yen at that time (about 250aud approx). I immediately saw a Daimos for 8,000 yen but just passed through it, never thought it was really cheap that time. Also been through a TFs section but not yet much of a fan also then. At that moment i only collect Gundams and anime figures. When i have another chance to go back there i will make sure i will bring my credit card :)

Regarding KOs in Japan...please be aware that most second hand stuff are through buy and sell. specialty toy shops usually will buy a 500 yen toy and sell it for 2000 yen. So if the staff is not aware of what is KO or fake they may just pass it as original. Although honestly nowadays some are already aware but still just wanna make money. Buying in Japan does not always mean you are certain you are buying an original. Items from China are now as popular there as anywhere in the world.

[GoktimusPrime]

I'm sure the tag said "KO" (I thought it was strange because I didn't think KO was a commom term in Japan) whereas the other tags didn't have it. I didn't complain because my Japanese was not anywhere near good enough to converse with, and I wouldn't have been able to get my point across.
What you need to look for on the tag is the Kanji 海賊版, which means "pirated." They can be pretty damn expensive, but if you see any toy in a Mandarake store with those Kanji on the sticker, then it's a counterfeit.

[Megatran]

What you need to look for on the tag is the Kanji 海賊版, which means "pirated." They can be pretty damn expensive, but if you see any toy in a Mandarake store with those Kanji on the sticker, then it's a counterfeit.
No offence, but if I saw those JP characters stuck on a box I wouldn't be able to tell them apart from any other JP characters at a glance. :o

[GoktimusPrime]

No offence, but if I saw those JP characters stuck on a box I wouldn't be able to tell them apart from any other JP characters at a glance. :o
Perhaps write it down or print it out on a small piece of paper and see if you can recognise it? Or memorise/write down this phrase:

"Kono omocha wa kaizoku-ban desu ka"
"ah-noh om-mot-chah wah kye zock-koo bun des kah"
(Is this toy a counterfeit?)

Aaah, this thread brings back fond memories of the 2012 Osaka Meet (http://otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=12608). :D :)

[gekisou]

Perhaps write it down or print it out on a small piece of paper and see if you can recognise it? Or memorise/write down this phrase:

"Kono omocha wa kaizoku-ban desu ka"
"ah-noh om-mot-chah wah kye zock-koo bun des kah"
(Is this toy a counterfeit?)

Aaah, this thread brings back fond memories of the 2012 Osaka Meet (http://otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=12608). :D :)

As a fan of 海賊戦隊ゴーカイジャー I find this hilarious.

[tron07]

good list here...
http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=11556

I been to Tokyo and Osaka, went around look for some toys shops to see any good deals. love the food and culture.

[drifand]

I wished I knew about Mandrake when I went to Tokyo as I didn't know about the branches etc....

The only downside is their description is very little. You could email their stores but pretty much be prepared for 2nd hand goods grade. I have no problem most of the time as I am not MISB collector.