Off to Japan (I could have sworn I saw a thread about this)

[griffin]

Or if you don't speak any Japanese, go to an assistant wearing an obvious Transformers T-shirt and just point at it and motion for their help.
(or have with you an image of the current toy items you are after - a printout or on a smart-device)

It helped for me in a couple stores, by just showing toys that I had already bought, I was directed to their TFs toy section.

[Sinnertwin]

Akihabara & Nakano is where i hit gold at the time. TrU at Odaiba was also good for the then current Animated figures

[lobes]

TRU in odaiba had nothing when I went in Feb. Just a lone mp streak was the only thing worth buying.
Ended up grabbing most stuff from the plethora of mandarake stores and hero gangu in Osaka.

[Firestorm]

last time I was there most of my transformers shopping was done in Akihabara in Tokyo and Nipponbashi in Osaka, couldn't really find much anywhere else.
hopefully I can find some more places when I am back there in December

[requiemau88]

so found out something funny ... went to bic camera in shinjuku and saw 'transformers' on 5th floor ... turned out to be actual power transformers. went to yobodashi camera in shinjuku but it turns out everything is spread out over a few buildings (fyi, transformers are im the basement 1 of building 6, look for the ps3/4 wii u/ 3ds sign). got samurai team.

[GoktimusPrime]

Bic Camera should have Transformers, but you'll need to look in the toy section. But yeah, Yodobashi Camera should stock similar (if not the same) stock that Bic Camera anyway, so all good.

[requiemau88]

Hit up Akihabara yesterday ... god damn. Mandarake was tall yet cramped, and surprisingly they had decent prices. Picked up MP Smokescreen for 5000, found prime rumble and generations Thundercracker. Hit up yobadashi cameras as well, the 6th floor toy store is one of the biggest toy selections I've ever seen. In akiba zone there was a 'collectables store' that had tfs loose but were trying to sell them for twice they're value if they were still sealed.

Hit up shibuya as well but was just there for mandarake and some other shopping. Off to harajuku and Nagano today.

FYI if your looking for rare stuff, Mandarake had the botcon customization figures for 2012 and 2011 but had ??? For prices, I didn't ask but I figured it was high. They also had a few gold tranaformers. Also plenty of older G1 stuff both American and Japanese.

[griffin]

That Mandarake store (lot of photos) is indeed packed with TFs toys of all price ranges.

Any chance of some pics of what you saw and what you got?
It's always nice to see the more exotic side of Transformers.

[requiemau88]

I hit up kiddy land, they had a takara rhinox on display but sold out. Will be hitting up Nagano today, will take pics. Also I'll photo my haul in box but to save on weight and size I'll be taking most of them out of packaging.

[requiemau88]

So I managed to get some ... OK photos from Nagano Mandarake, I had to ask permission to take the photos, and it was on my camera phone so apologies for the quality.

All in all Broadway Nagono (not just Mandarake) was the gold mine so far of the trip. The 'main' complex in Akihabara was good, but Nagano and the other stores had a quite a few items that were top notch. If anyone has any questions about the items in the photos dont hesitate to post or msg me, I spent quite a bit of time admiring the display.

Interesting side note, they are quite knowledge of there products, they had a knock off MP 12 Lambor for 5000 yen, but then a real one for 12,000 (with the Amazon exclusives) and they let you which one is which.



















FYI there was an original Japanese Fort Max (bottom left of the 7th pic I think) going for 250,000,yen ... Enjoy. Again any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Also, I'll wait until I'm done before I show off my haul.

P.S. They have a lot of boxed G1 stuff in that second last photo.