85 replies to this topic

[gaspar]

One more...then hopefully I'll have something fun to show after my Tokyo trip. I was at HobbyOff today and saw this one:

I had seen the Kinnikuman J Stars figure a while back but didn't have any cash on me then...had to snag it this time. It was about $5, which is more than I'd like to spend, but not too bad. 

Edited by gaspar, 01 February 2014 - 11:41 PM.

[gaspar]

I'm currently trying to get back home from my trip to Tokyo. Waiting for a train. The huge snowstorms have been...interesting. I checked out a few shops in Akihabara that were recommended and I either didn't find the right spots or didn't ask the right questions. They had great stuff in general, but not much related to Kinnikuman. Then I went to Mandarake Micro...wow! There was a little shop that was just packed with goodies! It was almost closing time when I arrived, so I only took a few pics and they're probably terrible, but I'll post then as soon as I can get home and get them off of my camera. I bought a few things too...I'll post pics of everything ASAP

[gaspar]

Just got home...it's 11pm and I have to get up and go to work in the morning, but here's a preview:

That was just the top part of the glass case outside the store! So much cool stuff

 

I'll try to post more tomorrow, but it's probably going to be a busy day. 

[gaspar]

At work now...uploaded the photos. Sorry that they're bad cell phone pics. I wish I would have had a little bit longer but the store was closing soon and we were still trying to make it to a restaurant afterwards before it also closed. Anyway, here's my very quick trip to Mandarake Micro:

 

A slightly closer pic of the window case outside of the shop...the one in the previous post is better:

 

Lots of cool stuff in the cases inside:

 

 

 

Then I saw the bins...about $1 each for these figures:

 

Then I saw the bulk figure packs under one of the shelves!

 

I didn't have a ton of time to dig, so I had to make a quick decision. I bought one normal sized kinkeshi pack and one deka kinkeshi pack...approximately $10 each:

 

It looks like they all need to be washed and I can't tell if the regular kinkeshi sized ones are all legit or if there are bootlegs mixed in. I haven't even opened that bag yet to see exactly what's in there. I did open the deka kinkeshi pack last night and found that there were 46 of them included. There are a few duplicates, and some are discolored, marked with pen / paint, etc. But overall, I'm very happy with them for a $10 purchase! 

 

Of course, most of the main characters are not represented, but that's cool. For the price and since I had no deka kinkeshi figures before this purchase, I'm quite pleased. I'll try to take some better pics in the coming days. If anyone has any info about anything you see, I'd love to hear it. I really am not versed enough in Kinnikuman / kinkeshi stuff to know exactly what I found...I just know I like it!

 

Thanks for reading!

Edited by gaspar, 11 February 2014 - 04:35 PM.

[Jet-Mech]

Damn. Now that my brother-in-law is stationed in Japan, I'm going to have to ask my sister to pick up some Kinnikuman stuff for me.

[gaspar]

Damn. Now that my brother-in-law is stationed in Japan, I'm going to have to ask my sister to pick up some Kinnikuman stuff for me.

That's cool! I hope they can get you some good stuff. Are they in Okinawa?

[gaspar]

Deka Bath Time!

 

Much better!

 

I have a couple of questions...some of them have red splotches that look like the dye used in the plastic / rubber didn't mix properly. Is that a common thing? Also, most of them are the typical pink / peach color we all know and love, but a few are a much deeper pink color. Is that due to sun exposure or just a bad batch or something? Or maybe those are bootlegs? I'm really curious about the weird coloration issues some of them seem to have. I've never seen that with the MUSCLEs I've had since I was a kid. 

 

Thanks again for reading. Sorry for so many random posts and photos all at once

[Jet-Mech]

That's cool! I hope they can get you some good stuff. Are they in Okinawa?

 

Atsugi. If I calculated the distance right, that's about 20-30 miles southwest of Tokyo?

[gaspar]

Atsugi. If I calculated the distance right, that's about 20-30 miles southwest of Tokyo?

Yep, looks like it's about an hour away from Mandarake Micro by train or car. Nice looking location...very convenient for cool Tokyo stuff!

[gaspar]

I've been traveling a bit recently. Here are some photos from various shops in Osaka / Kobe:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other than the last one which was found at HobbyOff, they were priced higher than I was interested in paying. The last one was cool, but I really don't have a display area for something like that. Didn't buy much, but thought I'd share what I found

[TMAN]

Great pics! Thanks for sharing! How much in US were they selling these small ones in the plastic?

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Edited by TMAN, 24 March 2014 - 04:54 PM.

[gaspar]

Great pics! Thanks for sharing! How much in US were they selling these small ones in the plastic?

Thanks! To get an estimate on Yen to Dollar conversion, just knock 2 zeros off the end of the Yen price. ￥100 = about $1. It looks like those in the photo run anywhere from about $12 to over $200! I'm used to buying MUSCLE figures for about $0.25 to $1 each, so those were WAY more than I was interested in paying. I'm sure they were super rare figures. It was cool to see them, but they don't belong in my collection

[CaffeineSanta]

That's it, I'm goin
Seriously - you're living my dream.

[gaspar]

That's it, I'm goin
Seriously - you're living my dream.

Haha! You should definitely make the trip!

 

I found these Kinnikuman cell phone decorations while out shopping the other day:

 

Everything seemed innocent enough until I turned the box over...

 

Uhhhh...it really seems like they could have made the phone attachment part look a little different. At least maybe a different color? Disturbing! Anyway, they were about $4, so I only bought one:

 

Might pick up another one or two in the future. I like the little stand that they come with that tells the move being performed. 

 

Also, I went to Kobe yesterday and found a coin machine with Kinnikuman figures. I forgot to take a pic of the actual machine, but here are the 2 sets of 2 that I ended up getting:

 

I actually wish I'd bought more of those...they were only $1 for each capsule with 2 figures! Next time...

[gaspar]

I went back to the Muscle Shop in Osaka a couple of days ago:

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I decided to post a big entry on my blog about it (over 20 photos!), so if you're interested in seeing it you can check it out here. I took more pictures this time since I noticed a sign that said photography was allowed. It was really fun to see a lot of things that I've never seen elsewhere.

 

I ended up buying one Kinnikuman figure as a souvenir from the Muscle Shop, and then I bought a Kinnikuman Zebra at a different shop later in the day. Here they are accompanying me on the train at the end of the day:

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I almost bought a Kinnikuman Super Phoenix as well, but I thought I'd leave a little for my next trip 

 

I had a great time just shopping around Osaka, checking out tons of cool shops, eating great food, and just exploring the area. 

[CaffeineSanta]

It's so crazy to me that a place like this actually exists! I can't think of any cartoon character in the states that have their own store like, except maybe a generic Disney store. 

[gaspar]

It's so crazy to me that a place like this actually exists! I can't think of any cartoon character in the states that have their own store like, except maybe a generic Disney store. 

Haha! I completely agree. It's crazy...and awesome  

[gaspar]

That Kinniku Zebra figure looks amazing! Can you tell me the name of that figure line as I would love to track a few of my favorite characters down!!

Unfortunately, I ripped open the package right after I took that picture so I could toss it out and make more room in my bag. Maybe someone else here will pop in with the info. 

[gaspar]

Another quick trip to Jungle in Osaka and I couldn't pass it up this time:

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[gaspar]

My wife wanted to stop at HardOff / HobbyOff today to look for some things. I'm never one to say 'no' to that stop because it always means I can see if they got any new Kinnikuman things in stock. It's been a long time since they had any, but they actually had Kinkeshi figures today!!
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I loaded up a basket with what they had available and ~$40 later, I was the proud owner of all of them

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I haven't opened the packages yet, but it looks like there are 120 or more figures in total. I'm assuming they're all fairly new, but I'll have to figure that out later. 

Edited by gaspar, 25 May 2014 - 04:58 AM.

[gaspar]

So, I'm heading back to Tokyo tomorrow for a summer vacation trip. I've already warned my wife that I'll want to go to Nakano Broadway's Mandarake Micro since last time that was the absolute best Kinnikuman shop I found in Tokyo. But I wanted to check with you folks here about other shops. Before I went in February, I read some of the blog posts and ended up checking out some places in Akihabara. While they were really awesome stores with some amazing things in stock, I found very little Kinnikuman related stuff.

 

I find great Kinnikuman products all over Osaka when I go there, but for some reason I found very little outside of Mandarake Micro in Tokyo. Is there any place in Akihabara that is a MUST SEE this time? Maybe I just managed to miss the right floor or section of the right shop. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[gaspar]

It's been a while since I posted here. Things have been busy. I did go to Nakano Broadway like I said in my last post, but I wasn't able to find what I was hoping for this time. Their big bulk bags of Deka Kinkeshi were all gone. That was a bit disappointing, but I did buy one figure just to avoid going away empty handed...the "Glorious Muscles" Kinnikuman attached to this post. It was only a little over $5, so I couldn't pass it up!

I also found a few packaged Deka Kinkeshi figures over the past few months. Two at a shop in Akihabara and two more at a shop in Kobe. And the other day I added a couple of Kinnikuman decorations to my cell phone case. Pics of all of that stuff are attached at the bottom as well.

In about 2 weeks I'm making a very quick trip back to Tokyo. Hopefully if all goes well, I'll be able to check the Mandarake Micro store in Nakano Broadway again and see if they've restocked their inventory. I'll also try to hit up a few of the shops in the Akihabara area to see if anything new is available.

Oh, one last picture...Revoltech is apparently producing a RevolMini line of figures now. They're smaller than the usual ones they make and cost a little less. Kinnikuman is in the initial batch, but was still about $25 for a smallish figure, so I didn't buy one.

Thanks for reading!

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[thenerdieststore]

I dont even collect these and I feel a great amount of envy for you lol also, I havn't had a chance to read all the posts. Why are you in Japan? Military? Job?