I will be traveling to Japan next month, mainly visiting Kyoto and Tokyo. If I manage to find the time during my trip, I'd like to keep an eye out for some Transformers (and other) toys. Would anybody who is familiar with those two cities give me some pointers where to look?
Thank you all for the advice. I found a store at the southern end of Teramachi-dori in Kyoto. They only had current TFs in stock, but they did have Masterpiece Alert on sale for 4640 Yen, which I instantly picked up at that price. In Tokyo, I found the Mandrake store in Akihabara, which had a very good selection of very old (boxed Shockwave!) to very new and 3rd party transformers. Unfortunately my trunk was already bursting, otherwise I would have bought the new MP Starscream for 9800 Yen or the bookcase Megatron for 6000 Yen. I also found two other stores carrying TFs, but they were mainly selling current TFs. Interestingly, one regular toy store (Kiddyland) had a big Transformers painting on the wall of their staircase showing a TF timeline from 1984 to 2012 with Convoys from every era.
I'd hit up Yodabashi Camera (they mostly have Arms Micron TF Prime stuff but also the United line and the occasional Masterpiece), Joshuin, Bic Camera, and Kid's Land -- all of which are the big chain toy stores in Japan. If you hit up the smaller hobby stores around Akihabara (of which there are many), be sure to ask the clerk if the figure(s) you're interested in is new or used. Some stores sell used toys (it's not always obvious since it can be boxed up in original packaging) and this may be an issue if you care about having your stuff MISB and whatnot. Used toys are cheaper, but they may come with unforeseen issues, even if they're just formerly store display models.
dude, thanks for the awesome tip, this will serve me well when or IF I decide to take a trip to Japan soon..
