Toy Shopping in Tokyo's Akihabara and Hong Kong's Mong Kok district

I had just recently come back from my mega-Disney trip, covering Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo DisneySea and Hong Kong Disneyland. Due to multiple flight delays from United (10 hours), I lost my planned "shopping day" in Tokyo so I had to make-do with cutting the Tokyo DisneySea day a little short and hopping the JR train to Akihabara. I managed to get about 3 hours of shopping time. Of course, I really wanted another whole day just to shop, but my flight itinerary was pretty tight. Maybe next time.

TOKYO AKIHABARA

The 3 hours spent shopping at Akihabara were quite fruitful. My intention was to get the Kaiyodo Dokuroman skeleton gachapons. My first stop at Akihabara Gachapon Hall didn't get skeletons, but I was able to find some other gachapons.

Here's a robot(?) made by the "Epoch" company. I have no idea what any of this says, but hey, it's a cool, fully-articulated robot with Revoltech-like joints, and it only cost 300 yen! I didn't buy more because this series also has a little buggy for the robot, and I really didn't want the buggy.

Epoch robot gachapon

Another gachapon machine was dispensing items of Japanese cultural significance. Had to get a few of these... for myself and also for gifts. These are large gachapons- they take up the whole capsule. They are beautifully made and painted by Kaiyodo. They cost 400 yen.

Kaiyodo Bunraku Puppet gachapon

Some other gachapons that caught my eye were miniature shopping carts and furniture, but, not knowing the scale, I really didn't want to risk it. I really wish I had more time to oogle at the gachapons, but I only had a few hours to shop, and I had to move on.

I spent a lot of time browsing Volks, a massive 6 floor hobby store. The top 2 floors looked like manga and anime stuff, so I spent most of my time on the first 4 floors. The Figma Indiana Jones was tempting, as well as the TomyTec "Little Armory". I saw a lot of the new Rement Pose Dinosaur skeletons. I ended up buying one of the Pose Skeleton accessory sets.

cute Rement Pose Skeleton accessory set

Once I finally found Kaiyodo Hobby Lobby (it wasn't easy, believe me) I was able to land an actual Dokuroman Weapons Pack out of their gachapon machines. I also saw a Kaiyodo Revoltech Buzz Lightyear. He was pretty irresistable. And, just after visiting Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, the quality difference was obvious between the Revoltech Buzz Lightyear, versus the mass-market Buzz toys at Tokyo Disneyland/Disneysea. This was a "must get".

Kaiyodo Revoltech Buzz Lightyear

Kaiyodo Dokuroman Weapons Kit

After a long search, another store in the same building as Kaiyodo Hobby Lobby had the skeletons. Read all about my Search for Dokuroman here.

Kaiyodo Dokuroman skeleton

HONG KONG

I already had a list of stores to check out in Hong Kong. "Richmond Shopping Arcade", "In's Point" and "Sino Centre" were all near the MTR Mong Kok station. I went there at about 10:00AM on Sat, but toy shops in Hong Kong have weird hours. Most of them open at 3:00PM and close around 08:30PM. That's right, they're open for less than 6 hours a day!

7-Eleven convenience stores are everywhere in Hong Kong. There were three of them near the Novotel Citygate Hotel in Tung Chung, and in Mong Kok, they seemed to be ridiculously close to each other, like one every 2 blocks! One of them had gachapon machines outside, and the Disney one looked interesting. Each gachapon was $HK10 ($1.25 US) which was absurdly cheap. I ended up with a gachapon of Mickey Mouse in his legendary first film appearance as "Steamboat Willie".

Mickey Mouse Steamboat Willie Gachapon

Right now, "Richmond Shopping Arcade", "In's Point" and "Sino Centre" are all a blur as I went through more than one hundred stores between the 3 of them. They're like small shopping centers, with dozens of small (8 foot by 8 foot) stores on each floor. There's barely enough room for the shopkeeper to sit, and the stores are jammed with merchandise. In Hong Kong, gachapons are available, but they are mostly unpackaged and sold in sets. That is an advantage, because you can see the actual toys in clear bags.

Bootleg LEGO is very common in Mong Kok. Some of the street vendors had "STAR WNRS" (sic) fake LEGO, and the shops had even more varieties, like "STAR WART" (sic) and a massive imitation LEGO "Skooby Doo" (sic) set. Here's some photos of the Bootleg LEGO sets, taken at some shops in Mong Kok. I didn't buy these, since I wasn't really in the market for "Star Wars". I was looking for Pirates.

Bootleg LEGO "STAR WNRS", HK$200. Pronounced as "Star Winners"?

Bootleg LEGO "STAR WART", HK$280. Hope it's not contagious.

Since 7-Eleven is so big in Hong Kong culture, I just had to get an imitation LEGO 7-Eleven set. For $HK38 ($5.00 US), you get a lot of pieces for the money. Also available were fake McDonalds, fake KFC, fake Apple store, fake Starbucks.

Imitation LEGO 7-Eleven store

Hong Kong shopping tip: Don't bother to go toy shopping until 3:00PM.  If you see something you like, don't buy it immediately. Another shop might have a better price. Make a note of the building and floor and shop number in case you have to retrace your steps.

My attempt to find Tai Yuen street (near the Wan Chai MTR station) was unsuccessful. I made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up on Queen's Road East. I had to give up and head back to the MTR to get to Tai Koo station.

My furthest venture outwards was ToyZone, near the Tai Koo MTR station. That store is massive, and stacked with vintage toys. They had model kits that I had not seen in 30 years, as well as toys dating from the 1980's that were once available in the US. While browsing their glass cases, I saw a Revoltech skeleton. According to my prior research, $65-$70 + postage is the normal going price. It was difficult to see the price tag, but I finally found it. $HK240, about $30 US. No box, and missing one shield and one sword but I knew that I'd never get one for that price (with postage) on ebay, so I bought it. It's in great shape, has good joints and I am pretty pleased with it.

Kaiyodo Revoltech skeleton

My last official day of vacation was spent at Hong Kong Disneyland, It's small, probably the smallest Disneyland in the world, and the only one lacking a "Pirates of the Caribbean" attraction. It has fewer E-Ticket rides than most, but their finest attraction there was, hands-down, "Mystic Manor"- a variation of the "Haunted Mansion" but without any ghosts or dead people/things. There are good reasons for that... Chinese culture avoids mention about "death" as much as possible (certain numbers are avoided because of death connotations). I knew and understood this immediately and admired Disney for their cleverness in adapting "Mystic Manor" to accommodate this, yet still creating a completely original, 5 star ride.

Albert the Monkey completely steals the show at "Mystic Manor" so I bought this little Albert plushie, knowing that Hong Kong Disneyland is the only place to get it.

HK Disneyland Albert plushie

I'm not a HUGE Disney Pin collector, but usually I pick up a souvenir pin or two on most of my travels. Once I saw the Mystic Manor "Albert" pin (a limited edition Chinese New Years pin), I decided that I wanted that one. Mystic Point's souvenir shop was (of course) sold out of this particular pin. As I circled Hong Kong Disneyland, I'd ask about this pin. Eventually I found it at the Emporium shop at Main Street USA. Compared to the insane brouhaha of buying limited edition Disney pins in the US, the Hong Kong Disneyland experience was surprisingly civilized and not too stressful or time-consuming.

Limited Edition HKD Chinese New Year Albert pin

Would I go back? Absolutely. Maybe in a few years if Hong Kong can build a second Disney park. I really want to see more of Tokyo DisneySea, and maybe Shanghai Disneyland once it settles in. The trip was definitely exciting and educational, and the toy shopping in Tokyo and Hong Kong is absolutely fantastic. We don't have anything like gachapons here- not with that overwhelming selection and quality. It's a case of "I didn't know those existed, but now that I've seen them, I want them".

RELATED PAGES: 

The Search for Dokuroman
Miniature DIY Pirate Gachapon Machine
A Collection of Toy Skeletons
More Gacha-Love, shipped from Japan!  
Tokyo's Akihabara Again and Gacha-Love, 2017