Tokyo's Akihabara (again) and Gacha-Love, 2017 Edition!

Free Akihabara map with my favorite shops marked (click to enlarge)

Well, it's 11 months after my first trip to Tokyo in 2016, and I went back! I was in Shanghai, and since I had to put up with a 13 hour flight to get there, it made sense to also go back to Japan for a few days. This time, I padded additional days to the trip for shopping! I had a glorious time!

DAY 1: GACHAPON KAIKAN, HAVI KORO, KAIYODO HOBBY LOBBY

Gachapon Kaikan and one of their display cases

On the first day, I had about 4 hours to shop, so I (of course) went to Akihabara, via the Tokyo Metro. First stop was, of course, Gachapon Kaikan! I had plenty of time to take some photos, and look at all the gacha machines, as well as explore the other floors. Gachapon Kaikan still had Rement Pose Skeletons for sale, and for only 500 Yen ($4.35). They had the Oden stall on display, but it was sold out. When I went back a few days later, they restocked, so I got the Oden stall for only 1300 yen (around $12.00)!

Inside Gachapon Kaikan

I saw gacha machines of the recent Epoch robot series, this time with a rickshaw. I tried twice, and got two different colored Epoch robots, but no rickshaw. Something new that caught my eye were these Bandai figures. All I could read was "SAGA", "500 yen" and "125mm" and a backing card that indicated that these figures were highly poseable. They had me at "125mm", because it's an odd scale, and my favorite size for figures (1:15). About 30 seconds after I got mine, someone else peered at the machine and bought one. More on these later.

2 gacha machines at Gachapon Kaikan

Pose skeleton and Oden stall @ Gachapon Kaikan

Kamen Rider @ Gachapon Kaikan

Epoch robots @ Gachapon Kaikan

Next was a hike to the Radio Kaikan building, to check out Kaiyodo Hobby Lobby, and my favorite open package gacha scalper shop, Havi Koro Toy. I bought the rickshaw there, for 350 yen, only a 50 yen markup. Also picked up 2 folding chairs from the Epoch "Interrogation" series, because one can never have enough folding chairs, and they're no longer available on Rakuten ToySanta.

Rickshaw and folding chairs @ Havi Koro

Kaiyodo Hobby Lobby at Radio Kaikan Bldg

Kaiyodo still had the Dokuroman skeletons in their machines, both the DEVGRU (ver 2) and the Halloween Nightmare. I decided to buy 2 more of the Halloween ones, because they're so good and are a definite improvement over the original DEVGRU (ver 1) ones. On the 2nd floor of the Radio Kaikan bldg, there was a bank of gacha machines, and I noticed that the 125mm SAGA figures were sold out there. Hmmm, interesting. Perhaps they're in high demand?

Gacha machines at Kaiyodo Hobby Lobby

Skeletons in different sizes, Kaiyodo Hobby Lobby

Kaiyodo Pumpkin Nightmare skeletons @ Kaiyodo Hobby Lobby

On the way back to Suehirocho Station, I stopped by several shops and even went into dark alleyways to check out the gacha. I came across these Epoch luggage cases. For only 200 yen and the backing card showed that they open. Oh hell, why not? I scored a white one. Another gacha machine on the street that got my attention was... some sort of "horror hands reaching from the grave" gacha. It was just weird enough to convince me to part with 200 yen for a capsule. I got 4 horror hands (1:6 scale) and a gravestone. With all the toy skeletons that I have already, I could always use a gravestone.

Suitcases and Horror Hands gacha machine

By 21:00, the gacha shops were closed, so it was time to head back to the hotel. I opened up the SAGA figure, and found out that it's from a "Kamen Rider" series. And sure enough, the figure was truly 125mm, and had amazingly good articulation and paint apps for something that cost less than $5.00. I counted 21 POA, and the figure was large and sturdy enough to not have the ball joints pop off. The full name of the series is フルアクションフィギュアＳＡＧＡ　仮面ライダー, which roughly translates into "Fully poseable action figure SAGA Kamen Rider". I agree that they're pretty damn good. We just don't get figures of this quality at that price in the States. 

At my hotel (Hotel East 21), there's a small shopping mall, and a pharmacy which had a decent number  of gacha machines. They had the Kamen Rider gacha there, and I bought a few more, since it was so convenient.

Gacha machines at Hotel East 21 mall pharmacy

Gacha machines at Hotel East 21 mall pharmacy

Kamen Rider Kuuga @ Hotel East 21 mall pharmacy

I spent the next 2 days at Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea. I'm slightly disappointed that Disney doesn't know how to properly exploit the pirates over there. The 2 pirate shops had generic pirate merchandise- the unbranded types that they could simply order from China. Nothing that was associated with the park, or the ride. 

Bon Voyage at Maihama Station, like the "World of Disney" stores

DAY 4: BON VOYAGE, AKIBA CULTURE ZONE, YODOBASHI AKIBA and VOLKS HOBBY PARADISE

Several days later, I had a complete day (Saturday) to go shopping, so I took the hotel shuttle to Tokyo Disneyland just to shop at "Bon Voyage", the official Disney Parks store at Maihama Station. Then, I headed back to Akihabara. This time, I had the Akiba Culture Zone and Yodobashi Akiba on my list to check out. At the Akiba Culture Zone, there was another branch of Havi Koro Toy. I didn't see anything I desperately wanted, so I headed to Yodobashi Akiba. It's on the other side of the JR Akihabara station, and this time, I had a smartphone to guide me.

Yodobashi Akiba

This is Yodobashi Akiba. It's HUGE. I spent my time mainly on the toys floor. They have multiple large banks of gacha, and aisle after aisle of toys, including the most comprehensive collection of Rement Pose skeleton items that I had ever seen! I picked up the Pose Skeleton sword set and the Oden stall, although I eventually returned the Oden stall because Gachapon Kaikan had a better price. Yodobashi Akiba's gacha included a few from last year (2016) while Gachapon Kaikan seems to stock the latest. By Sat, on my final trip to Gachapon Kaikan, they were sold out of the Kamen Rider 125mm figures.

 Pose Skeleton display at Yodobashi

Gachapon machines at Yodobashi Akiba

I used the opportunity at Yodobashi to pick up a samurai armor gacha, and some of the Epoch exercise barbells.

Samurai armor and barbells gacha machines at Yodobashi Akiba

Samurai armor and barbells @ Yodobashi Akiba

Pose Skeleton sword set @ Yodobashi Akiba

My last stop was Volks Hobby Paradise, in order to pick up one of the Japanese Billy dollhouses. I took a picture of some of the ones they had in the glass case, already built. The Ramen stall was larger than I expected, but I wasn't really planning on spending 3000 yen ($27) for one since I already made an imitation version for 1/10 the cost. 

Volks Hobby Paradise in Akihabara

Pre-built, display only Billy dollhouses at Volks

Billy dollhouses for sale at Volks

I spent a LONG TIME looking at the packages of the larger kits, pondering which one I wanted to buy. I really wanted the Unagi shop, because I really like unagi in sushi and rice bowls, but the only one they had was built-up in the display case. I was determined to go home with a Billy kit, so I eventually decided on the Kushikatsu (deep fried skewers) shop. Volks is a duty-free store, so foreign tourists can avoid paying the Japan 8% consumption tax on total purchases over 5000 yen. The Kushikatsu dollhouse was 5300 yen (about $48). I will be doing a separate write up on this kit later.

Billy dollhouse Kushikatsu shop, purchased at Volks

The Billy dollhouse website is here:
http://www.billy-doll.co.jp/?mode=cate&cbid=1300112&csid=0

You can use Google translate to get this translated into English. However, they do not ship to the United States, so you'd need to order these from Amazon.Com.

DAY 5: NARITA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

My final day in Tokyo was short. I had an early afternoon flight. There's an overwhelming number of transportation options available to get to/from the airport. Just to make it easier on my nerves, I opted to take the "A" Toei Asakusa line from Nihombashi Station, and just stayed on the same train when it became the Narita SkyAccess Express.

Some transportation options out of Narita Airport

Ah, but once I got to Narita airport, got my boarding pass and checked the luggage, there was still more gachapon machines to peruse. This has to be new... gacha machines at the Narita airport. Travelers on the way home, with leftover yen in their pockets, time to kill, and perhaps a need to buy a bunch of little souvenirs for the folks back home are the perfect marks. Kaiyodo seems to have a good presence there. They managed to have a display of Kaiyodo gacha under a plastic dome. The idea is complete genius! It can also serve people coming home from other parts of Asia with a layover at Narita airport for a few hours. I really love that idea.

Kaiyodo gacha display at Narita airport

Gacha at the Narita airport

Gacha at the Narita airport

RELATED PAGES:

The Search for Dokuroman
Miniature DIY Pirate Gachapon Machine
A Collection of Toy Skeletons
More Gacha-Love, shipped from Japan!
Toy Shopping in Tokyo's Akihabara and Hong Kong's Mong Kok district  

Pirate Hats and accessories (for action figures) DIY Tutorial

It's Halloween time and everybody, including your action figures, wants to be a pirate! Arrr matey! If only pirate stuff were easily and cheaply available for any figure!

My collection of toy skeletons spend a lot of time wishing they were in Disneyland (like I do), so while I was making my Pirate Bar dollhouse, I also needed to come up with some pirate hats. An online discussion mentioned Assassin's Creed figures and accessories, and of course, there's the authorized "Pirates of the Caribbean" action figures based on the movies, but I am a cheapskate at heart, unwilling to buy figures just for the sake of stripping off their accessories, plus I have customizing skills aplenty. I wanted to try making my own pirate hats.

I tried cloth and leather, with disappointing results, so I tried Sculpey polymer clay. It was shockingly quick and easy and I really liked the results, so Sculpey was definitely a winner!

Proof of concept- making pirate hats

PIRATE HAT SCULPEY TUTORIAL

 

Step 1: Buy a package of Sculpey. You can also buy a multi-color pack at Michaels and download their 40% off coupon.  Put a sheet of wax paper on your work area, and cut off a slice or two of Sculpey.

Step 1: Buy Sculpey. Slice.

Step 2: Roll the Sculpey slices into a ball, making sure that all of the bits and pieces mold together. Flatten the ball into a pancake. Use a rolling pin or a nearby can of WD-40 and roll the pancake to 1mm in thickness. 1/16" is acceptable for larger action figure heads.

Step 2: Roll into a ball and flatten it

Step 3: Making a hat form speeds up production considerably. This is a wooden bead that happens to be the right size, mounted on a bamboo stick.

Step 3: Make a hat form

Step 4: Put the flat, round Sculpey on the hat form. Press down slightly, and the hat crown will gradually form.

Step 4: Put Sculpey on form

Step 5: Refine the hat shape with additional pinching. Straighten out and trim the brim.

Step 5: Refine the hat shape

Step 6: Fold up 3 sides of the brim. It's surprisingly easy to make that perfect colonial-era tricorn hat!

Step 6: Fold up the brim

Step 7: Gently remove the hat from the hat form, and put it on a piece of foil. Place in the oven at low heat (about 200 degrees) for about 5 minutes. Babysit it so it doesn't burn.

Step 7: Bake!

Step 8: When it's fresh out of the oven, the hat will be hot! Put it on your action figure, and it will mold itself to the figure's head shape as it cools. Try not to burn your fingers doing this step.  If the hat cracks, just make another one. Once the hat cools, you might want to paint on some matte acrylic clearcoat to provide a barrier, in case you're worried about a chemical reaction between the Sculpey and your action figure.

Step 8: Mold to exact figure's head

Step 9: Make a lot more! It takes about 5 or 10 minutes to make each hat. This method is really inexpensive, and you can custom make each hat for a specific head, without waiting for toy companies to manufacture them.

Disneyland, here we come! Arrrr!

PIRATE CUTLASS TUTORIAL

For a minimal investment, or just digging around in the tools and parts drawer, it's quick and easy to manufacture your own Pirate Cutlasses.

Step 1: Buy a package of plastic sword cocktail picks. You can get them at any party supply store, or even the dollar store. Then locate a cheap or free source of ABS plastic. I used an old Macbook tray. The plastic should be thin enough to trim with heavy duty kitchen shears.

Step 1: Buy sword shaped cocktail picks and find some ABS

Step 2: Use a pair of wire cutters to cut off the plastic sword blade. Then cut your piece of ABS to the shape of a cutlass blade. Use sandpaper to finish the edges. If you need a thicker blade, cut out 2 identical cutlass pieces from the sheet, and glue them together. Carve a peg at the bottom of the cutlass blade.

Step 2: cut off sword blade and shape replacement cutlass blade

Step 3: Use a power drill and drill a small hole in the party pick's sword hilt.

Step 3: Drill hole in hilt

Step 4: Use 5 minute epoxy to glue the new blade into the sword hilt. The peg-in-hole will give you a much stronger joint than simply gluing the 2 pieces together without any reinforcement.

Step 4: Glue new blade into hilt

Step 5: Paint the cutlass with your favorite primer. This step is optional.

Step 5: Paint with primer

Step 6: Paint the cutlass with its final color and allow it to dry. The use a matte clearcoat.

Step 6: Paint with final colors and clearcoat

RELATED PAGES: 

"Captain Bar" DIY Dollhouse becomes Pirate Bar
Miniature DIY Pirate Gachapon Machine
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More Gacha-Love, shipped from Japan!

My next trip to Japan won't be 'til next year, so I won't be able to peruse and pump money into gachapon machines in Tokyo for quite a while. But, there are ways of feeding my new gachapon addiction!

Gachapon machines have been hiding in plain sight in San Francisco for a long time. Some Asian-owned small businesses such as comic book stores, supermarkets, grocery stores or tapioca bubble tea shops may have a few machines. They're always the yellow and red Tomy capsule machines, and all of them dispense little toys for $1.00, mostly Domo, Hello Kitty, balls or superheroes. Oftentimes, there's some actual sample toys underneath the clear top so you can see what you can get before feeding quarters into them. Unfortunately, the San Francisco machines didn't carry the gachapons that I wanted, like the ones I saw in Tokyo.

Gachapon in San Francisco

Thanks to the Internet, I heard about Toysanta at Rakuten Global Market. It's like hitting the mother lode of gachapon! They have the latest releases, as well as some of the stuff I'd seen in person in Tokyo back in April! I had some time to research them after-the-fact (mostly to check size and scale), and had a few regrets about not buying several more while I was standing right in front of them at Tokyo's Akihabara Gachapon Hall.

Now with Toysanta, shopping is right at my fingertips. The prices are very fair, usually each gachapon is only about a dollar over retail, and the small packet shipping cost isn't too bad. Less than $8.00 for about $50 worth of merchandise, straight from Japan! Great way of using my vacation leftover Yen and Hong Kong dollars (long converted back to US dollars)! I can't believe that I went through over 3600 items before making up my shopping list.

It only took a week for my package to arrive! So here's a look at the new haul:

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First up is a "Meitou Retsuden Keychain". It's basically a tiny samurai sword on a chain with a small plastic tag and a round, coin-like object. The sword is cute, but it is not removable from the scabbard. That kind of makes sense for a keychain, after all, you don't want to cut your fingers on a little sword blade while getting your keys, right? These are nice little souvenirs to bring back and hand out at the office, but, unfortunately, aren't suitable weaponry for action figures.

Odd, but I could have sworn that the little sword gachapon sold in small plastic bags on pegs that I saw at Volks Akihabara had actual blades.

Aoshima samurai sword keychains

SAMURAI SWORD KEYCHAIN
Manufacturer	Aoshima
Scale	1:18-ish to 1:15-ish
Retail Price	300 yen

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Next up is a few more Epoch Robots. I came home with one of these, and I found out that these robots sell for a markup and sell out quickly. So when they became available again on Toysanta in new colors along with poolside lounge chairs, I ordered two more so my first robot can have some new buddies to kick back with. The new gold-colored Revoltech-like joints on the black body are very striking.

Epoch robot in new colors

EPOCH ARTICULATED ROBOTS
Manufacturer	Epoch
Scale	1:18
Retail Price	300 yen

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Next, an actual mini gacha machine. I just had to order that one! It arrived in a fairly large capsule, and it was heavy... completely packed with stuff. The mini gacha machine cost me about $5.00, but looking at a few Youtube videos, the normal retail price in Japan is 200 yen. I just don't see how it's possible to sell these at 200 yen apiece- it's a very good quality little machine with very complex parts. Personally, I think it's worth every cent of the 5 bucks I paid. It comes with 5 tiny capsules with removable lids, and the knob and cylinder has a brilliantly-designed little ratchet mechanism to ensure that the knob only turns clockwise. Man, if this stuff was in front of me at 200 yen apiece, I'd keep feeding the machine until it's empty. Then I could make my own miniature Akihabara Gachapon Hall!

Takara Tomy Arts Pokemon mini gacha machine

On a side note, the size is about the same as the rustic pirate gachapon machines that I made. They all look good together, the antique style and the modern. Scale is about 1:12. The Pokemon XYZ machine was modified a bit to match the the theme of my other mini gacha machines, shown below.

DIY gacha machines and official Takara/Tomy gacha together

POKEMON XY&Z MINI GACHA MACHINE
Manufacturer	Takara Tomy Arts
Scale	1:12
Retail Price	200 yen

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Next are the folding chairs by Epoch, part of their "Interrogation Room" set . I remember seeing them at Akihabara Gachapon Hall, but the header card had no indication of the size, so I passed on them. Later, I found several articles about them on the Internet. They are extremely popular, and they fit 4" figures, such as Pose skeleton, Dokuroman and Epoch robots. Some people tried to seat their Figmas on the chairs, but they didn't fit very well . Since I was gonna order at Toysanta anyway, I snagged the last 2 Epoch folding chairs. They're useful, and kinda neat, but I can't really say they're a great value- at 200 yen apiece (retail), the chairs can't compare against the mini gacha machines, obviously.

Epoch folding chairs from "Interrogation Room" series

In the US, we can get some decent miniature folding chairs for $1.00 at The Dollar Tree, packaged with some crappy wrestling figures. I'd buy the packages, keep the chairs and donate the wrestlers to the Goodwill and still come out ahead. The Dollar Tree chairs are better for Figmas and October Toys skeletons.

Size comparison between Epoch gacha chairs and Dollar Tree wrestling chairs

INTERROGATION ROOM FOLDING CHAIR
Manufacturer	Epoch
Scale	1:18
Retail Price	200 yen

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Last, but not least is Kaiyodo's long-awaited re-release of Dokuroman! I got in on the re-release and ordered a set of 5. I really didn't need the tan one that badly, and it wasn't worth it to me to pay over $20 more just to get the tan one in the complete set of 6. This time, Kaiyodo seems to have manufactured and distributed enough Dokuroman to meet the demand. Kaiyodo's Hobby Lobby (in Tokyo) Twitter page shows 20 cases in the store, and let's say that lots of skeletons can fit in each case. More importantly, Dokuroman is available through mail order for reasonable prices for the first time. With its increased availability for international buyers, I hope to see more English language buzz and commentary about them.

Re-release of Kaiyodo's Dokuroman

DOKUROMAN ARMORED ACTION SKULL!
Manufacturer	Kaiyodo
Scale	1:18
Retail Price	400 yen

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RELATED PAGES: 

The Search for Dokuroman
Miniature DIY Pirate Gachapon Machine
A Collection of Toy Skeletons
Toy Shopping in Tokyo's Akihabara and Hong Kong's Mong Kok district  
Tokyo's Akihabara Again and Gacha-Love, 2017