Between 1992 and 1997 I was doing my best to collect Japanese toys, but most of what I ended up with were Bandai plastic model kits (SD Gundam, Dougram) and some candy toys and gachapon knock-offs from Hong Kong (including some wonderful SD Getta Robo and Mazinger PVCs and SD Kamen Rider and Ultraman stampers.) It was only on a series of trips to NYC in 1999-2000 that I picked up some Bandai vinyl (Crazy Gon and Mechagodzilla), some Kubrick (Planet of the Apes and Votoms), Transformers reissue (Hot Rod) at 360 Toy Group and some other stores I can't remember now. I didn't, however, pick up the KAWS Chum as it exceeded my then-meager budget. But Crazy Gon is still one of my favorite toys of all time.
Us new collectors definitely have it easy these days... I wish the photos kaiwi posted were still visible!
Reading through this whole thread was great, thanks for digging it up Kevin! So many old threads here on SB, filled with an amazing amount of knowledge.
Absolutely perfect time for this to pop up, a fancy PB&J operation opened up in my hometown ran up there with MarkK and the guy running it turned out to be a collector of varied Japanese goods and after a bit of gabbing back and forth it turned out he knew the guy that ran the shop I used to get a fat portion of my imports from(he did as well) Atomic Eye, in that time before the internet, I also used to get a ton of stuff from ads in indy comics and varied collectors magazines, as a kid I got in well with every comic shop owner I could and that turned out to be a good idea as when I hit my teens and got big into anime I would often get access to the backroom of private stash goodness and adult goods
Re: Woah, we had a Japanese toy store in Philly on South Street!!?? When was this, what was the name? I live a few blocks from South Street, its kind of a blessing and a curse that it isn't there anymore. I'd be so broke. Thanks for bringing this thread back. I just read it front to back. What a great eye-opening read.
Can't remember the name... it was very small and had a lot of different things, but a substantial amount of stuff straight from Japan. Transforming robots, keshi Ultramonsters, Bandai Ultraman figures... they had a display case on South Street with one of the jumbo Mazinga store display figures- about 4 feet tall? I think I bought my Ultraman 80 "Space Mammy" diecast spaceship there.
Re: We did go to Atomic city pal, and I continued to buy from there for many years calling him and asking "did you get anything new in? yeah, awesome I'll take it". The store in Philly was called 'Rocketships and Accessories'(I think) and I remember contemplating shoplifting 'cos they had so much cool stuff, I also ended up mail-ordering from there as well. Tim Kerr's house really blew my mind back then, I mean he had so much stuff, thats where I first saw the Bullmark Devilman with removable helmet and became obsessed with (and 13yrs later acquired one). Kimono my House was another place I bought from, I was on the list that they had for their Japan Buying Trips, at the time all I wanted was Jumbos and they came thru for me, twice.
^^^^ Ladies and Gentlemen, my best friend has joined Skullbrain! Thanks for clearing that up, I thought for sure Atomic City was closed. All I remember is Tim Kerr's house, and you being chased by a Doberman. Me and BKC went to art school together, and we scraped & scrounged for Japanese toys for years.
Re: Re: That's Quakerhead Collectibles. It started way out in the burbs, then to university city for a few years then to south street. I just saw Ted last week. He's dealing in KPop stuff now.
I couldn't help but notice that no one else mentioned the various CREATION Cons (Star Trek, Dr. Who, ROBOTECH) that toured the country in the 80's. They were a nice break from the local comic shops. Those dealer rooms were like an oasis of amazing genre swag from all over, including toys and books from Japan. You never knew what you would find. Also a great spot to find cult Japanese tv and movies on bootleg VHS. At one point they were being held locally twice, maybe three times a year, but by the mid-90's they vanished. I hauled a lot of Kenner Star Wars, Anime books, and Bandai sofubi out of those shows. They are some of my favorite memories of collecting.
If you lived in Australia and particularly QLD you got your shit from MY store or PIPPINs and PIPPINS was waaaaaayyyyy better because he had a contact in Japan and he was 20 years older than me so while I knew all my 70s-80s toy shit he knew 60s and up and he was a japanese robots and tin toys specialist. So people would come to us for "vintage" SW, TF and what I term "modern" mainstream toys and you'd go to PIPPINs for your shit hard, rare vintage Japanese vinyl/tin and pretty much everything else like diecast etc. Plus the guy who actually owned the store I ran was a drug-dealing scumbag who treated the customers like shit and scared more away then he let through the door. You couldn't get shit in AU though because we wouldn't get the cartoons that went with the toylines so toylines would bomb straight away e.g. we never had the GI Joe cartoon so the toys were a real "WHAT THE FUCK" toyline for us.
PRINCE! Haha. I miss Atomic City, used to go there at least once a week. Was able to buy a few cool items from Prince's personal collection right before they closed shop. They'd have storewide 50% off sales a couple times a year and I'd go nuts. Last I saw he was working at a smoke shop down the street from where AC was. I can only imagine the parts of his collection I DIDN'T get to see. Miss that place for sure.
Boy records is always a great stop in Tokyo. Now you should just send the rare records to me instead in exchange for vintage vinyl!
There was also a string of chainstores called "Heaven" that sold a variety of "cool" or "hip" toys and T-shirts and things, it's where I got my first vinyl figure, a carded Ipatsuman(which I still have), they even had vacuform masks of Gundam and Ultraman, I remember them having diecast Astro Boys, and beat myself up years later for not getting one.
This is one of the best vintage story threads on this forum. I wish the photos that @kaiwi posted were still available. Does anybody have them saved somewhere?