Month: November 2016

My cousin Dave and I finally went on a trip to Japan together to go robot hunting. The first place we made it to after going to Midori Sushi in Tokyo was Toy Planet. The East Urawa store was an hour out of Ikebukuro Tokyo by subway. It was the closest location to us. I have no idea how my cousin found it as we had to transfer trains to get there and he cannot read kanji. Toy Planet carries a wide assortment of toys like a Toys R’ Us for used toys or Goodwill(except well organized and clean).  So old video games from the Super Famicom to the current generation of systems, Tomy cars, a lot of trains including Thomas, Super Sentai robots from the last 5-7 years, a wall of Gunpla, dolls & dollhouses, baby toys, anime figures, a few Soul of Chogokin, etc.

A couple of years ago my cousin found me a Hikaru Bandai 1/55 scale Origin of Valkyrie with armor, some loose DX Sentai robots, and my Aura Battler Billbine. Toy Planet is a big box store for Japan, but it is outside of Tokyo.

Toy Planet East Urawa Store used toys, hobbie and video games. This is a huge store for Japan.

The selection of robots is mostly current toys or from the last few years. There were only a few older pieces from the 1980’s. They had a few Chogokin pieces that were way out of my price range like the Popy Godsigma and Daltanious. Behind the counter they had a 1991 Bandai Hi Metal Super Valkyrie on layaway. I was tempted to pick up a Takatoku Macross Block System SDF-1 from 1983 for $40. But it looked and felt really cheaply made. I picked up a Destron Laserwave(Shockwave) Masterpiece Transformer, some Japanese PlayStation 1 games and Machine Robo Baikanfu which I found by accident as we were about to leave. The Baikanfu was a real find. I honestly did not think they would have and robots from the 1980’s I could afford. Dave picked up a Mushagundamcloth which came out in 1989. He found this store on a YouTube video. Go figure.

Here is a link to their site if you plan to make it out to one of their 7 branches. Google Translate helped read about them a little bit. They may have more branches but it does not look like they have updated the site since 2007 based on the copyright date on the bottom of the site. If you are in Japan for a little toy hunting, its not a bad little 4 hour day trip.

http://www.toyplanet.jp/index.html

I think they need a bigger sign.

Here is what I picked up. I will add Dave’s later when I have the picture.

Machine Robo DX Baikanfu Series C Bandai 1987

Transformers Masterpiece Destron Laserwave MP-29 Takara Tomy 2016

Realtype Mushagundamcloth DX Bandai 1989 Japan