One category I hoped to refill in Japan was model kits, since I’d built all the ones I had and needed new ones. They’re also usually much cheaper to buy in Japan than in the USA. However I had no particular kits in mind, so what did I find?
This is a stylish female robot kit that was designed for pose-ability. It was manufactured in many different color combinations and I had my pick. I remember seeing this in Australia for about $100 back in June but bought this at Yellow Submarine in Akiba for under $20!
I don’t know the character but I thought the kit was cute and the price – about $8 – was too good to resist. Visiting Japan at new years and taking advantage of the sales turned out to be a good thing!
The Umamusume anime – about horses anthropomorphized as young women – is very popular in Japan right now and there’s loads of merchandise available. Early in the trip I saw this kit in a glass resellers case in Akiba for a too-high price and vowed to find an affordable one. Despite my best attempts searching the many shops that sold new kits I never succeeded (which is weird; why isn’t a Bandai kit available?) but then on the penultimate day found a new one for a great price (about $30) at Akiba Mandarake. This one will be fun to build 🙂
There’s a wide range of Ultraman kits available now, and I’ve already made a half dozen of them. The above was a new release, and a no-brainer pickup at under $20.
Despite the low cost and light weight of these things they take up a fair amount of luggage space! This was one of the reasons we bought a new suitcase in Japan. In total our four suitcases weighed over 140 lbs!
Lastly I found the above on our unexpected last day. It was very cheap, was the only time I’d ever seen it, and it called to me so I got it and found space for it in our already-packed suitcases! Just now I built it:
It only has about 20 pieces including creepy rubbery gums. The mechanism to open the jaw is impressively simple and it works very well. It only took me a (fun) half hour or so to assemble:
This one will go to work and be displayed on a cabinet next to my dinosaur skeleton kit.