Super Potato - vintage video game shop in Osaka (store visit video)

Super Potato is one of the newer shops in the Nipponbashi area of Osaka, where you'll find a bunch of toy stores, video game shops, maid cafes, etc. It's basically Osaka's equivalent of Akihabara. Super Potato opened this branch of its growing chain of stores in April, 2012. I just visited for the first time and thought it was a pretty cool spot, so I did a walk through video shoot.

Sorry it's kind of shaky at times. Still using my Canon S95 to shoot video. Haven't had a chance to upgrade the equipment yet. Below the video I'll list some store details.



Website: www.superpotato.com
Tel: 06-6647-3505
Address: 〒556-0005 大阪府大阪市浪速区日本橋3-8-18 平田ビル１階
Store Hours: 11:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Map: Click here 

I asked, and the shop does sell stock online, but unfortunately at this time they don't ship outside of Japan.

Check out my YouTube channel for lots of other store visits, toy maker interviews, and other random goodness.

Design Festa 37: Indie Toys

Today's Design Festa saw quite a lot of activity in the indie toy world. The show was eclectic, at times confusing, and sometimes downright chaotic. That could be because we've entered round peg/square hole territory. As we've reported, over the last couple of years DF has grown in stature in the indie toy world - mostly, I think, because of the demise of other shows like Pachi Summit, and WCC, WHF, along with the closure of Kaiju Blue and overall decline of the custom show/gallery circuit.

So DF became more and more prominent toy wise, and for a while there was some order to it all as the indie makers were mostly clustered in one area. This time around, that fell apart. There were a few booths alongside one another (Max Toy, Sunguts, Yamomark, + Blobpus), but most others were scattered all over the Big Sight. On top of that, some customs and releases were brought out at random times, and there was a lot of booth sharing, which is cool but it took a lot more figuring out what was whose and what was up.

Having said all that, if you put on your walking shoes and stuck to it, there was quite a lot to see. A number of makers debuted for the first time, there were new sculpts released and protos revealed, and in general folks seemed to have a good time.

Here is probably my largest ever DF report, with more than 200 photos, arranged alphabetically by maker. I've added links to the websites/Facebook pages/blogs of some of the newer makers.

Black Rabbit

 200+ photos after the jump:

New from Uamou

Shots I took the other day at Studio Uamou. Lots of new figures, collabs, and even an ongoing exhibition.

  More after the jump:

New from Secret Base

Shots from my recent trip to the Secret Base shop:

 More after the jump:

New customs at One Up Akiba

 

Some fantastic new figures at One Up Akiba by Zenith, Todd Robertson, Pico, Pico, and others,:

New Zenith

 

Pico Pico

 More after the jump:

Indie toys at Paradise Toy Land (Taipei) Int'l orders OK

Paradise Toy Land in Taipei has some nice indie toys available. International shipping is OK, and ordering or writing to them in English should be no problem.

Here are some pics of what they have:

 More after the jump:

Ultraman Taro special exhibition at Super Festival 62

One of the coolest things at each Super Festival is a special exhibition set up in one of the event rooms. Unfortunately, these displays don't tend to get as much attention as the dealer tables and set ups in other halls. I think that's in part because the exhibits are in the same room as the "talk shows" featuring tokusatsu dignitaries from classic and newer shows. In fact, sometimes the theme of the exhibit coincides with one of the event's speakers. But the focus of the people in the room is on the speakers, and there's little foot traffic otherwise.

So, though not quite as high on the radar as some of the other SF happenings, I've been trying to highlight these exhibits in separate posts, since they can be spectacular in their own right. Super Festival 62's exhibit focused on Ultraman Taro, which aired on TV from 1973-1974.

In two large showcases, there was a cornucopia of Taro related merchandise, from toys to books to lifestyle products like slippers. It was almost a time capsule of what you might find in the room of a young Taro fan in the 1970s.

Here are some pics of the display:

 More after the jump:

Super Festival 62 - Indie Toys

Today's Super Festival was fantastic. It had a great mix of debut releases, new versions of older toys, protos of upcoming figures, makers attending the show for the first time, guests from classic TV shows (like Ultraman Taro and Barom 1), and one heck of an amazing Ultraman Taro exhibition, which I'll post about later.

Let's start with a look at the indie toy booths:

Billiken

 230+ pics after the jump:

Paul Kaiju Re-Bootleg figures - first look!

 

Today at Super Festival 62, one of the coolest things I saw was a set of protos of two upcoming Paul Kaiju figures. The figures, which are being put out by Fig Lab, are called Re-Bootlegs. The reason is their arms and lower half were cast from an old line of 1970s tokusatsu bootlegs, while the head/torso sections are original PK designs. In one word I think the whole concept is AWESOME!

These are some of the figures from the 1970s line of bootlegs. The arms and legs were the same for most of the figures in the line.

Here's a look at the Re-Bootlegs with the vintage figures.

More after the jump:

Kaws x OriginalFake Star Wars Mini Darth Vader and Stormtrooper

Today, a mini Kaws inflected Darth Vader, a mini Stormtrooper, and some other things (like an incense holder and Snoopy keychain) were released at OriginalFake in Tokyo. Here are some shots of the minis.

The packaging is very secure.

The figures are about 1.5" tall. Given that, the level of detail, especially on the Vader, is pretty good.

 More after the jump:

Tokyo toy shop map updated

I've added three more stores to my map of Tokyo toy shops: Yamashiroya, Psycho Monsterz, and Rubber Duck. You'll find the first one (a gigantic multi-floor toy store in Ueno) in pretty much every guide to Tokyo toy stores, but maybe not the second and third - so a bit of extra flavor there for some cool, but a bit more under the radar shops.

Along with all the shop info, I've also added links to KK store reports, so you can read up on the shops before heading over.

The updated post now contains nearly 30 shops and shopping centers. 

Have fun!

Makaimura/魔界村 (Ghosts'n Goblins) Zoomoth keshi gomu Arthur

Carrying on with our Makaimura kick, here's a look at the excellent keshi gomu Arthur, released by Zoomoth as a one-day license figure at Winter Wonder Festival 2013.

A look at the figure from the back and both sides:

The figure is around 1.5-2" tall

 More after the jump:

Makaimura/魔界村 (Ghosts'n Goblins) Keshi Gomu Set

I finally tracked down a complete Makaimura keshi set, which was put out by Bandai around 1986. Today, during a lazy afternoon in Shibuya, Tokyo, I snapped some pics, since I think it will be a cool reference for folks into keshi and/or Makaimura and/or creepy photos of toys perched on giant rabbit mannequins.

There are 21 figures in the set. Just a few are of Arthur (armored and nearly nekkid) and the princess (not nekkid), and the rest of the figure are baddies bent on Arthur's destruction and, if you were a child of the 80s, all of your quarters.

Today's rubbery malfeasance took place at a nice coffee shop/restaurant called Glorious. It's smoke free and reasonably priced. The nachos aren't bad, and the serving of fries, which come in a paper bag NYC Pomme Frites style, is huge by Japan standards.

The figures came in five different colors, and they're about 1" tall.

More after the jump:

One Up April Pandemonium Custom Show

Pics of the latest custom show at One Up Akiba, featuring works by Todd Robertson, Blobpus, Dream Rockets, Dol Roffo, Sunguts, Gumtaro, P.P. Pudding, Uky Daydreamer, Click Crack, and Monster Factory, and others.

Todd Robertson

 

Monster Factory

 More after the jump:

Yusei Majin news - past, present, and future

Here's some new Yusei Majin information, fresh from my recent visit to Cosmo Knight Alpha.

In a previous post, I wrote about the backstory of Yusei Majin and what led to its production as an indie sofubi figure. Part of the story (actually the beginning of the process for the creators of YM) was a green bootleg Ooze It released in Japanese gacha machines in 1983.

I just learned that there wasn't just a green and red Ooze It bootleg. The line also contained a completely different figure.

There was also a two-piece blue base (with silver spray) figure of the same size that looks like something right out of the Ooze It universe. It looks like it could be an original design inspired by Ooze It. Here it is alongside the green bootleg.

The figure adds an interesting new twist to the story.

Next, here are pics of the CKA window display, showing a nice side by side view of lots of Yusei Majin releases:

 More after the jump: