Gunpla

Somewhere in Yokohama, circa 1989 or 1990. This was my first exposure to a "real" Japanese toy store. While I don't rock M.C. Escher tee shirts anymore, I still have that same expression frozen on my face today.

Comments

[Steve Harrison]

Yeah, I know that smile, Had it myself a few times, like when I first went to Yaohan (now Mitsuwa) in Chicago and discovered that Pony Toy had a shop there...

Did you have that moment when your mind was blasted? That "I've seen this, I wanted that but the store back home sold it and told me it was no longer available, holy cats I didn't know they made THAT!!!!" moment?

It's almost like becoming NewType, isn't it? :)

[MattAlt]

Oh yes. Mind definitely blasted the first time I encountered a toy store in the Motherland. But even more so when I first discovered Mandarake a few years later. Prices that seemed so insane to me as a college kid ("30,000 yen for a Getta Poseidon Jumbo Machinder?!") seem almost quaint now (it's 100,000 if you're lucky.)

[Chris]

That's a very cool photo actually.

[Steve Harrison]

For me, the thing was always not what I knew existed thanks to magazine ads and such like (Oz Shop! *sob*), but the plethora of the unknown.

I expect when I finally do get to Japan I may not survive...