A Visit to Mandarake Akiba: Part 1

Hello everyone and welcome back to Tiro Finale as we take a look into one of the most established hobby stores in Japan. Having returned to Japan after a short trip back, the first place I wanted to visit, weirdly enough, was Mandarake's Complex building in Akihabara. I say, weirdly enough, because not only have I not visited Mandarake in a while, I never actually saw the need to with most of Mandarake's stock being accessible online. Yet, I still decided to pay a visit to the multi-storied complex anyway to see what surprises I may find. 

When I first arrived, I headed straight for the 8th floor where most, if not all, of the figures are displayed and sold. The first thing I noticed was just how much better organized the 8th floor was now compared to how it had been months ago. Now, there were actually proper shelves and pigeon holes with figure boxes being clearly on display. Such as this set of Idolmaster Nendoroid Petits, the whole unopened set for only 2,000 Yen! What a steal!

Next to that were a set of Nendoroid Petits of Love Live's second years and a limited edition, Love Live Instax Mini. The still sealed pack of Love Live Nendoroid Petits were certainly a rare find on their own right but, the Instax Mini was another even rarer find. The only other times I have seen this limited edition polaroid camera is behind the glass shelves of other major hobby stores and often at a much higher price than the 7,000 Yen asking price that Mandarake has given it. I am not sure when they were added to the store but, I have a feeling they would not be staying on the shelves for too much longer.

Despite a second release of Alter Love Live figures, the demand for them are still exceedingly strong. When it comes to buying a Alter Love Live figure out of pre-release, there are always two major hurdles. The first, is availability, where more popular characters are often sold out across all major stores and re-sellers. We can see here that Nozomi and Nico are on sale which is a good sign. Next, there is the matter of price where Love Live's Alter go for a rather steep markup in the re-seller's market. As we can see here, even Rin and Honoka hold steady at 13,000 Yen each. In my opinion, if you are looking to get an Alter Love Live figure, your best bet would be to carefully follow Mandarake and immediately grab it the moment a good condition, well-priced copy comes up. Because if you do not, rest assured some else will. 

Keeping on the topic of Love Live, I came across these pack of figure straps featuring the girls from Muse dressed as shrine maidens. Nozomi, the residen shrine maiden, gets two version, one as normal shrine maiden and another in full ceremonial garb. The entire thing costs 9,000 Yen and is an official merchandise made in collaboration with the Kanda Shrine, the shrine where Nozomi works at. Normally, they would cost 10,000 Yen for the whole set. While 9,000 Yen is still a lot of money for what is essentially miniature figures, the asking price is wholly fair considering its condition and rarity.

Moving on from one interest to another, I stumbled upon this rather unique piece of Madoka Magica merchandise manufactured by Bandai. Initially, I had absolutely no clue what it was. Only until I did some further research that I found out it was actually a poem card game released by Bandai way back in late 2013 for 8,000 Yen. Here we have one in mint, unopened condition and a prime piece for collectors of the series owing to its limited nature and rarity. While you may need to understand Japanese to actually play the game, I doubt many collectors would actually want to open this.

Now, it is important to note that the 8th floor is not the only worthwhile place to explore in the entire Mandarake complex. The seven other floors too contain relevant products of interest depending on what you enjoy. Take for example, the comics floor which sells not only used manga but, doujin products such as this fan made Hanekawa file. As such, if it is your first time to Mandarake Complex, do not skimp out on visiting the other floors too as you may never know what you will find!

While I would love to go on about the rest of my finds in Mandarake's giant complex building, I decided against making this article longer than it already is. Fret not though, as a second part is coming tomorrow focusing on rare and valuable finds from other anime series. Stay tuned for that!

With that, I am going to leave you with this poster of an upcoming Premium Kuji for Madoka Magica which is coming soon. As usual, if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below. Until the next time, thank you so much for reading and have yourself a wonderful day ahead!