Tomoe Mami Doll Haul

Hello everyone and welcome back to Tiro Finale for a very special haul from Mandarake! In what has been a very trying year for many, there has been a real shortage of new figures shipments around the Tiro Finale crew. One big reason for that is due to the limitation of Japan Post's EMS service and it still remains to be unavailable to where I am. In fact, I am still waiting on my Good Smile Company purchase that I made in May! Nevertheless, that did not deter me from this very special haul dedicated to Mami. In fact, this may very well be the first and only Mami haul for the entire year. Can you believe it?

If this was going to be the only dedicated Mami haul for the year of 2020, it was going to have to be something rather out of the ordinary. Especially considering the fact that my collection contains most every known officially released Mami figure in production thus far. Before that, full credits to Lance who was more than kind enough to agree to hold on to this shipment for the time being and even took the photos from the entire haul. Hence, the lurking Hanamaru which looks like she is about to gobble up this new shipment.

Getting back to the haul and we have not one but, two rare Tomoe Mami dolls that I have been keeping a keen eye out for over the past few years. They would pop up infrequently on Mandarake - roughly once every 3 months - but then, there would always be so deal breaker holding me back from making the purchase. It was often either the subpar condition (used, missing parts, cigarette smoke smell) or a prohibitively expensive price. So, you could imagine my surprise when I finally saw both of these Mami dolls pop up on Mandarake's Akihabara store one day. Quick checks on the condition revealed the two to be unused and sealed with very reasonable asking prices to boot. Not wanting to leave things to chance, I put in my order and no longer than an hour or two after they had been listed on Mandarake's website, they were sold once again.

The first piece of the puzzle was Azone's PureNeemo Tomoe Mami School Uniform Version. Released back in 2012 for a then asking price of 13,000 Yen, this Mami doll was part of Azone's 1/6 scale PureNeemo dolls which measured roughly 260 mm in height. Her clothes were made of real fabric and featured articulating joints. Mami herself came included a Kyubey. Remember, this was the time before Bebe was even a thing. I have seen mint condition ones go for as high as 18,000 Yen and used ones even fetch as much as 10,000 Yen. Christmas must have come early for me because I managed to purchase her for just 10,000 Yen.

Another similarly rare Mami doll that I have been meaning to add to the collection for a long time is Takara Tomy's Liccarize Tomoe Mami doll. Just like the PureNeemo one, this doll is a 1/6 scale with articulating joints and a full fabric outfit. While they share the same scales, the Liccarize Mami is notably shorter at 220 mm. It was also cheaper upon release at just 7,000 Yen, with a limited Takara Tomy online sales making these dolls fairly far and few in between. These days, it is not unusual to see a mint one fetching anywhere between 15,000 - 30,000 Yen! By some stroke of luck, I managed to purchase this Mami for just 7,000 Yen! This too was unused and classified as having box damage.

While I worked hard to secure the purchase by making sure to put in the order quick, the remainder of the process was out of my hands. I was absolutely confident in the handling by Mandarake and Japan Post which would have put no harm to the package but, it was the trip after that which worried me the most. While I did insure the entire shipment for its worth, I could finally breath a sigh of relief when I found out that both the dolls had arrived safe and sound with no damages. It will be a fairly long period of time before I get to see these two dolls but, for the time being, I am more than satisfied that I managed to finally add them to the collection. 

Of course, this is far from the end of the collection as there are still a fair number of obscure Mami figures that I would still like to get. Perhaps I should make a compilation of what exactly those are? Let me know in the comments section if you would like to see something like that. Until then, thank you so much for reading and have yourself a wonderful day ahead!