Mandarake Nagoya Tour: Part 2

Hello everyone and welcome back to Tiro Finale! On Monday, we took a look at the first part of our Mandarake Nagoya shop tour as we explored the first two floors of this four story hobby complex. Today, we are going to wrap things up by taking a look at the third and fourth floor of Mandarake Nagoya. If you have not already read the first part, feel free to hop on over to it before continuing where we left off. 

Moving on to the third floor, we come the cosplay section. Mandarake, regardless of outlet, have always had one of the largest collection of cosplay outfits in store. Some are new, some are pre-owned but the prices always seem affordable. I am not in the cosplay-scene myself but, compared to what these go for in other stores, I am fairly certain you could probably get a good deal in Mandarake.

While I would have liked to spend more time in the third floor, a little doorway with a sign leading to the fourth floor caught my interest. Curiously enough, the escalators in Mandarake Nagoya only led up to the third floor which led me to believe, initially, that only three floors were open to customers. But this sign beckoned me to explore further as it led me to this colorfully painted stairwell. Gingerly, I made way up the steps noting that never had I come across any Mandarake nor hobby store for that matter which was this colorfully painted. In fact, it almost made me think I was in Ikea for a moment there.

All along the way up, hung along the walls were some very high quality retro-looking silkscreens which also happened to be on sale. A closer look at the price confirmed that I would not have pockets nearly deep enough to afford even one of these. Yet it did reassure me that wherever I was headed was certainly an area accessible to customers. 

It did not take me long to find out though as I soon arrived to the top of the stairwell greeted by a large number "4" printed on a bright orange wall. The stairwell would lead on to another few floors but, anything above the 4th floor was for staff only, likely offices and stocks reside in the upper floors. Well then, shall we find out what lies on this mysterious fourth floor?

Immediately greeted by a giant figure of the Transformer, Scorponok, it did not take me long to realize that I had arrived at the section where the big ticket items are displayed. Consisting largely of retro mecha(s) and dolls, these are possibly one of the most expensive items per unit surface area that Mandarake sells. 

Almost every item on sale on the fourth floor was displayed behind a locked glass cabinet. Even for long time collectors in this hobby, dolls still remain a very define niche and community. As someone who merely dabbles in doll collection, largely to collect the Mami ones, I could certainly appreciate the impressive catalogue of dolls Mandarake had on offer. Usually the only other place I would see this many dolls lined up in a single area are at Volks or in specialty stores in Akihabara.

And there is certainly a very good reason why doll collecting remains to be such a nice community. Aside from the fact they are dolls, which to some extent may put off people, they are also incredibly expensive to collect. Where figure collectors would cringe at the thought of spending anything north of 25,000 Yen for a 1/7 scale figures, numbers such as that are often only sufficient for doll accessories. 

For example this Nero Claudius doll which Mandake is selling for 70,000 Yen. If you think that price tag is insane, you are forgetting the fact that this is Mandarake and whatever they sell more often than not largely undercuts much of the market. Back in 2011, Volks released this particular Nero Claudius for 69,000 Yen (taxes excluded). When you take inflation into consideration, suddenly Nero's price does not seem to bad after all. While I would have loved to stay and document even more examples of these charming dolls, a quick glance at my watch made me realize that it was fast approaching 8:00 PM which also meant closing time was upon me.

Going back down, I decided to take the staircase all the way to the ground floor as I just could not get enough of the store's brightly painted stair well. It was just such a lovely sight and something you should definitely miss if you ever visit Mandarake Nagoya. Along the way, feel free to also admire the high quality silk screens that are on display along the walls of the stair well.

It is a rare occasion for me to ever leave a Mandarake empty handed and this was no exception. While I did manage to grab a few rare trinkets and rubber straps for myself, a large proportion of the goods I purchased were actually for my fellow writers and friends. I will covering my haul from Nagoya in a future article so, make sure you look out for that!

In the meantime, if you ever find yourself in Nagoya, even if it is for a short period of time, do yourself a favor and pay Mandarake a visit even if for a short period of time. A word of advice though, be wary of Mandarake's opening and closing hours especially the fact that they close at 8 o'clock necessitating good planning ahead of time if you do intend to spend some time at the store.With that, we come to the end of our Mandarake Nagoya store tour. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to leave them in the comments section below. Next week, we will be taking a look at the last hobby store in Nagoya that I had the chance to visit, Rashinbang. Until the next time, thank you so much for reading and have yourself a wonderful day ahead!