Nagoya Extras

Hello everyone and welcome back to Tiro Finale! So far, we have taken a good look at the majority of hobby stores available in Nagoya from our two part series in Mandarake, a look at Jungle's 2 story Nagoya outlet and even the Lashinbang's large store. Of course, those are not the only hobby offerings you can find in the city of Nagoya which has its own Pokemon Centre and major electronic stores such as Yodobashi Camera and Bic Camera, of which you should never discount when it comes to finding awesome hobby goods.

Aside from the big names, there are also other hobby staples like Yellow Submarine, Cospa and several local hobby stores which populate the city of Nagoya. While I did not have the time to do a thorough sweep of all the stores, here is a collection of a few extras that I have gathered all in one place here.

Beside that, I am also going to highlight several interesting finds pertinent to my personal interest which I did not see fit adding into the coverage of the store tours itself. Case in point, these pair of Eli and Nozomi rubber straps featuring their Bokutachi wa Hitotsu no Hikari outfits. Not only were these rubber straps larger than usual, they also happened to be fairly uncommon. To find these just selling for 200 Yen each was an absolute steal especially when I have seen them going for close to 1,000 Yen in other stalls. 

How about this All Might acrylic keychain from the My Hero Academia series? I am not too well versed with this series' merchandise but, seeing as to how a close friend of mine is a huge fan of the series and this character in particular, I figured it would make a great little souvenir for him.

Aside from the All Might keychain, I also got him this cute bath towel Nero rubber strap. Funnily enough this was one of the rubber straps that he actually missed out on when playing the Ichiban Kuji for this particular set. Well needless to say, it belongs to him now. And at just 200 Yen, it is an absolute steal.

Nendoroid Petit(s) released in conjunction with magazine or book releases often tend to be very rare and sought after due to their limited nature and the fact that it is otherwise extremely difficult to obtain outside of Japan. But Mandarake Nagoya seemed to have a good stock of these Saber Swimsuit version and the best part is, they were selling for only 1,000 Yen.

Not too far from it was the Nendoroid Petit Shimakaze which was released back when Kancolle was just beginning to gain traction in terms of popularity. While I had never seen the aforementioned Petit Saber in stores before, the only time I had ever seen the Petit Shimakaze was in a friend's collection. And he had to go through a significant amount of hurdles just to obtain his Shimakaze. So, Mandarake Nagoya must have clearly done something rather special in order to get their hands on such a large quantity of these limited Nendoroid Petit. I wonder if they are still in stores.

Earlier I mentioned Yellow Submarine as one of the few hobby stores available in Nagoya's city center and you would find it within a close vicinity of all the other major hobby stores. Yellow Submarine would be the place for you especially if you are a fan of trading cards and board games. I did spend a short time in this Yellow Submarine outlet and as the sign mentioned it was focused primarily on card and board games, perhaps due to the already abundant number of figure stores around the area.

If you are in Nagoya and want to get your anime apparel fix, the best play to go is undoubtedly Cospa. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that Cospa has its own dedicated store in Nagoya. The only other time I have ever seen a dedicated Cospa store was in Akihabara or Wonder Festival.

Moreover, the store turned out to be a pretty large one too with a floor space larger than the Tokyo one. There were a whole host of anime-themed apparel made by Cospa for sale with the frontline being the most popular series at the moment.

Even newly released series had merchandise ready for sale. I have yet to watch the above series but, the premise does seem fairly interesting and I would certainly consider checking it out in the near future especially since the bag's description did give me a good laugh when I first saw it.

Umu! Chibi Nero is just one of the best things out there with her blonde hair and bright red armor, it always never fails to stand out especiallys since she always has such a lively expression.

Aside from the traditional hobby stores, I also spent a good amount of time around the major electronic stores such as Yodobashi Camera and Bic Camera. It was there where I stumbled upon these cool Monster Hunter treading figures. The last time I saw it was several months back at Kotobukiya in Akihabara but, I had never seen such a large selection of them in one place.

The best part is, all of the monsters were also put on display exhibiting a really high quality of finish for what is essentially a trading figure. I was considering getting one of them for our fellow Tiro Finale writer, Lance, but ultimately dismissed that notion as the nature of the blind boxes meant that it could have ended up being a monster that he was not a big fan off. No matter though as the souvenir I got in return was certainly a better one as you will soon find out in a future article.

Of all the hobby spots I visited in Nagoya, the one place I missed out were the arcades. While I intentionally placed the arcades at the bottom of my priority list, it would certainly have been nice to peruse the arcades given I had more time. As such, I have made it a goal to re-visit Nagoya in the future and truly spend a full day just going though all the hobby spots and stores. 

With that, we officially come to the end of our Nagoya hobby coverage. Fear not though, there is still one final destination to visit before I say goodbye to Japan and that is, Akihabara. Stay tuned for that and, in the meantime, if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below. Until then, thank you so much for reading and have yourself a wonderful day ahead!