Going to California... >>pics added<<

[DaveZav]

Going to California with an aching in my heart...

Hey ALL
I've been sorrily out of the loop for the last 3 months...
Maybe a change of scenery can put that spark back into my collecting.

I'm heading to Santa Cruz for a week and could use a bit of advice
from anyone who knows where I can pick up a few
new or vintage Micros. Or any robot-type food stuffs.
I may be able to travel outside of Santa Cruz a little too.
Can anyone suggest some shops?

I expect to be able to read the posts here
but I can also be reached by an email to
>motorrazor at yahoo dot com<.
Thanks.
-Led Zeppelin (Dave Zav)

[DaveZav]

Hey All
I've got a list of toy shops of the NYC area that I keep in the FILES section over at the ME group.
I've bought Microman and/or Micronauts and Henshin Cyborg in some of these shops.
I may have added some other shops that other collectors have provided.

Below I'm posting the list I have. Please note that some of these shops may have closed so I'd call ahead.

David Zav [e-mail]

Toy Tokyo - 121 2nd Ave. 2nd floor. (betw 7th st. & St. Marks Place)
212-673-5424 Tues. – Thurs. 2pm – 9pm. Fri. – Sun. 1pm –9pm. Closed Mon.
www.toytokyo.com/

Love Saves the Day - 119 2nd Ave New York, NY. 10003-8331
Phone: [phone]
This is a great vintage toy store. May or may not have micros.
Or 510 Broome Street New York NY. [phone] ?

Image Anime Co. - 103 West 30th Street New York, NY. 10001
Phone: [phone] (btwn 6th & 7th Avenue)
Mon-Fri 11AM - 7PM, Sat 12PM - 6PM
matrixcollectibles.site.yahoo.net/index.html

ZAKKA - 147 Grand Street New York, NY 10013
Phone: [phone]
I’ve never been here.
www.zakkacorp.com/index2.html

Toys from the Outer Limits - 387 Piaget Ave. Clifton, NJ 07011
Phone: [phone] Hours: Mon-Sat 11am-9pm Sun 11am-6pm
I’ve never been here.
www.OuterLimitstoys.com

Village Comics - 214 Sullivan St. (btwn Bleeker & W.3rd st.)
Phone: [phone]
www.villagecomics.com

Forbidden Planet - 840 Broadway (corner of 13th & B’way)
Phone: [phone]AM to 10PM Monday – Saturday. 11-8 Sunday
www.forbiddenplanetnyc.com/

[Kidchuckle]

oh I finally found the topic you were telling me.
I'll add it to the list

thanks.

[mannix143]

thanks man for the info, even i am more of a jumbo collector, the stores may do me good.

[dme3o]

DaveZav,

Outer Limits is now defunct.

[DaveZav]

Thanks dme3o,
darn, I never got a chance to go to Outer Limits.
I guess now I never will...

I did go to California and I did get some advice from some
collectors on where to go for Microman and robots in general.
Soon I will post a small review of what I found
and list the stores I shopped at.

there is a thread of "Toy Stores of the World" somewhere else
on this board, I will try to add the stores to that list.

[DaveZav]

So, I did go to Santa Cruz for Thanksgiving and spent most of my time with my family walking the beaches, driving the shoreline and seeing the sights. Everyday was beautiful weather and I have the pictures to prove it! I took a dip in the Pacific and froze my ass off!
I also bought some robots, heheh!

GreyHound Rock - County of Santa Cruz
Highlights of the trip:
Natural Bridges State Park, Carmel and Big Sur, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Fishermans Wharf in San Francisco.

I did do some shopping in San Jose. First stop was Time Tunnel, and this would be the best place I shopped at. The guy working there was really cool and once he realized I wasn't there to waste his time (that I was going to spend some money) he became really friendly. This store was full of vintage toys of every kind. Not too much Micronaut or Microman, but cool sh*t anyway. Even my brother, who came with me, was impressed with the variety of nostalgia. I walked all over making mental notes of stuff I wanted to see before asking the guy for help, as everything is locked in Plexiglas cases. I saw some knock off MicroChange stuff in his Transformer case that I now wish I got but I wanted to conserve my money for the other shops. In a case full of Vinyl monsters I saw a loose purple new King Walder II Henshin Cyborg, the one with the magnet arm joints. There was a price of $45 on him but when I asked about if the box was with it the guy said he'd sell it to me for $20, no box. I agreed but kept asking about the box and weapons until he finally found the box with everything else inside it. I was so glad I kept asking! Still, $20. After that I found some repro Microman figures on card. There was a M-181 Microlady for $5 and an M-154 and M-162 for $20 each. He sold me all three for $15, which was very cool. I already have 2 or 3 of each of these but I couldn't resist at that price. Good for trades or customs, etc... At that point I felt pretty good and considered that if these were the only Micros I would come away with from California, then it was enough. I was very happy to have found the store and found the Cyborg at that price. I added a 1983 Bandai 6" Vinyl monster that was only $6 because it is pretty beat up but still cool and that was all I got from Time Tunnel. Later I would wish I spent more money there but, what can you do?

Next to Time Tunnel was Space Cat and although this place had more stuff I wanted, the guy working there was a jackass. Everything I asked about was overpriced or not priced. A bunch of Micronaut parts and things that I would have taken off his hands was just marked too high for me to even consider negotiating and the unpriced Chogokin stuff I really wanted he needed to "look up". While I waited for him to look this stuff up, the guy instead started waiting on customers and filing comic orders and I realized the guy wasn't going to sell me these items cheap. After 15 minutes, my brother gave me one of "those" looks and I figured it was best to get the hell out of there. My one regret there is he had repro Microman Spy Magicians (M14X) for $10 each. I have 2 sets of these already, and some loose spares, but at that price I should have bought atleast one set. But I've paid as little as $5 each for these, so...
From there we went over to Far Out Toys which was in an "asiatown" area. There were signs on the street corners indicating this. All new toys, some new Microman stuff, but too expensive, like MicroSisters for $25 each. I know this is the regular price on these and I should have been glad to find them, but I was really looking for specific stuff and more so just Vintage Microman. They had some Cy Girls and even the new HUGE Scopedog mech but in the end I didn't get anything there. Too bad, if I lived close by, I would go to this store all the time. I'm sure they would order anything I wanted and would be a great source for all new Micro items. I was glad to find this place and know that there are places you can walk into and mention Microman, and have them know what you are talking about. From here the owner suggested Nikaku Animart, which was just a few streets away (615 N. 6th, San Jose, CA. 95112 408.971.2822). This was a strange Japanese store that was like a Wal-mart of Japan. Half the store was interior furnishing and knick-knacks, the rest was books and manga and videos. Few toys here but after looking around for so long and figuring this was my last stop, I finally found this really cool Gundum figure in a clear plastic case with card board wrapper. It was almost the size of Microman and only $6.50. Made by Bandai in 1994, they had two of them so I bought both and left. Well, right then I should have gone back to Time Tunnel, or even back to Far Out Toys. I had only spent a total of $54 and was prepared to spend as much as $200 if needed. But my brother wanted to get back to Santa Cruz in time for sunset and I didn't want to argue. I had my Micro experience in California and I was grateful. I definitely should have gone back to Time Tunnel. The guy there had so much stuff that he was just looking to move it out and he probably would have given me a deal on everything I wanted. He had one of the Microman books that you only see on ebay and he let me flip through it. It wasn't for sale... Definitely my pick for coolest store and experience.

Time Tunnel, 532 S Bascom Ave,
San Jose, CA 95128 [phone]

Space Cat Toys, 536 S Bascom Ave
San Jose, CA, 95128

Far Out Toys, 161 Jackson St Ste 2
San Jose, CA, 95112 [phone]

Nikaku Animart, 615 N. 6th,
San Jose, CA. 95112 [phone]

This is the King Walder. Those are Red Falcon wings added in there



Repro Microman. $5 each, not bad...

This guy was $6, I forgot his name.

Anyone know what these are?

[Falconhood]

$5 each?! that is friggin awesome!!

[DaveZav]

falconhood said:

$5 each?! that is friggin awesome!!

Yes, yes that IS friggin awesome.

Last year I won a Microman '99 Lot of 37 figures,
all MOC for a BIN price of $9.99 !!!
It was $23.00 total shipped UPS, that's like .62 cents each!

It was a lot of the first 5 Microman '99 figures (001-005).
Not my favorite of the Microman figures, but at that price
I could eat some and mount some to the body of my car.
Trade some and customize some,
and still have some to give away...

[Majinga Z]

Far Out Toys, 161 Jackson St Ste 2
San Jose, CA, 95112 [phone]

Got my GX-27 there...cool guys.

[00silvergt]

Are they still around each time I call far out I get some voicemail.

[goldenage]

Hey DaveZav, I am originally from Hamden. Are there any cool toy shops around the area?

[DaveZav]

goldenage said:

Hey DaveZav, I am originally from Hamden. Are there any cool toy shops around the area?

Hey Goldenage
Great question, I am always looking for new shops as I drive around
but I haven't seen anything new.

There was The Time Tunnel on Campbell Ave in West Haven but that
closed years ago. I think the owner had finally pissed off enough
people because I heard there was a break in and his shop was looted
before he even found out. Well, that's what I heard.

And there was this guy from Hamden that I met through ebay who
later opened up a shop a few blocks away in West Haven also.
It was a cool shop, mostly Star Wars but I did get my first Lobros
there. Anyway, last time I drove by it looked closed, like for good.

The only places I find collectible toys in New Haven County are at
all the comic shops. And any of the Malls that have toy stores.
Back when the Machine Force Microman came to the U.S. they were
in all the KB Toy stores and in the Sun Coast stores in the malls.
I still check them every now and then for leftovers...
There was a great Anime store in the Waterbury mall but
I think it's gone (there were 2 actually).

There is Castle Comics in Ansonia.
Great for toys and Model supplies.
But that's my secret gold mine, they have lots of marked down
stuff, and great sales, like the 2 MicroAction Batman that I got for
$3 each. But don't tell anyone! Doh!

Let me know if you are still in the area.

L8r
-Dave Zav

[admin1 aka Ed]

Those two Robots look like a RX-78 Gundam variation....it reminds me of the Banpresto style of box for the claw machines (you know, the crane machines with joysticks that hook kids).

Ed

[DaveZav]

admin said:

it reminds me of the Banpresto style of box for the claw machines (you know, the crane machines with joysticks that hook kids).

Ed

Thanks Admin1.
I think they also call those machines "UFO" for some reason.
right?
Takara made some limited articulation Time Travelers for these
kinds of machines. I have a few and they are cool,
but a little disappointing (cheap).
Grey paint instead of chrome heads.
Painted on hands and feet.

I'm sure some collectors bought these on ebay
and were surprised when they got these instead of the "real"
barefoot repros that Takara also released.
I found mine in a shop so I could see right away what they were.

[rodrevil]

Can't believe the price!

[DaveZav]

hey HEY hey
Takin' my chances on another big jet plane and goin' BACK to Santa Cruz!
THIS time I hope to get more time to spend in San Fran too,
so if anyone has any suggestions to finding Robot Toys,
Vintage Toys and new collectibles please post them.
I'm sure I'll make it back over to the shops in San Jose
but if anyone knows of any shops in Santa Cruz
or new shops in the San Jose area I'd really appreciate it.
I don't know of any in San Francisco so please list any that you can.
Also, if anyone can suggest any live music venues, great eats,
or other places of interest, please do!
Thanks guys!
-Dave Zav

[admin1 aka Ed]

Yes, UFO was a reference to a UFO spaceship (the claw) picking up toys out of the machines.



Like in toy story. 'The claw....oooh'

[machinesoldier]

Make sure you hit up Kimono My House in Emeryville when you're in SF. This was the first and still is the best vintage japanese toy store in the country. Not exactly cheap, but most items from the last 10 years are still priced at retail. There is so much stuff jam packed into that little place that you can spend hours in there.

www.kimonomyhousetoys.com/shop.cgi

Also Super7 has a store in SF but I've never been there.

[00silvergt]

Super7 has more of a vinyl, custom, rare-1 of 1 type stuff. They have a couple of SOC's...the nice thing about going there would be that you will be right across the street from Japantown, which means you can hit up Sapporya and a few other ramen spots. There is a also a giant bookstore there with a bunch of books and magazines. There is also another store inside Japantown with toys, both modern and vintage, but be prepared to spend and overpay.

Oh, if you do get to stop by Kimono My House, go tell Yuki-san and Brian that I said, "Hi," or rather, Garret said, "Hi," LOL