Are there more than 3 collectors from Minnesota here?

Counting me, three that I know of these days. Are more of you here? Western WI, MN, Eastern Dakotas, Northern Iowa? Say hi. Are there any toy stores in your area? Conventions? Is there already a thread that I just missed?

 

Really should have known better than to ask that on a board where every avatar acts like they know everyone in California AND Japan. What was I thinking?
Happy Holidays anyway and yay for the State Fair!

 

Well im from Michigan so we do have a few here. Surprised no one has said anything for your state yet.

 

Long ago we had robot love here, but they were almost all art toys and they folded. Nice people, nice stuff but we don't seem to have a built up cultural background that includes kaiju, j-pop, etc.

 

I'm here bro! Shoreview! Yeah robot love was the stuff. Tomodachi used to carry max toy and stuff but have been pretty much hello kitty for years now.

 

There used to be a guy in the Northrup King building (edit: Main Street Toys - by appointment ) who did rare and vintage toys including robots, but didn't seem to be into vinyls. Talked with Tomodachi once a long time ago; he mostly wanted to buy my bull minis... not a help, but certainly a very sincere fan in his own right, nice fella.

 

We used to have pretty outstanding sci-fi conventions here too but they all seem to have splintered due to internal issues. Anybody want to plug a good con? Anybody know of a good sci-fi book store besides dream haven (great place sporadic hours) or the venerable Uncle Hugo's?

 

I met an old Swedish guy. He wanted to sell me Moomin bootlegs.

 

That's right, isn't Michigan home to ViciousFun?

 

I have no idea to be honest.

 

Well, it's not totally out of the realm of the possible that I have misinformed myself... not a first. ha.

 

Hey. Live in CO now but i am from Sioux Falls SD originally with a TON of time spent in the Twin Cities. Always been a second home. Major MN love.

 

I used to live in MN many moons ago... I lived in St. Paul for a while and then a couple of smaller towns with populations of roughly 300 or so people. Good ole country living! I also lived in Des Moines, IA for awhile too! Ah, I do not miss the snow.

 

I lived in Minneapolis from 98-2009 before I moved back home to SF. I miss it there sometimes, but honestly I never saw much anything relating to this hobby when I was there

 

Yeah, you go to a rummage sale in Hawaii, once in a blue moon you cop a Mazinger or Bullmark. In Minnesota, you go to a sale and cop one of those nasty orange rosemaled wooden horses or a lawn dwarf. Our cultural underpinnings are too different.
Hey were you pushing ink here? Wish that I'd met ya.

 

The Ink Lab, Uptown Tattoo, then the Aloha Monkey in Burnsville. Yeah 92-98 I lived in Honolulu and my old boss Mike and I would go to the Aloha Bowl flea market every Wednesday morning and scour for toys and art. We found a lot of good odds and ends. I still have a few (Kikaider, Ultraman Leo, some kaiju).

 

I shoulda stopped in and got my cherry popped. Well, glad for you that you're somewhere with more action and better toy roots that's for sure. However, we've got the spring weather lately and you guys are getting the Deluge. Weird. Maybe when I die I'll have my wife scatter the collection to all the Good Wills and Salvation Army stores here. Then people can come to Minneapolis.

 

Cheers to Tomodochi Shop in Roseville for stocking the "Kaiju Apology" gashapon set!

 

I really like a lot of St. Paul; lowertown is still nice and there are still a lot of nice old buildings. Not many kaijus though, except the Tomodachi store.

 

Lot of the old hippie types I used to know went to Augustana... the Dakotas are great and I've always heard that UND's art department was always better than U of MN's. Why is love of J-Pop, kaiju, alt. arts and such so much of a hard sell in the 5 state area?

 

Someone incredibly dear to me along with several other friends went to Augustana. Its a fantastic school. Top notch....... I think that stuff is a hard sell around there because it's too damn conservative and not enough imagination i believe. That's why we all leave.

 

Hi ! From Minnesota here !

 

It is indeed:

ViciousFun:
AUBURN, MI 48611

 

I'm from MN. Southern MN, a small town planted east of Mankato. The only time I have ever seen kaiju in a shop in MN was at Dream Haven on Hennipen Ave in Mpls, but I haven't been to that place in at least a decade. Dont even know if its still there...

 

It's on my list to visit ! Heard there's some horror toys !