Mandarake CoCoo

Discussion in 'Paradise Garage' started by spacemonkey66, Nov 8, 2019.

  1. spacemonkey66

    spacemonkey66 Toy Prince

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    Mandarake CoCoo
    Please forgive my ignorance, but can anyone explain the name Mandarake CoCoo. I mean, I understand Mandarake because that is the name of the store, but what is CoCoo? And how will it differ from other Mandarake stores? Thank you if anyone can shed some light on this.
     
  2. badteethcomics

    badteethcomics Post Pimp

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    It seems to be a new store devoted mainly to sofubi - which makes sense as their vinyl listings have been sparse recently. Keeping stock aside for this new shop it seems... Still a month away and from what they have shown on the new instagram, it's going to be packed full of overpriced toys! I'd imagine it will turn into more of a sofubi museum/viewing space for most collectors who don't want to throw a week's pay down on one toy.

    https://www.mandarake.co.jp/dir/cco/newopen-en.html#googtrans(ja|en)

    https://www.instagram.com/mandarake.cocoo/
     
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  3. TattooDougHardy

    TattooDougHardy Comment King

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    Hunh, it's going to be in Akihabira. I might as well go check it out while I'm there in December; I have a free day. Although I doubt I'll be getting anything it'll be neat to check out I'm sure.
     
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  4. kappa

    kappa Toy Prince

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    Mandarake CoCoo
    Cocoo = kokuu, which is presumably the word 虚空, meaning "void". They have another pretentiously named shop opening in Ikebukuro, too.
     
  5. badteethcomics

    badteethcomics Post Pimp

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    Hhmmm I thought it meant Cocoo as in these cash up chumps are going Cuckoo for these overpriced toys
     
  6. spacemonkey66

    spacemonkey66 Toy Prince

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    ahahaha!! accurate.
     
  7. skaldavsatanssol

    skaldavsatanssol Toy Prince

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    Mandarake CoCoo
    There was an overpriced neo kaiju sofubi one that opened up in Nakano Broadway at least two years ago.. what was it again? Mandarake something something 6. Fuck they are making bank if they’re running dedicated stores for this kinda thing alongside their standard all in one flagship stores.
     
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  8. kappa

    kappa Toy Prince

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    They have a separate store for everything in Nakano, so not really remarkable, but opening a separate branch in Akihabara when they already own a huge building definitely is. I went there the other day and couldn't see any kaiju sofubi so presumably all being moved over.
     
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  9. Smotemotem

    Smotemotem Toy Prince

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    So the new store is opening in a few hours, right? I keep holding out hope that we'll see some restocks on Toho monsters, but I'm just not seeing it in the Instagram posts.
     
  10. ultrakaiju

    ultrakaiju Die-Cast Staff Member

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    I am sure most people have noticed by now, but the CoCoo shop now has it's own listings online. Not that I am qualified to even been looking at them. Sadly I didn't see any of the vintage treasures (either previewed or other toys) so I guess the focus of this shop sort of speaks for itself.
     
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  11. analog101

    analog101 Addicted

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    I think you’re being a little bit hyperbolic. They have been open for a day. They have to photo and list everything. I’d start at expensive stuff too, before $30 B-club toys or whatever. I’m more offended by how bad some of the photos are
     
  12. 666doll

    666doll Mini Boss

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    Looks like a hub for their exclusives
     
  13. Michael Beverage

    Michael Beverage Line of Credit

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    A friend sent me some photos of large cabinets filled to the brim with vintage treasures from their opening. Priced to perfection I’m sure, but included in the store nonetheless.

    It seems Mandarake shuffles around a lot of premium inventory from one store to the other, for grand openings and such. I still don’t understand the necessity/relevance for another Manda location either, but it must make economic sense,
    lest they would not open it.

    Edit: nevermind, I see it’s a sofubi specialty store.
    It would help if I actually read the entire fucking thread.
    :|
     
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2019
  14. Anti Social Andy

    Anti Social Andy Die-Cast

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    I'm gettin' old . . . all I see are the telephone numbers! :shock:
     
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  15. 666doll

    666doll Mini Boss

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    Those are the prices
     
  16. Anti Social Andy

    Anti Social Andy Die-Cast

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    For a new laptop, a cool pushbike, a motorcycle, a vacation or even a fixer-upper car maybe . . . not for a 8" lump of malformed vinyl!
     
  17. Anti Social Andy

    Anti Social Andy Die-Cast

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    Sorry . . . double-post!
     
  18. kid_miracleman

    kid_miracleman Comment King

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    Found this video of a walkthrough of the new location.

    Ever wonder what Mandarake would look like if it was super clean and well-organized?

    This place is like a fucking sofubi museum/bank vault filled with absolute gold

     
  19. Anti Social Andy

    Anti Social Andy Die-Cast

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    ^^^ seems like most other Mandarakes . . . except with more zero's.
     
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  20. JoeMan

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    I bought a little zollmen omake from them. It arrived nib with a big hole punched out of its backside. I emailed them to see if they would refund but they never responded to me.
     
  21. bryce_r

    bryce_r Die-Cast

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    Not sure if this is the SAME case but years ago I bought a few toys from one of our members from Brazil (Good guy/FANTASTIC member)..the name slips my mind but any way it was a gargamel hedoran. Anyway it turns out customs actually punched a hole in the back to make sure there wasn't any contraband inside. It had to do with the price of the shipment and how the package was declared. I got refunded from the seller but the box was clearly opened and it turns out that it's happened before from South America. Never happened from Japan though.
     
  22. ultrakaiju

    ultrakaiju Die-Cast Staff Member

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    Mandarake CoCoo
    Yeah, this is something customs does, although I have never heard what happens when they don't discover something (i.e. I always assumed that they should be held responsible for damages incurred, but also believe that this is probably not the case). I do think, however, for this very reason that they usually x-ray any suspect items, and would only resort to 'intrusive measures' when there is actually something that shows up. For something small though, especially an omake, this seems truly bizarre. Plus they are clearly hollow. So odd. Sorry that this happened. I do ask as much as possible - and have been for years - that sellers/shops underdeclare the value because of this, not to get around taxes, but importing "toys" from foreign countries, with the value prices printed on them (especially when it is massive figures in yen, has raised a lot of red flags with customs agents, causing inspections, delays, and yes, extra duty fees as well.
     
  23. old_seaweed

    old_seaweed Toy Prince

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    Mandarake CoCoo
    With a mix of feelings, I'm greeted with every CoCoo favorited item, and more, flooding my eBay feeds this morning. With a 40% markup, like Sahra has been doing. I think I started noticing this last week.

    I'm not sure any eBay promotion could possibly counter that and make it appealing, but I'm guessing this means a not insignificant amount of stuff will move to people unfamiliar with how easy and cheaper it is to actually order from the source. Bye bye sky blue Marmit Gyakushugoji one-off, I never bought you, I probably never would have, but the magic of it all was real.
     
  24. Brooklyn_Vinyl

    Brooklyn_Vinyl Line of Credit

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    I was having the same feelings as my eBay "saved" catagories were filling up with some very familiar toys. I imagine the 40% mark up is to compensate for the insane eBay selling fees AND to drive more people to source. I've already seen some of my saved items fly off the shelf.
     
  25. gatiio

    gatiio Post Pimp

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    Oh nice. A one stop shop for all the deep pockets coming into the hobby these past few years.

    At least it saves us all the flood of hashtags.
     

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