I had posted this on my TW toy blog and over on The Chest Engine, but for those of you who haven't seen those, enjoy! Tian Mu Toy Shop: I was here over 2 years ago, it was great to see Ronnie and his shop's amazing selection of toys again!: Visit with Pago: Pago runs a wonderful toy blog in Taiwan and has one of, if not the biggest collection of Microman in Taiwan. I was lucky enough to get to visit him in his work space. (keep in mind when looking at the pics that these are just items around the office.) I'm hoping next time I might get to see his collection.: Beautiful hand cast and chromed Acrokaiser heads. Amazing!: What's inside the file cabinet... He broke out some rare items for me to check out. Beautiful stuff: If only my office bathroom looked like this: Super Rare Taiwan Version Manga: Recast Shogun hands, were really nicely done and heavy!: Next Up I was headed to meet with Lao Tiao Ya who collects primarily Taiwan made toys and has a small but incredibly packed shop with his friend Moonbear. Moonbear brought some awesome pieces like Fortress X and Great Robot Base which were ini beautiful condition. They were great and in the same building were Impact Toys and Echigoya Toys. Many items in these stores are not for sale as even though they are stores they are also storage rooms for some of their collections and they have a great collector network working here. Amazing stuff in these shops especially if you're a fan of Taiwan bootleg toys. Many of these items I have never seen before and its unlikely I'll come across again: Giant Acroyear, various Microman and Timanic parts. Crazy!: Gats Blocker lost his clock but got some new weapons: This Godaikin Guardian bootleg was supposed to have Michael Jackson inside: Bought a few things at this creepy entranced stored too. The entrance is in the dark alley: Here is what I ended up bringing home:
you have to wonder if someone with so many full cases knows exactly what is in their collection. I do anyway. Looks like you made some awesome scores, love the super deformed stuff.
Those were some intense collections- and made me remember my days collectiong diaclone and G1 Transformers! Good stuff! phil
Wow!!! I had to take a break about three times in this thread, to make sure I didn't have any 'accidents'. Talk about places being crammed to the teets, those are some smazing shelves. To be honest though, the first thing that struck me when going through your pics was, "Wow, must be so awesome to have stores that actually let you take pictures of their stock, and appreciate the toys for themselves, not having to whip out your camera from your anorak like some kind of flasher Looks like you came away with quite the haul too. Congrats on it all, but most importantly it seems like you had a great time, and I know the experience far outweighs any toy. Thanks for sharing.
A post so powerful it crashed my hand-me-down laptop twice! When will you be posting your new podcast narrating the tour for us? Dozens of things to comment on, but three simple ones for now: >The sole Star Trek collectable that popped out at me appeared to be Chekov >The yokai wall clock is bananas >The knock-off cassette tapes are the schniz
I should also add, now you've shown us some teaser shots, we need to see more pictures from your room. First, I love how everything is just all over everywhere on the floor, it's like christmas and playtime all at once. But I also see some great stuff there, including that Micronauts display I recognise from the pendants thread.
Whoa, I need to come back and look at this when I have more time. That Pringles daruma thing is ridiculous and great. Very cool, thanks for sharing.
@psilo110: amazingly they seem to know where everything is. In some of these places I can literally barely turn around though so it's dizzying. @hellopike: the bulk of my collecting is Takara SF Land or related stuff. It's a fun set up that everyone gets together during the week and hangs out. @ultrakaiju: It's truly a lot to take in. I went to some of the shops twice also more proper shops that didn't allow pics at all. also one or two that were so cramped that I physically wasn't able haha. Yes all of these guys were great about letting me hunt around, shoot whatever I wanted. As I also collect Taiwan bootleg toys they brought many show and tell items from their home actually collections as well. I can't even image what the base collection of these guys must be like. Hopefully I'll get to see more on my next trip. And you're right, despite the language barrier we were able to get along quite well (especially with my wife translating).Oh, I also have some collection pics that are a few years old on here somewhere but I'll do an updated one as its grown quite a bit. I haven't gotten around to grabbing some more shelves (books are ready to start moving to the floor too) so the grow out is temporary but yes fun to sit in the middle of. @toothaction: Sorry to have crashed your machine!
This one might be a long shot, but doe anyone know which toy that is on the 5th or 6th photo, wearing a red jacket and has a skullhead with one eye, next to the Ogon Bat. I WANT THAT. Great photos man! Unbelievable collection! Like a toy museum of sofubi and action figures!
Man, just finished looking at ALL the pictures. Thanks for posting these up. Looked like an unbelievably fun trip! Love those train set Transformers!
My pleasure. Yeah it was awesome. I have a spare train or two. If you have some trade goodness let me know.
Those are some truly eclectic shelves!! Lots of legit and bootleg goodies buried within. As previously stated, that Voltes poster is sick. You had some nice pickups too - great KO Jeeg magnemo, Dia Battles (King Dam) KO, and the Maz Z Trans Jet toy is one of my favorites! Now you need to track down the Great Maz one (some older pics of mine are below) and I need to track down that crazy Gardian KO you showed earlier in your post!
wow... some serious toy pornage here. i'm spent. great collections, coverage, pick-ups. thanks for posting...!
@Kingboy D Tons of bootleg stuff and lots of it is really high quality. 80's era Taiwan bootlegs were often "out the back of the factory and melt off the manufacturer mark" or do some slight creative retooling on the existing molds. The Jeeg KO's are super rare to come across. I have 2 varieties now a green shouldered one and a white shouldered one as well. Sadly they had no great Mazinga. Still one or two Big KO's for me to grab on the next voyage but I can only carry one or two at most. I ditched the box for the God Lion deluxe set as it was just too large. I also have a really nice direct Guardian bootleg from my last trip. I think that was only like $35. The Dia Battles is a Korean bootleg model kit. They also have smaller sized Guardian Mazingas that seem to be made off of the internal sized guys. I didn't find any on this trip, but I'm hoping to get them and hoping the actually stack! Nice collection pics!
WOW! That was the most densely populated rooms & cases I have ever seen, I hope you post your new podcast narrating the tour for us. Thanks for the photos
Taipei Tien Mu West Road 132-6 No. 0968-188-866 / 02-2826-- 1886 Does that help? Other than the address I know its very near the "international" area. Where lot of foreigners stay.