Mini-Z shopping in Tokyo

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    • #12908
      whtang
      Participant
      • Posts: 130

      Hi folks.. I’m back from a little holiday in Japan… so here is my report..
      I thought it’d be useful to put some notes together for people who may go in future to make it easier to find mini-Z stuff..
      (Seems that a post can only have 10000 characters and 4 images so I’ve had to change alot of the images to URLs instead!)

      Day one in Tokyo… disappointed

      I didn’t have any time to do much homework.. so I based my itinerary on this guys blog..
      http://blog.tom.com/biaozhi/article/2448.html

      He mentions:
      1) Kyosho Omotesando Hills
      2) RC paradise at Akihabara
      3) RC Champs at Akihabara

      I didn’t plan to check out the track at freaks garage (open till 3am!) cos I didn’t think it was worthwhile since i didn’t bring my car.. we were going backpacking around the country so were trying to travel light.

      So.. day one in Tokyo.. we get the JR train and get off at Harajuku..
      Its not hard to find Omotesando Hills which is a fancy shopping centre.. and Kyosho has a flashy shop in the basement.. I saw the home IC lap timing system thats for the dnano’s.. but with the crappy AUD, the sticker price killed the deal cos it was 39900 Yen!

      Next.. off to Akihabara which was only 4 train stops away from where I was staying…. spent like 3 hours walking up and down the main street trying to find RC paradise. We did find lots of other shops like Yellow Submarine and Tam Tam that were mentioned here..
      http://www.angelfire.com/id/croon/japan/akihabarafigures.html

      Seems like every 2nd building had a softmap label glued to it.. some seemed to be empty office/shops. I was beginning to think the place was gone. I was getting tired, wife was getting grumpy… we ended up playing that Gundam POD game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kid%C5%8D_Senshi_Gundam:_Senj%C5%8D_no_Kizuna) and then left disappointed…

      Time for some homework
      For the next like 10 days we weren’t in Tokyo.. so whenever I got the chance I did some research and I managed to track down some websites:

      RC Paradise: (and confirming that they are no longer in Akihabara!!)
      http://www.rajiten.com/
      The closest one to the city centre seemed to be in a shopping centre called Sunamo
      http://www.rajiten.com/shop_image/sunamo_map.gif
      This time I confirmed they were still there by checking the shopping centre website!
      http://sunamo.jp/floormap/4f.html (on the map its the middle shop in the green section on the left, but its obvious when you get there on the 4th floor)

      So I figured that “ラジコン” is RC in jap… and Akihabara is “秋葉原” so google was my friend..

      Super RC in Akihabara (check out the pics, it looks like a supermarket!)
      http://www.super-rc.co.jp/tokyo.html

      RC Champ in Akihabara (this was mentioned in the blog, but wasn’t keen on this cos he said the the collection of mini-Z stuff was limited, but the pics looked very tempting to check it out.. didn’t end up going here)
      http://www.rc-champ.co.jp/new_shop2/index_akihabara.htm

      Futaba Sangyo in Akihabara (wasn’t sure about this one, no pics.. didn’t end up going here)
      http://www.f-sangyo.co.jp/futabasangyo/default.html

      Also found a reference to these guys from the mini-Z racer forum..
      ProShop Futaba
      http://www.pro-s-futaba.co.jp

      Last Day in Japan, Tokyo.. shopping day

      After our trip around Japan, we only had one sleep and were flying out the following day… ie., the last day… the only day I had for shopping.
      This time I was prepared, i’d done my homework… the wife had gone to do her hair.. and I had 4hrs..
      The plan was 1) RC Paradise in Sunamo when they open at 10am, then to Akihabara to track down 2) Super RC and other places, and if all failed, back to 3) Kyosho in Omotesando Hills cos at least I knew where that was!

      1) Rc Paradise at Sunamo
      I was really keen to go to this place, cos according to the guys blog they had lots of parts and he recommended checking it out. The plan was that if I could find this place I’d get everything here if I could….

      Found it! They even have a track!

      The track..
      Bodies!
      Parts..

      The track..
      The board for tracking frequencies..

      It was like a mini-mart…. so I took a basket and started shopping 🙂

      The guy was pretty nice.. didn’t speak any english though.. the track was a pretty impressive carpet track. They had alot of bodies and things seemed to be under RRP (not much less than RRP tho) so I was keen to get as much as I could in case I couldn’t find another place.
      The Ko Propo USB ICS cable was the shopping list … so I wrote it down and showed him.. he was kind enough to pull out the Ko-Propo catalogue to explain he didn’t have the one I wanted, but pointed at something else
      he had that would do the job. I had no idea what that other thing was, and feared it might all be in Jap, so I decided to not take a punt. I paid for my goodies (two big bags!), took a few more pics and it was off to Akihabara.
      They had these Kyosho mini-Z booklets from 2008 so I grabbed three… on the back cover they had a pic and address of the Kyosho shop in Omotesando… and to my surprise.. there was a second Kyosho shop…. in ….

      AKIHABARA!! (Seems that the kyosho english website which I looked at only has the shop in Omotesando, but the Japanese site has the Akihabara shop too)

      How to get to RC Paradise in Sunamo

      If you look at the location on the RC paradise site… its all in Japanese.. but I managed to decipher the subway station that its close to…
      “南砂町” is the closest Tokyo-Metro station and this equates to the Minami-sunamachi on the Tokyo-Metro Tozai line…
      You can use this site to figure out how to get there and how much the fare will be.

      Tokyo Metro is the dashed line.. the station is north-west of Sunamo. (It is not the JR train line!)
      Once there, take the exit to your right, go up the escaltors. At ground level you should see an overpass. Cross the overpass and you should see the Sunamo shopping centre in the distance.

      2) Super RC in Akihabara
      I walked straight past this place.. when I got to one of the bigger intersections still not having found the place it just didn’t feel right so I back tracked… and BINGO… I saw what looked like “RC” in japanese, I looked up and I could see what looked like some models… the place was on 2/F so I went straight up.. This place was like a supermarket.. It was easy to spot the USB ICS cable hanging on the wall cos it comes with a CD.. I grabbed another basket and started shopping. I didn’t take any pics inside.. there were quite a few people there.. and the place is pretty much the same as you see on the website (http://www.super-rc.co.jp/tokyo.html) chk out those mini-Z bodies! This placed was even cheaper than RC Paradise.. noticibly cheaper than RRP but note that the prices don’t include 5% sales tax, and they also add a credit card charge on top of that too. When I got home I relised I got two of the same body, and I paid like 800 Yen more at RC Paradise!

      Here are some pics in and around the area so its easier for folks in future to find it.. there is a camping equipment store downstairs and its also near a public phone booth. If your coming from the JR station, take the east exit and NOT the exit to Electronics Town(Electronics Street) which Akihabara is famous for.. Once out of the east exit, keep walking east and cross the road where there is a huge overpass then head north.

      The shop sign at ground level..

      This is what it looks like while you approach the shop..
      Note the camping equipment shop right downstairs, and the phone booth.. If you hit the big intersection you’ve gone too far!
      approaching Super RC…

      3) Kyosho Shop….. in Akihabara!?!?!?!
      Following the lead from the Kyosho mini-Z booklet I picked up at RC Paradise.. I tracked this place down cos I wanted to see if they had those DB9 Jet Alliance bodies that was on the shopping list. Also save me a final trip to Kyosho Omotesando. They definitely had the DB9s… RRP was 3800.. but sticker price was 3990!

      ouch! oh well.. its on the list.. so what the heck..
      Most things I think maybe above RRP so I wouldn’t buy here unless I couldn’t find it elsewhere.


      Bodies!!!

      displays
      and more displays

      The track..
      Short clip of the track

      How to get there…. this place is right near the JR station.. once again from the east exit. I couldn’t find it at first, couldn’t quite get my bearings, so if in doubt, ask at one of the information desks inside those duty free shops or the big electronics store. I showed them the booklet from Kyosho which had the address.. they gave me a Akihabara map, circled where I was and circled where I wanted to go…

      Back of the Kyosho mini-Z booklet
      Akihabara map from the info desk

    • #61936
      whtang
      Participant
      • Posts: 130

      Final Thoughts

      So in summary… definitely check out the Kyosho shop in Akihabara, its right near the JR station.. you should be able to grab things here if you can’t find it elsewhere. I wouldn’t bother with Kyosho in Omotesando unless you have time or were in the Harajuku area anyway. The shop in Akihabara is alot bigger, has a nicer track and has heaps more stuff I reckon.
      RC paradise in Sunamo?.. not on the top of the list.. I’d skip it in preference for Super RC in Akihabara where you should be able to do most if not all of your mini-Z shopping.

      So out of the places I managed to visit..
      1) Super RC in AKihabara
      2) Kyosho in Akihabara for things you can’t find and for some nice pics!
      3) Freaks Paradise (http://www.freakscafe.com/)for the track if you bring your car or buy one.. (they had a flyer at Kyosho Akihabara)
      4) RC Paradise in Sunamo seems to have a nice track… in hindsight..wouldn’t do shopping there unless I had to!

      and now for the goodies.. I went a little crazy at Super RC and released I’d never be able to fit everything in the spare bag I had for the shopping. So I ended up having to hunt down a cheap sports bag in Akihabara and managed to find one for 1050 yen at one of those duty free shops that are everywhere….

      Fragile!

      Now a body for some scale..

      Not everything is mine.. but I thought it would make an impressive pic..

    • #62064
      betty.k
      Participant
      • Posts: 2487

      dude! that’s a helluva haul!

      i would have had trouble buying any less! :8ball:

    • #62065
      Admin
      Participant
      • Posts: 5952

      this is the place for buying wholesale ***elry. check it

    • #28027
      whtang
      Participant
      • Posts: 130

      I wish I knew about this site before I went to Tokyo..
      so if your ever in Tokyo and looking for some Mini-Z action..

      http://fun.mini-z.jp/shoplist/area-kanto/tokyo/

    • #111742
      Avatar photoAaron
      Keymaster
      • Posts: 2146

      Going to Japan in May this year. Will naturally be trying to have a look around at the Mini-Z stuff. Never really found much beyond the newer Readysets on visits to Malaysia and Singapore previously…

      Will try and update this post and info 🙂

      --
      Site Owner Guy.

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