Sideshow’s Star War’s 12 inch line has been growing by leaps and bounds over the past couple of years. Their upcoming figures are looking good. I’m looking forward to the droids and Yoda. Though I’m not sure if I”ll get Yoda’s house. It does look very detailed.

More pics can be found here.

There’s nothing better than opening the boxes and taking out your brand new figures for display. The 12 inch Sideshow Star Wars figures I just picked up rock. The finishing and paint jobs are excellent. The bodies are also much better and can actually pose properly.

The EZ Devastator is another figure that impressed me. It’s made up of 7 separate ‘legends’ size figures that can actually transform to robot and vehicle mode. And when combined, looks pretty much like the badass Devastator from the movie. Sweet! Articulation is pretty good too. The legs and hands can bend and pose, though slightly limited, but great for such a figure.

I haven’t taken pics of my Hot-Toys T600 – Rubber Skin version or John Connor as yet. The detail of the endoskeleton is amazing! Here are the pics.

I also got myself some DiD 12 inch cases and displayed Iron Man Mark I & III in them. very nice. Just need to find space to display Mark II.

Sideshow displayed something different at SDCC’09 this year. Customised Stormtroopers! There’s Hello Kitty, Robocop, Transformers and more!

Check out the rest of the pics here.

What better way to start the morning than some display pics of Grand Admiral Thrawn and other Star Wars figures at SDCC’09. Gonna be adding Thrawn to my pre-order list for sure! Not sure about Lando or Anakin though. More pics here. And if you’re a GI Joe fan, Sideshow’s offerings are here.

Latest news from the San Diego Comic Con 2009, Sideshow’s Grand Admiral Thrawn 12′ inch figure has been announced! Woot!

This has been one of my favourite characters from the expanded universe. Fans will remember him from the Timothy Zhan trilogy of Star Wars novels. Often considered as the true sequels to the movies. If you haven’t read them yet, go get the novels or buy the comics! Wonder if this mean we will see a 12′ inch Mara Jade Skywalker next? oooooooooo

Headed down early in the morning to catch the very first Toy Carnival @ SAM. I must saw I was impressed with the whole set up and the number of vendors who graced the event. Kudos to Roy and team from The Falcon’s Hanger who organised this who event. I arrived at about 9.15am to see the finishing touches to the set up. Boxes were still being unloaded and the toys were still being placed on the tables.

It was great to catch up with Shaun and Ted as well as meeting Ken for the first time. And as soon as the doors opened at 10am sharp, the crowd thronged right in. I work for NHB and it’s not often we see such crowds from the start at the event till the very end. Trust toys to draw people and bring the community together. There were heaps of toy displays, toys for sale and live Star Wars characters walking around. I didn’t take pics of everything, Just some highlights of the day for me.

So what did I end up getting? Well I had high hopes of getting a few 12 inch figures at good prices, but unfortunately those that I liked were marked up way beyond their original prices. And the one I really wanted to get that I could afford, well lets just say some idiotic toy shop owner with his name starting with V barged in and bought the figure. Most probably to sell at a much higher price at his own place. I’ve had previous run-ins with this person and everytime he has been arrogant and unpleasant. grrrrr But I had to get something to at least say I got something, lol. So trust TFH to provide, I got a nice little exclusive WST Hot Rod from them.

And to make me happy, I ended up leaving the fair to collect my Sideshow Darth Vader and Stormtrooper Commander which made my day. Vader rocks and I love his size. Nice and huge in comparison to the Stormtroopers.

The Toy Carnival was a blast. Even if I didn’t really get anything, it was great to see the community of toy collectors coming together and to see all the great stuff on sale and on display. I liked this much better than the Singapore Toy, Games & Comics Convention as it had much more main stream stuff than compared to the Otaku and Vinyl/Pop culture stuff at STGCC. As well as the community feel it had to the carnival. I also ended up checking out SAM’s TransportASIAN photography exhibition with Jas. Some really nice visuals and works on display. All in all, a fun day out!

Along Omotesando-dori lies Kiddy Land. A building full of various toys for all ages. With the top floor holding mainly action figures, 12 inch figures and other stuff.

Jan 2010 UPDATE: Updates in Blue. Check the pics out below!

The shelfs in Kiddy Land are kept pretty up to date. You’ll find current stuff here.

Along Cat Street is a small shop called AstroMike. Selling some vintage 80s & 90s toys as well as current toys. Pretty good to find some rare and old stuff.

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Nearby Harajuku is Shibuya and Mandarake can be found there. Refer to the map below. From the pic of the entrance above, the stairs lead down to B2 where you will find the shop. It’s a pretty huge underground space with lots of anime dvds, manga and toys. Though the toy selection may not be as big as other places, I have found some hard-to-find stuff there in my past two trips. Good for Transformers, Macross, Gundam, small range of 12 inch figures and Otaku stuff.

I’ve added some pics of how it looks down there. Pretty cool underground toy shop.

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Nakano is not as well known a place to find toys, but down at Nakano is Nakano Broadway with 4 floors of toy shops. Mandarake’s main shop is situated there amongst a variety of shops where you will find anything from Star Wars, Macross, Otaku, transformers, 12 inch figures, etc. I found this place has some rare finds as well as some good vintage toy shops. So how do you get there? Well Nakano lies 3 stops away from Shinjuku station on the JR Chuo line (Rapid). You can also take the line from Tokyo or Kanda station. The line is the orange coloured line. One you reach Nakano station, there are only two exits, North or South.

Jan 2010 UPDATE: Updates in Blue. Check the pics out below!

Take the North exit and you will see the crossing and building as in the first picture above. Walk towards the glass covered walkway and walk all the way till you see Nakano Broadway as in the visual below.

Once you enter there is an escalator on the left. That will lead you to the 3rd floor right to Mandarake.

Mandarake has smaller shops on the other floors as well. Altogether, check out the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors. You can use the staircase to navigate thru the floors.

I took more pics of Mandarake to give you an idea of the kinda stuff you can find there. Boxes and boxes of 2nd hand stuff. Some brand new too!

Just opposite the main store, Mandarake also sells comics! Though mainly Japanese comics with some english ones spread about.

Mandarake’s smaller stores on the other levels are themed and specialises in different toys and genres. Below is the vintage toys store.

Below is their store which has more mainstream stuff, especially new and old Transformers!

Below is one that specialises on SciFi stuff, including 12 & 31/4 inch toys. This has pretty cool stuff! New and 2nd hand.

And of course there are the random stores that sells all kinda stuff, heaps of Star Wars toys, Gundam, 12 inches, DC, Marvel, Marcross, Transformers, etc. I could keep on going.

Below is where it lies on Google maps. Nakano and Akihabara are the places I recommend to visit if you are short of time.

I couldn’t find many toy shops in Shinjuku except for two. Yodobashi is basically an electronics store which has a pretty neat toy section. The store has a few shops in the buildings around the area, you can check the store’s map when you get there to find your way around. The toy section lies in the basement of the section that sells the PS3, Wii and Xbox. It has a large variety of Star Wars, Gundam, Macross, Otaku and many others. Worth a look.

Pics of the Macross shelf.