The MLP Arena
Pony Talk => Pony Corral => Topic started by: dannahbanana on December 14, 2020, 12:02:19 AM
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In the past couple of months I have found an abundance of ponies in the wild in Tokyo! I'd like to share the locations in case you ever find yourself in Tokyo and want to purchase a pony (or window shop).
The reason I put "thrifting" in quotes is because these shops are less like thrift stores and more like vintage toy stores. I associate the word "thrifting" with finding a good deal, but unfortunately these ponies are not cheap! They are on the upper end of what you would find them for on Ebay. For example, a fairly common pony like Posey will put you back about $15-$35 USD. A mermaid pony about $80 USD. However, these stores have a large variety of amazing vintage toys---much much more than just ponies! Polly Pocket, Barbie, Sky Dancers, Nosey Bears...you name it! I mostly found G1 and G3 ponies, but there were some G2 and G4 as well! They display their merchandise so beautifully, so it is fun to just to look around the stores even if you do not buy anything.
The first place I visited was Knot a Toy: 2 Chome-24-13 Koenjikita, Suginami City, Tokyo 166-0002
This was my favorite store of them all! The shop keepers were so friendly and there were so many wonderful toys displayed nicely. The prices were a tad bit lower than other stores as well. I found tons of G1s, a few G2s, many G3s, some G3.5s, and G4s. I purchased a beautiful Bubbles and an exclusive Chuck-E-Cheese baby (her mane was cut, so I got her for a cheap price) here.
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The second is 2000 Toys: 〒166-0003 Tokyo, Suginami City, Koenjiminami, 2 Chome-43-9 Sugita Building 1F
This store was the largest, and had many narrow rows of display cases full of amazing vintage toys. I think it had the biggest selection of G1s overall. Here I purchased a lovely Wigwam.
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Next is Nakano Broadway: 5 Chome-52 Nakano, Nakano City, Tokyo 164-0001
This is a mall full of vintage toy stores! Most carry vintage Japanese toys, but you can find international ones (such as MLP) as well hidden among them. It’s like a scavenger hunt. I found a beautiful 1982 Butterscotch in the back of a top shelf at one small shop for about $15 USD.
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Finally, there's Spiral Toy: 〒150-0001 Tokyo, Shibuya City, Jingumae, 3 Chome-27-17, Nagata Building A-1
This lovely little shop in Harajuku had many classic vintage toys! I found many G1s and G3s here. There were some very sought-after ponies as well, such as Fancy Mermaid, Glow n' Show, Rollerskates, and Colorswirl ponies. Here I bought the mail-in order white Valentines twin.
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I hope you find this post helpful or interesting! If you are ever in Tokyo and want a shopping buddy, send me a DM! ^.^
What sort of ponies have you found in the wild?
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That's amazing! Thanks for the interesting thread, I had no idea vintage toy shops were so common in Tokyo. The prices sound pretty steep but I guess the ease of finding something you might be looking for makes up for it? In comparison with actual thrifting, I mean.
I've never had much luck finding G1 ponies in the wild but part of it is my own fault, one should really visit the same places actively to be able to catch the ponies before other collectors or scalpers (and I could never do those 8 am parking lot sales or whatever you sometimes have here, haha... it's just regular flea markets for me). Recently I've been able to find some Monster High dolls, though, which has been amazing! And upon my last visit (in the summer) I caught a G2 baby pony. My best find over the years is probably the WW pony Whirly with her original wings, albeit a little damaged. Still waiting for that crazy Nirvana luck... like finding a piggy pony labelled as fake and sold for 50 c! XD One can hope...
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Dayum. Super cool stores, I have never seen anything like that. You must have had lots of fun! I would freak out :lol:
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Wow, how fun that must have been to see them like that! What's interesting is how they are displayed; they are sorted by type, and even that one place has the newborn twins bagged up together. So somebody is in the know about the ponies, and likely knows what prices they fetch, which is probably why they're so expensive!
Wish it were in the cards for me to go there to browse around, but I'll probably never make it to Tokyo!
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Those prices would turn me right off :( I like secondhand, used pricing, not "avoiding my mailbox but paying the same price as ebay".
But nice to know that there ARE g1's to be found in Japan....
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Ooh cool. I love going into vintage toy stores.
There was someone from Japan who bought a MIB fairy tails bird from me off of ebay.. and then I found it for sale on a Japanese site, with a huuuge mark up. I always wondered how big the market was for vintage american toys. I figured it was just the same as me liking Japanese toys XD lol
We used to have a nice vintage toy store near me. There would always be ponies, and every now and then there was a good price on a pony. haha. They closed a few years back though...
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Those are really nice pictures and something to keep in mind if you go on vacation to Japan.
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Oh man! So many. I'd have a hard time choosing what to take home. Congrats
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Oh I’m keeping this in mind if I ever visit Tokyo! My Japanese teacher said if I ever visit to try looking around and exploring, see what I can find. Looks like I now have a place or two to scout out!
Congrats on finding them and your new ponies.
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Ooooo, those look like fun stores to visit! Thank you for all the pics!
I’m not surprised by the prices. I’m not knowledgeable about the distribution of G1s during the 80s, but since they had their own line from Takara, I doubt many of the ponies we know and love made it over there. I also get the impression that cheap sources of used items(flea markets, goodwill type thrift stores, garage sales, etc) are less common over there. Most of those ponies were probably imported from elsewhere(likely the USA). I know a local vintage toy store often gets at least one regular Japanese buyer who comes in and cleans the place out of ponies. He’ll buy up every pony in the store when he comes through. I’ve unfortunately been in after one of his visits, and there’s nothing left. I’m happy to see where those ponies end up!
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Wow!!! I'd love to just walk round those shops & see the delights within tbh. I'd window-shop the places to death!!!
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:drool: :drunk:
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This post and all the pictures gave me a serious serotonin boost!!
So beautiful! I wish I was anywhere near these shops so I could visit them!
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Ah nostalgia, I was in Tokyo on my 14th visit there in 2017. I'd hope to go back in 2021 (stupid work interrupting my travel schedule) so it's nice to see these shops still going strong!
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What a dream, it would be wonderful just to see them all never mind take a few home.
Love pkw xxx
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If I stepped into a store and saw a display with that many ponies, I'd need to be resuscitated! Then I'd be broke. So very, very broke...
I'm super jealous that ponies are so readily available! Sure, the prices aren't ideal, but from the sounds of things they're on the upper end of reasonable and probably no higher than you'd pay to ship a pony to Japan from elsewhere.
The thrift shops close to where I live suck. One definitely has an employee/volunteer intercepting ponies as we've not seen so much as a McD's pony for months! One is like a hoarder house to walk through and the lady that runs it is super impolite. She seems to be paranoid about customers shoplifting the garbage she sells there. The toy bags scarcely have any sort of theme, and they don't take back what you don't want to sell again... Most of their toys are broken or some kid's art project nobody wants, anyway; the rest of their merchandise follows a similar pattern. I've found dead roaches and live spiders in their toy bins- it's awful! The others have odd hours and/or limited space to have any decent toy selection. You get some that pop up now and again, but they always end up closed (I'll never forget the "Consignment & Tanning" store). You have to travel quite a bit to find good stores!
Also, the Bumblelion peeking up at the bottom of one of the photos got me excited for a second as I mistook it for a G3.5 Sega Prize plush! I love those things and would love to have one, but they're oh so rare. I scoured the images, but no dice. Just Bumblelion pretending to be Scootaloo.
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If I stepped into a store and saw a display with that many ponies, I'd need to be resuscitated! Then I'd be broke. So very, very broke...
I'm super jealous that ponies are so readily available! Sure, the prices aren't ideal, but from the sounds of things they're on the upper end of reasonable and probably no higher than you'd pay to ship a pony to Japan from elsewhere.
The thrift shops close to where I live suck. One definitely has an employee/volunteer intercepting ponies as we've not seen so much as a McD's pony for months! One is like a hoarder house to walk through and the lady that runs it is super impolite. She seems to be paranoid about customers shoplifting the garbage she sells there. The toy bags scarcely have any sort of theme, and they don't take back what you don't want to sell again... Most of their toys are broken or some kid's art project nobody wants, anyway; the rest of their merchandise follows a similar pattern. I've found dead roaches and live spiders in their toy bins- it's awful! The others have odd hours and/or limited space to have any decent toy selection. You get some that pop up now and again, but they always end up closed (I'll never forget the "Consignment & Tanning" store). You have to travel quite a bit to find good stores!
Also, the Bumblelion peeking up at the bottom of one of the photos got me excited for a second as I mistook it for a G3.5 Sega Prize plush! I love those things and would love to have one, but they're oh so rare. I scoured the images, but no dice. Just Bumblelion pretending to be Scootaloo.
*imagines Minty trying to give CPR to her poor, defeated wallet*
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So glad to see so many G1 ponies are considered treasures. I love these photos. The Newborn twins would have been my downfall.
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Also, the Bumblelion peeking up at the bottom of one of the photos got me excited for a second as I mistook it for a G3.5 Sega Prize plush! I love those things and would love to have one, but they're oh so rare. I scoured the images, but no dice. Just Bumblelion pretending to be Scootaloo.
I had to go back and look at the pics to try to find the Bumblelion...it was kind of like a Where's Waldo of sorts. He's right next to a Hoppopotomus...I had him back in the day.
I wonder how much they wanted for the Soft Sleepy Newborn...I used to have her, too.
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The Soft Sleepy Newborn was 22,000 yen, about $212 USD.
Post Merge: December 14, 2020, 11:23:42 PM
Wow, how fun that must have been to see them like that! What's interesting is how they are displayed; they are sorted by type, and even that one place has the newborn twins bagged up together. So somebody is in the know about the ponies, and likely knows what prices they fetch, which is probably why they're so expensive!
Wish it were in the cards for me to go there to browse around, but I'll probably never make it to Tokyo!
They definitely are in the know! At the 2000 Toys store, I would pick up one of the ponies, and the employee who unlocked the cabinet for me would make a comment like, "Ah, (insert name of pony here), of the (insert pony series name here. e.g. Big Brother), good choice."
On Japanese Mercari, however, sometimes you have people who aren't quite in the know of how much their ponies can go for, so you can get them for quite a bargain if you catch them in time. But it's tricky! They go so quickly.
Post Merge: December 14, 2020, 11:40:08 PM
Ooooo, those look like fun stores to visit! Thank you for all the pics!
I’m not surprised by the prices. I’m not knowledgeable about the distribution of G1s during the 80s, but since they had their own line from Takara, I doubt many of the ponies we know and love made it over there. I also get the impression that cheap sources of used items(flea markets, goodwill type thrift stores, garage sales, etc) are less common over there. Most of those ponies were probably imported from elsewhere(likely the USA). I know a local vintage toy store often gets at least one regular Japanese buyer who comes in and cleans the place out of ponies. He’ll buy up every pony in the store when he comes through. I’ve unfortunately been in after one of his visits, and there’s nothing left. I’m happy to see where those ponies end up!
I'm also not very knowledgeable about the distribution of G1s in Japan, but that is something I'm very interested in reading up about. I always wonder about the backstory of each pony I see here. There must be a very interesting story behind each and every one about how they got here, who owned them before, etc. Many I have seen in stores or Mercari have names of their owners written on the bottom of their hooves, usually a Western-sounding name. One of my ponies I got here has the name "Trixie" on her hoof. So I wonder if they had been owned by a child perhaps in the US etc, and then somehow migrated to Japan.
It is true that there are very few cheap sources of used items here. "Thrift" stores are becoming more and more common, but they are branded as cool hipster places to go and are ridiculously overpriced. There are some temple flea markets that sell things such as used kimonos, pottery, and an occasional toy here and there for cheap-ish, but I would say the chance of finding a pony at one of those markets would be one in a billion. There is a chain of stores called Off House/Hobby Off/Hard Off (I know...interesting name choice for that last one) and sometimes you can find something for a fair price there, but again it would be very rare to find a pony, and it is still quite expensive compared to garage sales/flea markets you would find in the West. Japanese Mercari is probably one of the best ways to find used items, but they are usually overpriced.
I also follow some Japanese toy vintage toy stores on Instagram, and they do a live video box opening to reveal new items that have been sent to them from the US. So they must have some people going around wiping out all the thrift stores in order to fill those giant Home Depot boxes!
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Ahhhh, so that's what heaven would look like....
The kind of place that makes me wish I had to money to walk in, like, "Alright everyone, the store is mine now. It's been a good run, but I'm just going to live here now, so..." lol.
Tokyo is definitely on my bucket list. You seem like you'd be a wonderful shopping buddy!
:lovey:
Thanks so much for the beautiful & interesting photos!
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@Banditpony
Oh interesting! Did it happen to be Tricky Tails by chance? I bought one when I was in Nakano Broadway.
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@Banditpony
Oh interesting! Did it happen to be Tricky Tails by chance? I bought one when I was in Nakano Broadway.
I wasn't too familiar with the birds so unfortunately I can't remember. u_u It was about 7+ years ago when I sold it.
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Oh wow! That would be amazing to come across store like this where I live! Thank you for sharing with us!
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They definitely are in the know! At the 2000 Toys store, I would pick up one of the ponies, and the employee who unlocked the cabinet for me would make a comment like, "Ah, (insert name of pony here), of the (insert pony series name here. e.g. Big Brother), good choice."
That's so beautiful some how. Ponies loved like they should be.
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@Banditpony
Ah okay. It wasn't me then since I got her about 2 years ago. Would have been quite a coincidence if it was though!
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This is what heaven must look like! :dropjaw:
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oh my goodness me, this is like died and gone to heaveness and then die again when i can't afford anything :lol:
this is truly amazing, what a find ;)
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Ouh thanks for the advice! As someone who was supposed to go to Tokyo in both 2018 and this April 2020, this only adds to the list of places to visit!
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Oh, wow, that's amazing! It's almost like going back in time and seeing the ponies from my childhood. Obviously the big difference is that these ponies aren't in their packaging. Sometimes I wish I could do that...just go back in time, like to the little toy shop where I picked out Sparkler that my dad bought for me. I would love to see which other ponies were my choices. I would also love to go back in time to the Toys R Us where I picked out most of my childhood ponies; it would just be so much fun to see rows and rows of ponies still pristine in their packaging.
But your photos are the next best thing! Seeing all those beautiful ponies on display (and they're such great displays!) makes me so happy. I bet you had a lot of fun! I would've been in heaven!
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Oh man, you’re making me ache for traveling again... I’d love to go back to Japan and visit some stores like this.
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Can confirn, Nakano broadway is fantastic, they have a little of everything, and it's always changing. I hadn't heard of the others though! Thanks! I can't wait till I'm allowed to visit Tokyo again. I have so much I want to dooooo.