January 3, 2001 CURRENT RUMBLE New Old-School Kid on the Block Yappy 1.3.01 Any New York City gokin collector (at least the occasional one willing to sacrifice his or her anonimity) will tell you that the once bountiful wellspring of vintage toys has long dried up. The once-mighty Forbidden Planet has been reduced to selling marked-up Power Rangers... Children of Paradise, once filled floor to ceiling with pricy vintage goodies, has been replaced with a shoe store... Love Saves the Day is now only good for KISS merchandise... When I heard there was a new Japanese collectible store open in the East Village, I was skeptical to say the least. Cripes. More Gun-pla... more Car Robots... more pablum... yawn... Today I finally made the pilgrimage down to the corner of 2nd Avenue and 7th Street. Next to a sushi restaurant stood a hand-painted Gojira sign marked "Toy Tokyo." It pointed towards a nondescript stairwell recessed into a well-tagged entryway. Halfway up those rickety steps, (don't use the railing!) I caught an eyeful of a wall covered in product promotion posters... Nightmare Before Christmas (ho-hum)... Ultraman (promising!)... I opened a small door at the top ("Check your bags!"), and WHAM! It's that breathless feeling you get when you walk into a genuine, dedicated Japanese toy store for the first time, sensory overload as your optic nerves try to process the technicolor panorama of familiar Japanese characters. No, Toy Tokyo isn't the holy grail of toy stores, nor does it come close to the manic intensity of Kimono My House (for those lucky enough to have been there) or any toy store in Japan (for those even luckier). But for New York City, the store's a veritable miracle. The standard new toy fare is at the front, but in the back stand glass shelves filled with vintage tin, diecast, and vinyl, all for sale. It isn't the largest vintage collection-- and it's not priced to move-- but at least it's there. The current display does contains a good cross-section of classic gangu-- a Clover Gundam DX (non-gattai), Gekko Kamen and DaiApollon tin wind-ups, and old Popy Robocon vinyls. Since the store's only four months old, there's promise of much more vintage to come. And if you're also a fan Japanese esoterica, Toy Tokyo has a very nice selection of obscure mascot goods-- Bakabon, Barbapapa, Pekochan, even Topo Gigio vinyls. Today I made away with only a Pingu vinyl and a knock-off DoB wind-up for my significant other, but I had a chance to observe first-hand the feeding habits of die-hard Transformer-philes. Trust me, there's nothing as bone-chilling as watching a group of grown men tearing open box after box of Transformer PVC figurines, looking for that rare "chase figure"-- whatever that means... Special thanks to Peter, Taku, and Junko for being so kind and hospitable on my scouting trip... and for not kicking me out when I started rambling about some "Japanese toy website"...  RUMBLE INDEX  |  CURRENT RUMBLE