Recently, I have decided to put a stop to buying new kits, having recently gotten engaged. I have been meaning to put this together for quite some time now, but for one reason or another, I never got around to doing it.
But I figured I would write about where I have been buying my kits since I started living in Japan. While there is always the option of going to a physical store to buy kits, unless you happen to live somewhere with easy access to major geek hubs like Akihabara, or Osaka's DenDen Town, usually stores are limited to the most recent series, or what has been reissued recently. If you looking for an older kit that hasn't been reissued, you might have some difficulties here. Enter the online stores.
While there are other online stores out there, below are the five that I have used when it comes to shopping for model kits online.
Rakuten is a bit of a weird one. It's basically like Amazon, but operates purely for the Japanese market. Though if I were to sum Rakuten up, it would be... overpriced.
While it is generally more expensive compared to Amazon, the keyword is generally. I have managed to purchase kits and games at prices that have been cheaper than what Amazon offers. Hell, a while ago, I managed to get my hands on an Ichiban Kuji campaign version of the Master Grade RX-78-2 version 3.0 (unopened) at a surprisingly good price, and that campaign was from a few years ago, meaning it's not something one comes by easily. In addition, I was able to purchase the HG Gundam Livelance Heaven at a very reasonable price, cheaper than what Amazon was offering at the time.
Despite my thoughts on Rakuten being overpriced, I would not be so quick to dismiss it either. You can find some things through this service at some competitive prices, and not just Gunpla. As a result, whenever I'm looking for things to purchase at Amazon Japan, I always have a tab open for Rakuten also.
Hobby SearchThis is something that I check frequently, but I do not purchase from often. I think the last time I purchased from this store was 2 years ago.
Premium Bandai (P-Bandai)
Any Gunpla fan not living in Japan (and even those living in Japan) will most certainly groan in frustration at the mere mention of Premium Bandai (or P-Bandai).
For those that do not know, Premium Bandai is an online store that sells products exclusive to its site. In the case of Gunpla, they sell colour or re-tooled variations of regular released Gunpla kits, or release kits of certain obscure mobile suits that may not have that much demand, or showed up very briefly in their respective anime/OVA/film. Examples including the HG Conroy Haagensen's ECOAS Jegan, a very slight retool of the regular release HG Jegan D-Type ECOAS version. These days however, P-bandai also release kits that many would argue should have been a regular release - examples including the HG Gundam Rose or Gundam Maxter from Mobile Fighter G Gundam, or even the HG Gundnode and HG Demi Garrison from the Witch from Mercury line. Even Cucuruz Doan's Zaku was strangely a P-bandai release, despite the mobile suit being one of the main features of the Cucuruz Doan's Island film - and it keeps getting many reissues long after the film was released. Hell, they released the Mercuius and Vayeate from Gundam Wing, with many asking "Why?"
Aside from the odd choices of what is considered a P-bandai release these days, another issue is the timeframe of when you can preorder the kit, which is 12:00 PM JST. For many highly anticipated P-bandai kits, you may have just a few minutes to put your order in before it is all sold out. To make matters worse, even if you are on the P-bandai website in preparation to put your order in, the high volume of visitor traffic may sometimes lead you to missing out. In those cases, your only hope is that P-Bandai will do another run very soon, which is sometimes the case.Even if you are unfortunate and miss out, there are still other options, with many physical stores and online stores selling P-bandai kits after market, though expect to pay a little more.
Kind of related, but I find it funny that I had an easier time purchasing the HG Gelgoog Menace (standard colors) from P-bandai than purchasing the regular release Gelgoog Menace (Lunamaria's custom), despite the numerous reissues since it was first released in March this year. I have searched both online and in physical stores, and have had no luck finding the kit at a reasonable price.
This is something that I have only just started using this year. I am kind of cheating adding this to the list, as Surugaya is also a chain of physical stores where you can buy and sell games, DVDs, figures and even model kits. As each store in Japan is going to have different stock, their website lists every store in the country that stocks a particular product. In addition, for many of their products, you have the option of either buying it second hand (中古) or, if applicable, you can checkout their market place where you can sometimes get products either close to - or even cheaper than - retail price.
I have managed to even get my hands on the P-Bandai HG Gundnode for almost the same price than if I purchased through P-bandai directly (which I missed out on preorder for), including delivery fees. The P-Bandai HG Demi Garrison (at the time of writing this) is also at a very good price. If you are after P-bandai kits that are either not being reissued, or if you just missed out on the pre-order and prepared to wait a little longer for it to show up on Surugaya, I strongly recommend checking it out over the other online stores that I have listed. There's a pretty good chance that you can get what you are after at a reasonable price.
However, compared to other online shops I have used, Surugaya is the only one I have noticed that does not allow you to pay at a convenience store.
There you have it, that's the list of online shops I use... or used for purchase Gunpla in Japan. If you are living in Japan and looking to get your Gunpla (or general model kit) fix, I would recommend using multiple online shops to make sure you get the best deal. It can be a bit of a pain having to set up accounts and monitor multiple online stores, but しょうがない, it can't be helped. Of course depending on where you live, physical stores may be an option, but stock may vary depending on place to place, with smaller, rural towns generally having less stock compared to major cities.
