The Japanese Toys R Us Experience!

Ever since I laid my hands on Takara's Henshin Cyborgs in the 90's, I added visiting a Japanese Toys R Us to my bucket list!

This dream came true in the summer of 2019! (1 whole year after the U.S. TRU's sadly closed...)

I first stumbled upon TRU my first night in the cultural capital of Japan, Kyoto. I was wandering around some stores near the train station when those classic colors caught my eye. There it was! Toys R Us on the bottom floor of a two story shopping center! I started running just to step into a Toys R Us once more!

Me + Toys R Us + Japan = Dream Come True

As soon as I walked in, it felt magical! My eyes were bloodshot from forgetting to blink!

I first stepped into the Lego aisle to see what was there! The selection was smaller than ours used to be, but I picked up the (originally) East Asian exclusive Dragon Boat set there!

Some Lego's and Japanese Customers

Of course it being Nippon, they had a Godzilla section! At the time, they were selling their primary classic vinyl lineup, and also 2019's Godzilla King of the Monsters series! (And yes, I saw the movie premiere there...)

I saw a few endgame Marvel Legends tucked to a small shelf for like the equivalent of $25ish dollars. I refused to purchase any of that stuff though, because they were easily available in the states. Below is an image of their main action figure aisles. They primarily carried Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and Gundam for males.

Ultraman stuff was the goal of my trip, so this is where I loaded up! I ultimately wanted some Ultraman Figuarts, but Japanese TRU unfortunately sold zero Figuarts! This was very surprising to me, and I will explore this more in a future post about Japan.

Ultraman merchandise on the end-cap

After filling my basket full of goodies, I went to see what else Japanese TRU had to offer! Apparently the Japanese market still loved model trains, because they also had an aisle dedicated to them. An adjacent shopping mall next to TRU also included a model train store.

The baby toys were dominated by the beloved Japanese child character Anpanman. I did not know much about him, other than catching him on many places like vending machines. I suppose kids recognize him like they do Elmo here.

As for female toys, instead of Barbies, they mostly had these odd dolls I did not recognize. They were not necessarily cheap or cheesy, but they did not try to incorporate the more realistic features that Barbie puts on their dolls. These were not as bizarre as the mannequin type dolls I saw later on my trip though. (More on this later)

Overall, I think I spent like $200 during my one night of heaven. I bought the Lego set, Godzilla vinyls, an Ultraman Belial figure, and many smaller Ultraman vinyls! The only photo of these toys I took during the trip were my Godzilla vinyls on the bullet train back to Tokyo. These particular characters are much more expensive when imported here.

Mecha King Ghidorah, Mecha Godzilla, Gigan

The Japanese Toys R Us is an experience every action figure enthusiasts should enjoy if they ever find themselves in the land of the rising sun!

Toys R Us was not the only toy haven I visited during my two week stint in Japan! More to come later!

-Chuck