Gaming Thursday: Mandrake Review (NSFWallet)

Hello dudes and dudettes!


Today I decided to do something unusual. I'm not really a reviews type of person and you won't see me do them, unless something is either terribly awful and I need to warn people about it, or, as in this case, something is terribly AMAZING and I need to share the awesomeness with people!

(click click)

All credit for this find goes to the awesome guys of Figure-GAF on Neo-GAF, as they have shown me the light.


I saw the thread and list of shops and after careful consideration, I decided to have a look at this Mandrake Japanese store. Working with a lot of Japanese people and people who visit Japan often, I've heard the name before and I was aware that it's a physical shop in Akihibara, however what I didn't know is that they have a website and ship worldwide.

For those of you who don't know what this store is - it's a second hand shop for everything geeky, but mostly toys and doujinshi (so be warned: it's totally NSFW). The cool thing about it is that their criteria for second hand stuff is nearly impossible. Mostly the toys that have never been opened from their box make it to the shop and their price is cut A LOT for any box damage. So they come in perfect condition. If there are any damaged they will be described on the pages and price will be heavily reduces. Which is awesome for collectors such as myself, who don't really get attached to boxes. I'd much rather put them in a glass shelf.

Aside from the fact that the toys are in great condition, the thing that amazed me the most is the shipping.
I made my order on Monday, from Tokyo, Japan. I live in London, UK. I paid £5 for shipping and received my package on WEDNESDAY, the same week.

Yeah. Crazy.


It was all neatly packaged with a lot of air cushions, so there's no damage to the figures.
I paid overall £40 with shipping (no customs, they wrote it off as present, which is AWESOME) for these beauties:














I am in love with them. And I can't wait to get more stuff from Mandrake in the future! I've never been this happy with any customer service EVER. And I'm a loyal Amazon customer. That says a lot.

Here's my 3-steps on how to find the most awesome things on Mandrake:

1. Always search titles in both their English and Japanese titles.
2. If you're looking for anime or video game figures, they will both be in 'Anime Figures'. The title is a little bit misleading, as that's where all the game toys will be as well. And original characters.
3. You have to check out twice. The first time when you check out after you order, they will not charge you then, after that once your order has been processed you'll receive an email with an actual Pay page with additional shipping fee, which didn't seem really expensive. (1,100 yen for 3 items) 

That's all! Happy shopping and let me know what you're getting/want to get in the comments below~