Lego shopping and community in Japan?

[Doom2099]

Hi,

I'm visiting Tokyo for a while, and looking for any advice on places to shop, or things to do that are Lego related.

I've already gone to the Lego Discovery Center in Odaiba, along with the Clickbrick store nearby. Mandarake seems to sell a bit of used Lego, but so far, that's all I can find.

Does anyone have any ideas, from physical stores, to groups/shows?

Thanks!

[rollermonkey]

I'm not up to date on the current status, but they have a project underway in Nagoya that sounds like it is somewhere between a Lego Discovery Center and a Legoland. Nagoya by bullet train is an easy day trip from Tokyo, I did it several times when I lived in Yokosuka.

[Doom2099]

That sounds cool! Thanks to Google and the Guardian it looks like a 2017 opening. The Discovery Center in Tokyo is pretty cool, but this sounds a lot closer to the real Legoland experience.

Thanks very much for letting me know. And I do hope somehow we get Lego bullet trains out of this deal somehow. Wishful thinking!

[AmperZand]

I went to a couple of Clickbrick stores in and around Tokyo this summer. One was in a factory outlet centre in Inagi-shi (I think), the other was in a shopping centre in Yokohama (I'm sure).

Both had the full range of sets available at the time. I didn't notice any exclusives, but wasn't looking for them either.

Both had customisable LEGO key-rings. Neither had a PAB wall.

The Yokohama store had a very limited BAM (nothing like what you would expect from a LEGO brand store in the west). The Inagi-shi store didn't have one at all.

The Yokohama store displayed the winning MOCs from a competition they ran. I was impressed by some of the entries. A MOC of Spider-Man was particularly clever.

If I had to pick one of the two stores to return to, it would be the Yokohama one. Not only was it the better store but it's also a fun neighbourhood.

The Inagi-shi store:

The Yokohama store: