Topic: Spain / España

[Darth More]

Tamer: Yes, they got great stuff there. The selection was always amazing. But I remember that some people found their prices too high and therefore bought their toys somewhere else. There might’ve been even higher discounts at check-out, but I didn’t try. Bakughan for example were to for one (12.95€). If they had gotten a 1/18 scale Black Hawk I would’ve bitten. Fortunately I got one used for 24€ last week.
Pictures will follow. Overall Nikki toys have a much greater selection for Star Wars and better prices.
Thanks Tamer


Starchaser: Gracias for checking by bud! We fly back to Germany tomorrow night so I’m still at the pool. I’m glad I finally could rent a car here. Most companies don’t give their vehicles to peole under 25. This year I’m 26. We had a TOYOTA yaris for a day - a cute car. It was 39.80€ with insurance plus 8€ for gas we used.

I remember when I was on Mallorca back in 2008. It took us forever to find TRU there. But when we got there we also found the second wave of Order 66 2-Packs there for 24.99€ each. Good memories. Although it feels like paradise here, I’m looking forward to flying home. I got some projects to do!


Sjefke: Thank you for leaving a comment! It was a fun trip there even though I didn’t buy anything. The smell inside alone was worth it.
I hope you can dry your tears when TRU will re-open in the U.S.
It was quite emotional for customers around the world when they went bankrupt.
Keep your head up & buy locally to not leave the entire business to Amazon.

Availability in Germany is far better than here in Spain by now. It might never been different. But as said above I left all the figs on the pegs for the Spanish fans (or other tourists) here.
If the eye print of one of the 3 X-Wing Lukes would’ve been accurate, I had taken one for 13€.


Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me gentlemen!

[Darth More]

Logs of the Missions for ISY


Despite all restrictions my family and I made it to travel to Gran Canaria yesterday. It's mind-boggling that the British government claims a fine as high as 5,000 GBP if a British citizen leaves the country at the moment. The German government had plans to prohibit holiday travels like ours as well. But our fundamental rights are quite a legal obstacle for such prohibitions. We could still leave the country as long as we had a negative PCR-test and the country of our final destination would let us enter.
Last Tuesday there was another meeting of all the important politicians in charge for Germany and the result showed how clueless they actually are in the current situation.

The table at the airport was impressive already. It usually has slots to show departures of the next 4 hours. But at the moment it's enough for an entire day. Still most destinations are not operated due to the Pandemic, but Spain for example allows tourism on some of their islands again.




Somehow those clouds reminded me of the Dark Skies theme from a decade ago...

Stores are allowed to open again here on Gran Canaria so I took the occasion and went to the closest toy store here in the South:


Right at the store's front you can see that MATTEL and Hasbro are still the two big players in the toy industry. It even has the newest version of Hasbro's emblem on it. The toy industry is booming at the moment. Last year people spent 5 billion Euros on toys in Germany alone during the pandemic.
I'm glad this store is still around after the third lockdown here on the Canary Islands. Many are gone now, empty business premises everywhere.


If I remember correctly the store's window hasn't been re-arranged since August.




Despite the low sales tax of only 7%, the import fees push the sales price here a lot. The price tag shows a regular price of 21.99€ for a TVC figure. You can buy Ms Bliss for 16.99€ now or have a Rose for 11.99€.




TRANSFORMERS & MARVEL













LEGO

Another reason why I find it exciting to go to such small toy stores is that you never know what you find. Chances are that you find some items from years ago that are long sold out in your home country. Here I found some LEGO STAR WARS sets from 2015. Prices on the secondary market for some of these sets are higher than the discount price already, but I don't do this. I rather leave these sets for the local people to buy instead of some brainless resale game.





Can't get around to take pictures of some nice cars I see.




I was so busy taking pictures of this brand new Fiat 124 Spider that I only realized the black Ferrari passing by when I uploaded this picture.

Today I also came across the most beautiful diorama made of sand I've ever seen. This artist built a little village around a sand volcano:

[Tamer]

Glad you were able to travel safely. Interesting to see those prices.

[Darth More]

Thanks Tamer! I only recognized that Zorii Bliss is cheaper now than the MRSP for TVC figures in Germany. 16,99€ for a TVC figure...still a bizarre price tag for me.
I'm going to rent a car on Wednesday and there are a few stores I'm going to visit. How about a return to Toys "R" Us up in the North of the Island? What do you think? Let me know if you want me to make a stop there.

[Tamer]

Hey, sounds like you are on vacation. Go have some fun with your family.

If you are up there and want to go in it would be cool to see.

[Darth More]

7 stores on 1 day


Today I went to Toys "R" Us again and 6 more toys stores here on Gran Canaria. I went to both here in the South, both in the East and two of 7 in the North.


1. Yesterday I set my way-points for today and I started at the closest Nikki store here in the very South. It's a small store in a small mall and they didn't have much STAR WARS. What was even more interesting was the very Chinese store we found on our way out...
Didn't take a picture of the front of the store because the place where I parked wasn't ideal so I was in quite a hurry:












The most surprising store of the day was this one here:


All these different glues alone right at the entrance were very impressive. Looks like you can find the right glue for any job here.


I've been looking for such big sheets of foam rubber for quite a while now. Each sheet is 50x65 cm (A2). I'm going to use them for my Jedi Temple dioramas. I think  in combination they'll make nice carpets.





These beats also looked interesting, but you can get 100 of those for 90 cents on AliExpress and they sell 1-5 of them for the same price.

I was surprised to find these fish tanks. They're definitely too small for fish of any kind, but they certainly would look nice for some diorama action.

This plywood was another nice surprise in this store. You could find everything in here. To me it appeared as if the owner of this store tried to put a Macy's store inside a room of 900 square feet. If you're looking for anything, they have it. It's like AliExpress inside a store. It was magic.



I wish I could've spent more time in this store. On my way out I found some more aquarium plants and for 1.60€ I couldn't pass on this little one for my next Scarif diorama.


2. The second Nikki store was the one with the best selection - back in August and today.







I couldn't resist but buy these TVC figures for as low as 12.95€ each. Saved me 5€ each figure compared to the regular retail price in Germany.







This store for fishing supplies had some metal swords and chalices in its window. The big one in the third picture was "just" 182€. I think this is a very good price, but I might get in trouble with the German customs...they also had some serious airsoft rifles and military equipment like boots and backpacks. Very cool stuff!





And here's what I got on the first part of my hunt:







I only recognized that ARC Trooper "Fives" must be somewhere out there when I returned home. After re-charging my smartphone I turned back out again...

3. The third store is right at the Atlantic ocean in the East of Gran Canaria.
This mall was very nice, if my battery hadn't dropped from 80% to 35% again, I would've spent more time there. Google Maps and GPS take a lot of energy and I got an old one to replace my broken phone at the moment.






And there he is: right in front of the pegs: ARC Trooper "Fives" - probably the only one left on this island. I mean for 12.95€ this is a great deal. The PVP was 21.99€ back in August and the figures were reduced already to 14.95€.



I got more and more the feeling that Nikki had received some solid cases of the 40th Anniversary ESB Luke. 4 were found in this store - for 13.95€ each. In comparsion this assortment is 28.99€ in Germany.


I just had to take that Fives with me...


Right next to the STAR WARS section was Bayblade. Brings back some good memories of elementary school.


And on the right was Batman - couldn't get around this playset for 39.95€ and took a closer look:


JW



HW & vehicles



National Geographic



LEGO


Still looking for the hidden side sets for a friend. To me the packaging design is the most confusing one from LEGO I remember. No surprise that this series hasn't sold well.






Hamster Town




4. The next mall with some MARVEL surprises - and more Lukes...














More HW






MARVEL & DC







These BAF Wave was quite tempting...but I didn't buy them.



STAR WARS







More construction sets I didn't know before.



5. Toys "R" Us

Is still around and this is no April's fool!




Dinosaurs












The Haunted House was 239.99€ and the current Creator Expert set: The book shop was 159.99€-

Both sets are still cheaper on ebay in Germany though. And I cannot take boxes at that size back home anyway...


6. The 5th Nikki store in the same mall, about 150 yards away from Toys "R" Us - and they have TVC AND the new P4 packaging of TBS figures...hard competition for TRU here...






Other Action Figure Lines




7. The 7th and last store was so small and so hard to get to that it wasn't even worth it. I went there on my way home, parked my car next to a broken house and walked half a mile because google maps didn't know how to get through these narrow alleys. It was good to walk the rest of the way and I met very friendly locals there. And I got a die-cast model car for my dad in 1/24 scale. No Star Wars figures at all here...










 

[Tamer]

Wow, now thats a store report. Glad you found some things. Bummer about them putting those stickers on the vintage cards though.

[Darth More]

Thank you, Tamer. I went out hunting twice yesterday and if my phone's battery wasn't so weak, I would've gotten even farer.

Don't worry about the stickers, they are of such a good quality (and even applied carefully) that I could peel them off easily, not only from the blisters, but also from the cards:

[Tamer]

I am liking all that vintage goodness you are finding. I did put that on the front page yesterday. Don't know why I forgot to mention it. Probably Old Timers setting in.

Still a shame that you have to take those stickers off. Anyone should know that any type of artsy card shouldn't get stickers on it. I remember having a long conversation with a Gamestop Employee who actually brought out her manager as she always had tried to not get them to put their price stickers on vintage things for the same reason. She was quite happy that I took the time to point that out to her boss as it drove her nuts. Then, of course just after I got them fixed the store went out of business!

[khaxan]

Nice tour!

[Darth More]

Thank you for coming by and checking it out. Next time I'm in Spain, I'm going on tour for some store reports, again 

[Tamer]

Nice to see some daggone good paint apps on those figures.

Man you have good stores.