The worst thing about being a toku fan is being a toku fan. Whenever I think of all the money I would have saved...

Ironically, a few years ago I was working a job where the client was a large Japanese firm. When we had some meetings here in the office with them, we ended up going to Toys R Us (which is within walking distance of my office), and they loved it. The three clients ended up each buying some "import" stuff for their kids back home! :lol

I tried to be into tokusatsu without buying any associated merch. Lasted about two months. :lol

Almost made it seven before I got my first Figuart, though.

It's sometimes best not to think about it. :lol

I still haven't bought anything (excluding Power Rangers. No offense).

The worst thing about being a western Toku fan is when you meet someone new, and they eventually ask you what you're into. And you have that tense moment where time slows itself down. And you think: I can't tell him/her Power Rangers, I can't say Toku or Sentai or else I'd have to explain what it is.. Collecting.. Hummels. Yes, I collect Hummels.

Or worse. You bring back said girl/guy home and they see your collection for the first time. Then you have that whole new fear that they'll just laugh and give you that sarcastic "Awww, that's so cute"
Or they'll laugh and just walk back out the door never to be seen again. Or look at you like you didn't just show them a collection, you showed them human parts in your freezer.

Then you have that fear of watching MMPR seasons on netflix outside of the safety of your house, because godforbid you sit in a wifi hotspot and someone catches an episode off your shoulder. And buying toys? In a real brick and mortar store? You always have that moment of a mother with her son in the same aisle, looking at you looking at the PR stuff like you're hanging out the window of an ice cream truck going to little kids saying "Want some Caaaaandy?" (Happened more than once whenever I goto K-Mart. The joys of living in a small PA town)

There are joys to collecting Sentai/Rider stuff. You just have steel yourself against the atom-bomb level downsides.

I am trying to remember how I explained my love of tokusatsu (namely daikaiju, which is where my love of tokusatsu comes from) to my wife when we first started dating back in college. I know I had a pile of Goji movies with me at school when we started dating, and I was watching Lightspeed Rescue. I think I finally just said that I have always liked monsters and was a big fan of Godzilla. She had never seen a daikaiju movie, and to this day has only watched one (Godzilla vs The Thing) and a couple of episodes of Power Rangers. She doesn't like it but she acknowledges that I do and that's that.

I do recall a fun story from when we first were dating. Like the second day we were together. She was going to visit one of her friends who lived off campus, and I was invited too, but we had to bring a movie. She didn't have any, so it fell to me. So I take a look at my movie rack and what do I have:

--Unrated or hard R horror movies
--80s cartoons
--Godzilla movies

...Yikes. Luckily I had exactly one movie which doesn't fit into those categories: And Now From Something Completely Different by Monty Python! :lol

Makes me think of a plane trip I took a few months back. I was working a project in Rhode Island, and I would fly back home to SC every two weeks, stay home for the weekend, then fly back Monday morning. On the flights, I would watch fansubs on my laptop -- either Boukenger or Kamen Rider. On one flight home I was watching Boukenger. The guy next to me, you could see him just sort of staring at my screen in disbelief.

For a few minutes, anyway. Then he starts watching the show, and you can tell he is reading the subtitles and paying attention. That really made me laugh. After a few minutes he clearly got absorbed into the story! :lol

I have never gotten static from buying toys in a brick and mortar store. I guess because I'm a father, and I look like one, everyone assumes its for my kids, ha!

Eh, everybody I meet and my girlfriend accept what I like, so that's something that never occurs to me ^_^

I'm too stupid too realize I'm supposed to hide my obsession(s).

You know, I actually once described Kamen Rider to a friend over text chat like this:

"It's like Power Rangers, except it's in Japanese, and there's only one guy and he's got a bug theme and he rides a motorcycle."

His response:

"So... nothing like Power Rangers?"

"Yeah!"

"lol"

Mr. Blue i belive i have you beat, I live in Alaska. The ONLY i found was Figurerise skull and axel thats it. i can find gundams out the ears and the two comic shopes and one hobby/modeling store but no toku stuff.

You have Skull!?

Got you both beat! I have only ever seen the Momotaros Twist Action Form figure in a store.

....I might wanna shut up about what I see here :lolol

This although Toku stuff is rarer than Gundams or creepy anime girls

I'm thankful to be fortunate enough to be living in a city were things like Gunpla and even some Kamen Rider stuff can be found pretty easily.

Oh, correction. I sometimes see random KR statuettes (The blind boxed, 3/4-in ones) amongst the generic anime crap.

What sucks about being a western toku fan? Welp, for one thing, the toys made for toku here are catered to kids and the ones that seem to be aimed at collectors, like the Retrofire zords, fall short.

The worst thing about being a western toku fan?

Parcelforce admin fee.

The worst thing about being a Western toku fan? Not being to meet the actors and actresses in Japan. Considering they would be nicer to hang out with then the celebs we have in the US. Oh how I would give anything to meet Nao Nagasawa, Sota Fukushi, the cast of Hikounin Sentai Akibaranger, and Karen Takizawa! But money is always in the way. :(

That when you talk about it people either give you weird looks or assume you're talking about a Power Rangers rip-off. Plus being the ONLY member of your family than knows about it. That's a bit of a bummer.

The worst thing about being a toku fan in the USA is, parents look at you weird when you search through the power rangers shelf. that and never seeing any of the mainline toku stuff at retail and having to sell a kidney to get them online.

Its like the santa thing here in the us. Its ridiculous.

Having to feel out new friends you meet to see if you can bring up Sentai, Kamen Rider, Power Rangers, without the getting the "Oh, he's one of those" looks.

Only time I got that look is one I wore my GoGo Changer to manga club once, and two of my friends thought I liked Operation Overdrive. I had to explain that I like Boukenger, and that what I was wearing was the Japanese version :lol

Collecting merch in a locale where the idea of a Japanese imports store could never get off the ground.

Central Minnesota is not a good place for collecting Toku merch. Hell, I was surprised to find that the freakin' MALL OF AMERICA only has one little kiosk with this stuff.

Guess what, people tend to think this is what makes me special and even like that about me. I've already got two friends to watch Toku already. With one of them, I watched some Kyoryuger and the other one started out with OOO and Goseiger ööv

Oh shut up :lol

Ha you got Suzu'd :lol

Again >_< Kick, I need to the keys to the Doom Machine again!

Just plain importing I guess. So expensive!

To me it feels even more expensive since I was in Japan and saw how dirt cheap everything is over there xD

Having to explain why a toy costs 30-ish dollars. I go with good materials and import and shipping fees.

Not being able to buy DVDs/ BDs of toku series or being able to legally stream them. Its really annoying that TOEi knows there's a western fanbase yet doesn't give a shit. Even if we couldn't get blu-rays or DVDs over here, the fact that no streaming service streams toku is annoying. When Chrunchyroll has random J and K-dramas but not big superhero franchises in Japan like Kamen Rider, Sentai and Ultraman is a crime.

Sorry for the double post.

But, having to wait for the movies to come out on DVD months after they're out waiting for them to be subbed. Considering that Toei is now having a lot of thiers films and series tie into each other, the fact that we have to wait forever for stuff to movies com out does suck.

Imports man! This is the main reason why I haven't bought any Rider Belts at all yet, also movies! I hate waiting double the months just for it to be released in dvd then it has to be subbed.

Waiting for movies sucks, especially if they are actually integrated in the plot, like W Forever.

On the other hand importing is cheaper than buying most local toys here... so I don't mind.

Just the fact that there is a lack of subs for shows. There's a large chunk subbed but there's still a lot not subbed at all or fully subbed. I would love to be able to see Goranger, J.A.K.Q., Blue SWAT, Juukou B-Fighter, and a lot of other shows get the sub treatment.

Ultraman Cosmos, Ultra Zero Fight and somebody finishing Ginga.

That's all I ask for. T_T