From rare colors to pachimonos......Manager Miyakoshi of Mandarade Micro Museum talks about the endless romance that overflows from eraser dolls! [Hobby Industry Inside #74

Manzarate is a mecca for enthusiasts who specialize in rare used goods ranging from comic books to toys. Its main store is located in a commercial building called Nakano Broadway, where stores are subdivided by genre. Yohei Miyakoshi, the director of "Manrandare Micro-kan," which mainly handles erasers - small vinyl chloride dolls that were once sold as gacha-gacha (toy toys) and shokugan (toys sold with food) - is so trusted by customers that they name him "Mr. Miyakoshi is the best person to price these erasers.
We spoke with Mr. Miyakoshi and Mr. Katsuya Nakamura of the PR department about the romantic stories behind the retro erasers.

Not only erasers, but even professional wrestling masks. ...... Micro-kan is Director Miyakoshi's select store!

─ I found out about Director Miyakoshi through his Twitter account ( # ). Every day, I look forward to seeing images of old erasers uploaded along with creative phrases such as "eternal bad stimulus," "dream factory state," and "runner art.

Miyakoshi: On Twitter, I upload images of things that I think will be popular, things that high-level collectors will appreciate, and also things that I like. Some of our customers ask me to upload images of items on Twitter when they come in. I often receive calls to place orders the day after I upload images, and if it's a thick collectible, my Twitter account has a 100% viewership rate (laughs).

Nakamura: Among our company's staff, there are precious few who continuously transmit information via Twitter as much as Miyakoshi does. Miyakoshi's continued presence on Twitter has helped to expand his fan base, and he also receives many requests for interviews and requests from other companies to lend him images.

Miyakoshi: That is why I try to upload new items as much as possible. In some cases, I don't even know what the item is, so I tweet it without writing its name. Then, customers who see the image will tell me, "Isn't this the same item?

Nakamura: Miyakoshi often uses the compliment "richness" in his tweets.

Miyakoshi: When I don't get much response, I say, "I think this eraser is too rich. ......


──Did you like erasers since you were a child?

Miyakoshi: Yes, Kinkeshi (Kinnikuman erasers) were my base. When I joined Mandara as an employee, I studied Kinkeshi, then SD Gundam, and then monster erasers.

Nakamura: More than 10 years ago, the Mandara Micro Museum was in a different location than it is today. In the beginning, the main items were prize items such as stuffed toys, key chains, and other small items, which is why we named it the "Micro" building. After Miyakoshi joined the company, I have the impression that there were more erasers. Later, the Cosplay Pavilion, which was located on the 4th floor, was moved to the 2nd floor where there were many general customers, and the Micro Pavilion was moved to the 4th floor to replace it. At that time, the 4th floor was a warehouse district and did not contain as many stores as it does now.

─ Most of the stores had their shutters closed, and it was a lonely atmosphere.

Nakamura: We knew that ordinary customers would not come to the store, so we needed to create a niche and core product lineup to attract dedicated collectors. That is why Miyakoshi was chosen.

Miyakoshi: Since that time, we have held an event called "Rubber Day" on May 6 every year. We have a big sale of erasers at the Micro Pavilion (held at Nakano Sun Plaza for the past several years), and since customers who know more about erasers than I do gather there, in the beginning I was sometimes pointed out for my lenient pricing. In addition, for the first two years, we held "Niku no Hi" on the 29th of every month. This was a sales event that focused on rare and valuable items of "Kinnikuman" merchandise. The current Micro Pavilion collects goods from the 80's to the early 00's, but basically, it is a collection of my favorite items.

Nakamura: The current Micro Pavilion is special even within Mandarake, and has become Miyakoshi's select store.

─ Not only do you sell erasers, toys, and waste toys, but you also sell a large number of wrestling masks, don't you?　What the heck is that ......

Miyakoshi: I display wrestling masks simply because I like them. Many of them are real masks worn by the wrestlers themselves, and the charm of these masks is that you can become the real person by wearing them. The first Tiger Mask in particular is the most popular, and Mil Mascaras also has many fans. There is a store in Sugamo called Tudokan that specializes in used pro wrestling goods, and I noticed that it has almost as many items as Tudokan.


─ Do customers who come to buy masks and customers who come to look for erasers overlap?

Miyakoshi: People who like "Kinnikuman" and people who like professional wrestling overlap. In terms of generation, I think the people who like this era of pro-wrestling and the people who like "Kinnikuman" are the same. However, SD Gundam would be different, because those who like SD Gundam are only interested in the mecha.

Nakamura: Since Kinkeshi first appeared in the world in 1983, the people who collect Kinkeshi now are mainly in their 40s and 50s, who were children at that time.

Miyakoshi: So, I am probably the last generation that was able to collect them in real time. I have wanted to collect all of them since I was a child.

Nakamura: Even though there are people who buy and sell erasers through mail order, there are probably no other stores that have such a large collection of erasers in their stores.

Miyakoshi: It seems that some eraser stores have withdrawn from the market since the opening of Micro Pavilion. However, there are not that many people who collect erasers, so it would be a problem if there were too many stores (laughs). The core eraser enthusiasts are probably a few hundred people nationwide, at most, and mainly in the Kanto and Kansai areas.