hey folks.
come march, id be moving down south for good.
yes mate.. you heard me right!

i would like to know if there are australian based toy collectors and customizers here who can help me out locate toy stores and hobby shops in melbourne, australia?
all i know are Targets, K-Marts and TRUs, coz ive been there only for short period of times a couple of years ago and not been able to locate private toyshops and hobby centers where paints for customizing are available.

help would be very much appreciated.
thanks, mate! 8)

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Try Fit for Natalie over in the Off Topic thread area.. I believe he's in Australia and I'm sure there's someone else can't remember his SN though.

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Moto-Viper is down there if I remember right.

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arashikage storm is there.. haven't seen him lately though.

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I'm a soon to be customiser, I'm ordering casting materials from the US at the moment... I'm stil waiting on my smooth-sil, my brothers fault... as he has been holding onto it for a while...

As for Targets Kmarts and TRU's sadly to say from all the stores I know of, there arent any GI joes being stocked. And this may be a permenant thing, until the GI joe movie is released.
I'm not sure why they stoped releasing them here, perhaps it was a supply and demand thing, the phrase real american hero, doesnt sit quite so well when its sitting on an Australian shelf.

There are the CORPS figures, which for a lack of a better term are really really "LASER BLAST", but sometimes you can use them for their weapons and vehicles for customs.

There is the occasional collectables fair, but its pretty timid in comparission to the US. And you woudl be lucky to find any 3 3/4 inch figures there..

There are a few colelctable stores around, but most dont usualy stock the 3 3/4 inch figures.

I sadly have to buy everything I want off Ebay, although the Australian dollar is going strong now, its the postage that kills ya.

As for customizing materials your best bet is art supply stores, model stores, and games workshop stores.


Where abouts in Melbourne are you moving too?

Hope this info can be of help... evne if it isn't exactly good news for you.

For GI Joe, you are doomed. DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED.

I really, really, really hope somebody explained to you that there aren't any GI Joe toys down here anymore At least until the Movie, anyway.

GI Joe stopped selling here originally after the ARAH line fell over. It didn't return until 2003 for Spy Troops though to the early stages of Valor Vs Venom. The line tanked, probably because of it's theme, I assume (obviously a toyline about an American special forces unit 'defending freedom' is going to have limited appeal outside of the United States).

The line ended in 2004-2005, IIRC, with piles of clearanced mechs, that VvV boat whose name I can't remember, and that ugly snake plane with the rotating turret. Interestingly, the then-prized Cobra Infantry six pack didn't shift as well, so Toys R Us, by then the only store to carry the line, was drowning in sets of blue-suited terrorists. I think they've been returned to Hasbro now.

From what I can tell, the GI Joe fanbase here is pretty bloody small, so you'll have a tough time finding fellow collectors to make trades and sales with.

On the plus side, our dollar is now near-parity with the US dollar, so ordering things from the US won't cost much more, but the postage might be a shock, as Malcolm notes.

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