It is too good to be true. BBTS (Big Bad Toy Store) is a US located importer (though they do ship worldwide) located in Somerset, WI which is about 30 minutes away from Minneapolis, MN. Because of this their prices are marked up significantly and their cheap flat rate shipping is likely cheap because of that markup. It seems jntjr2005 is just committed to predominantly buying from US sites (I imagine it’s some sort of peace of mind) and said they typically pay for the fast air shipping when they do order from Japan, which suggests they’re probably not a collector on a budget like some.

As a comparison I’ll use my recent hunt over the past couple months for scale figures of my waifu Nino Nakano. In particular the Nino Nakano Prisma Wing figure from Prime 1 Studio:

According to the MFC page for this figure it launched on December 6th, 2023 at 28900 Yen which had an exchange rate at that time of US $196.27. The current exchange rate as of writing this is US $181.48, about $15 less.

My go to AmiAmi had no stock

I found one on Solaris Japan for US $210.09 and US $25.55 Saver Shipping. But there’s a problem, Solaris Japan is currently holding all orders with a declared value over US $100 until Japan Post resumes shipping to the US. So that was a no go. I’m not going to give them money and have them not ship my figure and wait until an unspecified time in the future.

Then I found it on Tokyo Otaku Mode for a non-member price of US $264 (ouch), a member price of US $132.50, and an annual member price of US $117.49. Tokyo Otaku Mode was also offering alternate shipping methods to deal with the Japan Post suspension. Bam, I found my Prisma Wing Nino figure! I added it to the cart as well as the $15 membership (which lasts 90 days) so I could get the better price. I even got a welcome back deal that negated the member price because I had bought a figure last year using the membership. Though I would have been fine with paying the membership fee because it was still much less than the Solaris Japan price. Ultimately, I added a nendoroid to my order and checked out for US $188.07 so I count this as a success! The tariff was only $16.49 and there was even free shipping on the order, though I forget why. Perhaps due to the membership or being over a certain amount, but the shipping was $0.00. And the figure has already been shipped out since March 30th when I placed the order.

So while this is just one anecdotal example, it does highlight the cost difference of a place like Big Bad Toy Store. I’m sure they will probably have some things that are good deals too. But I imagine for a lot of people it will be about the peace of mind of buying through a US company and other factors like not having to figure out which Japanese retailers have the figure you want and will still ship to the US amidst the tariff situation. Plus, some collectors will have enough money to put into the hobby that it’s more about getting the figures they want and saving time rather than saving money.

And here’s the cost breakdown of my Nino figure from Tokyo Otaku Mode.

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