Jim's Recollection... My Tokyo Trip 2004 #3

Post by Jim

By the time I reached the New MGC Shop it was 6pm and it was getting dark...

Nothing stopped my excitement and I rushed up to Level 2 where MGC shop located...surprisingly when I entered the shop it was quite dark and normally people just won't buy up when they come to a shop like this (I'm sure it's the lighting problem and it'll remain like this all day because I couldn't find any window...)






Some disappointment though - during my time in Japan the New MGC had just revived and their upcoming Beretta M9 was heavily promoted in magazines so I wanted to buy it there.

As it turned out - several M9 flyers sticked around the shop and one neat pile of flyers placed next to the door (on the right of pic. 4) for anyone's reference.

But...I gained something in return. I got upclose and personal with this:


New MGC's S&W Military & Police in Royal Hong Kong Police (pre-1997 Handover) configuration - it's basically a S&W M10 4" std barrel with lanyard ring under the grip (the RHKP dropped the lanyard as well as the std barrel M10 back in 1993 for the heavy barrel M10 without lanyard ring).

One shortfall - the RHKP never applied the grip adaptors on their service revolvers and I ended up giving this one a miss because I reckon Kokusai makes better M10s than anyone else...(I ended up buying almost every Kokusai HW models but that's another story...).

Since I'd already bought the East-A holsters from Mugen so I ended up buying all the steel parts for my rusted MGC Beretta M9 "Desert Storm" limited edition as replacements as well as a discontinued (at that time) Marushin Mauser M712 20rd mag...from their rival !!!

It turned out that some new M9 parts cannot fit onto the old gun - especially the ambidextrous decocker switch & the hammer (or maybe I'm just too lazy to swap the hammer...).

Once again I brought bad luck to these shops - this shop closed down several months before the entire New MGC group...

My next victim...UNCLE GUN...coming soon...

Post by shazhib

Jim,

Excellent mate.
Can't wait to hear your perspective on UNCLE.

FYI, I am also a big fan of Kokusai revolvers, both HW and metal.

Post by 2sharp


Very nice story, i've been waiting for this ever since you posted the first part.
I just can't imagine walking into a modelgun shop and buy directly, there has been some, very few, modelguns for sale in Sweden. And they have been mail-order only really.

Some day i'll go to Japan and visit them all And i'll bring a HEAP of cash!

Most appreciated that you're taking the time to write about your experience
_________________
I need more model guns...

The holy quest for modelgun information and knowledge will never-ever end!!

Post by Jim

Sadly of the 4 shops that I've decided to share on this forum only Magnum Mugen remains - Shinbashi and this New MGC shop had closed (now only 1 MGC shop remains but it'll be no different to other gun shops) and the UNCLE gun shop - they'd relocated...

I can assure every one of you that UNCLE GUN will be the best gun shop that you'll ever visited (only if you're devoted to modelguns - airsoft guys can stay away from it...)

Now I remembered exactly why I didn't take photos of the gun shops - apart from me getting carried away, it'll be quite impolite to take photos inside the shops in Japan out of the blue - maybe not to the shopkeepers but it'll disturb other customers...

But I've determined that if I have another chance to visit Japan I'll take photos everywhere no matter what...maybe a fake reporter ID card can help ...