Wow, Martin...  Those are crystal clear pictures!  Thanks for posting those!

Well, I'm guessing you're finished, so here are my Bandai Museum photos:

August 5th, 2011

Tokyo Sky Tree looms on the cloudy horizon as we head out on a roughly two hour drive north to Mibu, in Tochigi Prefecture.

A sea of green as we leave the Tokyo suburbs (rice fields for miles).

A highway reststop.  More like a mini-shopping mall with grilled food stalls, souvenir shops, very clean restrooms, gachapon machines, and really good ice cream.  There are actually two separate facilities, one each for northbound and southbound traffic.  The reason why I'm posting this?  I found out after I got home and started checking our route via Google Maps, that we were around 500 meters north of HobbyLink Japan's HQ and warehouse! 

Members of G-Tour 2 get aquainted with RX-78-2 Gundam pilot Amuro Ray via an introductory course on the Mobile Suit Gundam anime before arriving at the Bandai Museum. 

We arrive at the museum...  Even killing time at the reststop, we still get there before it opens. 

The Bandai Museum Heroes statue, along with the image of Thomas Edison.

Super Sentai heroes (from left to right), Aba Red from Bakuryû Sentai Abaranger, Kamen Rider, and Aka Ranger from Goranger.

What lies beyond the still locked doors...

The first thing we encountered upon entering the building.

And looming over everything is a 1:1 scale RX-78-2 Mobile Suit Gundam half-replica.  A "life-size" figure of Amuro Ray stands on the catwalk in the background.

Oh, to be a kid again...   Ultraman kaiju and seijin figures, super vehicles, and transforming robots...  All waiting to entertain the youngest visitors to the museum.  Can anyone spot the Ultra-Seven enemy, King Joe, in that pile?

The metal molds for a Millennium Godzilla figure.

Ultraman in the main toy exhibit room.

What certainly got my attention.

A "Soul of Popynica" Space Battleship Yamato (from Bandai, naturally).

A glitter Godzilla figure.  I'm assuming that this is a "Burning Godzilla" from the GODZILLA VS. DESTROYAH movie, or the "powered-up" Big-G from the 1993 MECHA-GODZILLA film.

Rather strange seeing these Mecha-Godzillas on display in the Bandai Museum, knowing that these same three figures were on my bookshelf back home...

Saw this large Kiryu (Mecha-Godzilla 3) figure in a few Mandarake stores across Japan, but no budget or room in my suitcase for it.  Also, the sign mis-identifies it as the 1993 Super-Mecha-Godzilla, when it actually is from the 2003 TOKYO S.O.S movie.

Super Mecha-Godzilla (1993)

And the Ultraman toys outstrip the Godzilla ones by sheer volume.