Hello again, tokusatsu fans. It’s been a while. Our last update was over three months ago, in which I talked about preparing to move and hoping that the process would move quickly. Well, it didn’t and we actually moved in late February. It’s taken some time to get adjusted here; the previous occupier didn’t make much of an effort (any at all, to be honest) to clean this house. I won’t disgust you with the details but, sufficed to say, some of the basic items you’d expect to move in and use were so filthy that they had to be ripped out and trashed immediately. Yuck.
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Grease and grime behind us, I’m happy to say that I’m now in a position to resume shipping and the stock that we do have will be slowly returning to the website over the coming weeks and months. I hope that you’ll be excited to see some of the items we have and that they can start making their way into collectors’ hands once again. It’s going to be great getting things up and running again.
This said, I must also take the opportunity to make an announcement that, to some, will be upsetting. The website and toy store as a whole being limited for the last 8 or so months has given me the opportunity to do a lot of thinking; so much has changed in the now 10 year history of The Toku Source, formerly Toku Toy Store. Some things have changed for the better—tokusatsu is far more available now than it was in 2015, both in terms of viewability and accessibility, as was as the availability of toys and collectables. Toku Toy Store began because getting items on British shores back then was costly, complicated and difficult. I wanted to put a stop to that and make it easy for collectors to get their hands on whatever they needed. By any measure, I succeeded and Toku Toy Store became the place to get tokusatsu merchandise in the UK. Fast forward 10 years and the landscape is very different. New and unwelcome rules from British and European governments have severely limited our ability to even ship within the British Iles, conventions and comic cons (something I enjoyed doing immensely) have morphed into an unrecognisable shell of their former selves since the COVID-19 pandemic, Hasbro as all but killed Power Rangers (some of the Playmates stuff shows promise but it’s still very much same old sh*t) and people don’t need to rely on us for merchandise anymore.
For all of the reasons listed above, as well as a myriad of more personal reasons I don’t care to go into in a public forum, I have made the decision to close The Toku Source. For a small but vocal community out there, this news will come as a source of celebrations but, for most, I’m sure this news will be greatly disappointing. To those whom this decision upsets, I’m sorry. It’s time to call it a day.
Nothing will happen overnight; we still have a great amount of fantastic tokusatsu merchandise to pass on to collectors. Our group of freelance writers, whom have known about this news for a few weeks, will continue to provide content for as long as they want to until doors are shut. I would anticipate things to be fully wound down and closed by the end of the next financial year. We’re not going anywhere yet, but know that the end is nigh.
To all that have supported The Toku Source over the last 10 years, thank you! Being out amongst the community, talking tokusatsu and making your dreams come true have been great highlights of my life. I’ve made friends in this community that won’t be able to get rid of me ’til the day I die. While I’m closing down the majority of my social media, if you’d like to know some ways you can stay in touch with me once The Toku Source is closed, feel free to reach out.
Until the end, stay tuned for everything that’s coming in the next few months. There’s never been a better time to grab yourself some tokusatsu!
Best wishes,
Jeremy
Owner, The Toku Source
Such a shame to hear, It’s been an absolute pleasure shopping here the last few years, and it’s been by far the easiest and most convenient way to fulfil my plastic cravings. I agree, things have changed more recently (both for the better and the worse), I can’t imagine how difficult it can get running a niche business in this economy. As disappointed as I am to hear this, I’m sure that it’ll be for the best, and I wish you the best of luck for these last few months and whatever you go onto in the future. Expect few more orders from me lol