Modelcarshop SS43 (モデルカーショップSS43)

Modelcarshop SS43 is a minicar shop in Chuo, Soka, in Saitama on the Tobu Skytree Line north of Tokyo. The shop calls itself a minicar secret base, and the stock is rally and racing cars first: Spark, ixo and Minichamps, with a smaller run of road cars chosen on the owner's own taste, which leans to Italian cars and older Japanese models.

The depth is in the racing catalogue. The shop's own online store lists more than 3,000 Spark models alone, with ixo, Ebbro, Minichamps, Norev, Kyosho, Ignition Model, Otto Mobile and Look Smart behind them, filed by series: F1 by decade back to the 1950s, Le Mans, Daytona, Spa and the Nürburgring, and rally by era and by marque. The shop is upfront about what it does not do. No Tomica, no Hot Wheels, no Rai's police cars, and no Ebbro Super GT.

It is a weekend shop with a sense of humour about itself: the shop info page jokes that new releases land here later than anywhere else in Japan. The same stock is sold through its STORES and Yahoo Shopping stores and a Yahoo Auctions account.

• 1:43 racing is the strength. Spark is the biggest brand by a distance (more than 3,000 listings in the shop's Yahoo store), then ixo, Ebbro and Minichamps. 1:18 and 1:64 sit alongside in the shop's online categories, with Otto Mobile, GT Spirit and Top Marques for the big scale.
• Rally and endurance racing lead: WRC and historic rally cars by marque, Le Mans, Daytona, Spa and Nürburgring 24 hour entries, and F1 filed by decade from the 1950s onward.
• Road cars are a small side shelf picked by the owner, Italian cars and older Japanese cars first, from Kyosho, Ebbro, Norev, BBR and Ignition Model.
• This is a current release racing shop rather than a secondhand hunt, so the odds favour finding the rally or Le Mans entry you have been chasing within the Spark and ixo catalogue over an old stock surprise.
• Nothing from the toy aisle: no Tomica, no Hot Wheels, no Rai's police cars, and no Ebbro Super GT.

• Hours: Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, 11am to 6pm, but not every weekend. The shop posts its open days on its X account (@ss43\_minicar) and updates the calendar daily. Weekday opening is suspended with no restart date, and Mondays are closed.
• Entry: free to walk in and browse.
• Getting there by train: Soka Station on the Tobu Skytree Line, East Exit, then about 9 minutes on foot to 2-12-6 Chuo. From Tokyo the Skytree Line runs through from the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line.
• Parking: 2 spaces for the shop.
• Points card: 10 percent of the tax included price comes back as points, 7 percent when paying by credit card.
• No phone orders or holds: the shop does not take orders or put items aside by phone. Stock can be bought online through its STORES store (minicar-ss43.com) and Yahoo Shopping store instead.
• Call ahead: it is a small owner run shop, on +81 48 927 5115, and the open day calendar on X is the first check.

• Last verified: 19 October 2026
• Official link: https://modelcarshop-ss43.jp/