Thursday, November 10, 2011

Store visit: Kotobukiya

Kotobukiya's multi-story flagship toy store in Akihabara has a lot of what you'd expect from the famous manufacturer, plus a lot more, from mainstream to indy toys. The shop is near Akiba Zone, putting it in easy striking distance of Akihabara station.

Store address: 東京都千代田区外神田1-8-8
Phone number: 03-5298-6300
Hours: 10 AM - 8 PM (open every day)
Map: I haven't had a chance to add it to the KK Toy map yet. For now, click here for the exact location.

Store pics:
The first floor has a variety of mainstream toys.
Take the escalator to the higher floors for more interesting toys.

Star Wars:


Sculpted by Junnosuke Abe (aka RESTORE)
More after the jump:



 Other figure and busts:
I love the juxtaposition of the characters in this case.

 I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice assortment of Gargamel and other indy sofubi for sale:



 Ultraman, Godzilla, and other monsters and heroes:



 Revoltech:

 Rilakkuma:
Amazing how quickly they can turn a character into a merchandising empire!



Other store shots:

There's a space on the top floor for watching videos and what looks like playing card games.

3 comments:

blakewest said...

Speaking of Rilakkuma, there is a whole website devoted to Rilakkuma papercraft toys.

http://kuma0rila.blog120.fc2.com/

They are actually pretty challenging to build well, but very impressive sitting on the shelf. I've made a few of the seasonal ones for my daughter.

Anonymous said...

I love how the bagged Gargamel figures are placed in another bag and then hung on the hook.

Thanks for the pics andy!

andy b said...

Blakewest - Wow some of those are amazing! I love the way characters and lines can inspire this sort of creativity. It reminds me of the genius behind some (all?) of the Transformers Alternator and Masterpiece figures. Being able to conceptualize complex folds and twists requires spatial reasoning that any engineer would envy. (Forget designing - I could barely figure out how to transform the basic G1 figures LOL.)

Anon - Hah hah I hadn't even thought of that, but it is funny! I was shocked to see them there - did a double take when I walked past the aisle. ;-)

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