Kaiju Korner: New One Up shop visit

NOTE: This store closed in late 2011.

For years, One Up has been a Nakano Broadway fixture. In addition to selling Western and Eastern vinyl, minis, and other figures, the company has produced sofubi characters designed by Touma, Itokin Park, Kaijin, and others. Besides One Up's prime spot on the 3rd floor of the Nakano Broadway toy mecca, they've long had a shop just next to the stairwell on the 4th floor, where legendary events like the Cronic Black Parade releases have been held.

For some years, the 4th floor has also had display cases housing much of the shop's sofubi stock. But space is limited, and there was never enough room to give everything its just due. Enter the latest wing of the the One Up family, which some new toy friends and I discovered as we were wandering through the building.

Just around the corner from the One Up 4th floor shop is a brand new space chock full of sofubi and other figures. It basically looks like a showcase store, with wall to wall display cases, but all the stock is One Up's. So if you want to buy something, go around the corner and ask someone to unlock a case for you. It's literally 15-20 seconds from the 4th floor stairwell and One Up shop, so don't be like us and spend 15 minutes walking the entire 4th floor in search of the shop. Because that would be lame, unless you buy some matcha (green tea) ice cream from the 4th floor sofuto cream (see what I did there?) dealer, check out some yo yo masters swinging their high velocity spools of death, or uncover a forgotten ark of musty, must have figures at one of the obscure 4th floor wasteland shops....all right, now that I think of it, you could do worse than getting looped around up there.

Enough babble - on to the pics!