Everything Theri-ppoi
One of my most favourite things, when visiting Japan, are the numerous theme cafés that always seem to be popping up all around the large cities and often only for a limited amount of time – even though I have noticed that some locations seem to settle down permanently, when their characters are established enough! Permanent locations allow the decor to be more special with more love to detail, while the temporary locations often have to work with more simple approaches. When it comes to the food though, you are allowed to expect greatness, no matter the location’s longevity: Detailed dishes and drinks that are so cute, it is often hard to dig in right away!
Welcome back to the second part of my Sailor Moon haul from Japan! Today I am going to share a lot more tiny trinkets and gashapon, which I can never say no to! If you randomly found this post (welcome!), you can click here to see part one! Continue reading My Sailor Moon Goodies from Japan / Part 2
Finding particular Sailor Moon merchandise in Japan can unfortunately not be as easy as you might think. Or you might happen to find exactly, what you wanted, but then the prize is double or triple the amount of its initial value. Many items were only manufactured according to the amount of pre-orders. After missing out on pre-ordering it, attaining products can become a nightmare, as it is often the case with Sailor Moon products by Bandai. This is exactly the reason, why I often prefer to buy my Sailor Moon goodies over the internet because sometimes even Ebay can be less of a struggle than trying to find a grail product in person! On the contrary, you can have lots of fun by having an open mind and looking at merchandise, which you might otherwise would not have thought about appreciating. These are all of the pretties I have obtained last September: Continue reading My Sailor Moon Goodies from Japan / Part 1
Little figures, which are able to sit on the edge of your glasses to keep you company, are no new concept for Japanese blind boxes or gashapon. In the past years, I have already picked up various cuties, for example from Sailor Moon or One Piece. Now in 2017 these kinds of figures are more available than ever under the collective brand name Putitto. They have licenses with Disney, Pokémon, SAN-X and many, many more. Their figures are mainly sold in blind boxes, but I also found some in gashapon machines.
Disney’s Alice in Wonderland
There are lots of Disney Putitto series around (Toy Story, Disney Princesses, Classic Disney Scenes, etc.) and they looked mostly very well made and beautiful. My only beef with some of them were the wonky faces of the human characters, especially those of the Disney princesses! Alice in Wonderland is one of my favorite, if not my favorite Disney movie of all time! After already having invested a fair share of my shopping budget on Alice goods, my resistance towards these blind boxes proved to be futile, when I caved near the end of my trip and bought three boxes. I got super lucky and did not get Alice or the Mad Hatter, but my favorites: Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit and the Baby Oysters.
The Cheshire Cat looks so funny tipping his pink ears and eyebrows like a hat! The pose of his paws is simply darling! His face and expression are perfect and I can say that all of my Alice-figures are super well made! Continue reading Putitto! Japan’s Newest Blind Box Trend!
My most anticipated Pokémon Center release is their yearly Halloween collection. This year’s collection had the simple name Halloween Time and I really loved to see it in person, since it was brand new at the beginning of September. Being the Pokémon fan that I am, I also managed to get some lovely merchandise from previous collections.
Halloween Time Plush
I have a lot of Pikachu plushies and try to stay clear of them for most of the time. Along came this kawaii trick-or-treater in a ghost costume. What I love the most about him, is the fact that he is sticking out his tongue, a feature I had not seen before on a Pikachu plush. And his tongue is even shiny, as are the pink cheeks on his costume’s face. Speaking of his costume: It is out of thin white polyester with a satiny sheen and wrinkles easily. It has a hole in the back for Pikachu’s tail, which is sewn onto his back. The face on the costume’s front has a blue and a green felt button for eyes, while the rest is stitched on. Lifting his costume, you will see shiny pumpkin-themed pants out of velvet with lots of ruffles. They are sewn to his belly. But one of my most favorite things ever, is Pikachu’s plushy Jack-o’-lantern basket with some yummy treats out of felt inside. I feel so lucky to have him! 😀
The second plush I want to show you, is one of a handful of mascot plush keychains that were released as well. It is my first Popplio plush ever and even my first plush of the new starters from the Sun and Moon generation. The feature I could not help, but fall in love with, is his adorable Jack-o’-lantern out of felt as the tip of his nose. He is also wearing a special velvet Halloween cape, which reminds me of Pikachu’s pants. Isn’t this Popplio just super special?! Continue reading My (Halloween) Pokémon Center Haul 2017
Are you ready for more gashapon that are perfect for your dolls and for your (in my case imaginary) doll house?! Then let’s begin right away! 😉
Camera Keyrings
I was so happy, when I found these! These keyrings (the actual keyrings can be super easily removed) came in two different designs with tons of different color variations. The first design imitates an oldschool camera, which looks pretty cool. But I had to play three times until I got the modern looking DSLR, which I really wanted for my dolls to have. Both kinds light up by pressing a button in accordance with a super fake sounding shutter noise. From my experience, I only saw this machine once and it sold out pretty quickly. Also the sound and light effect is already broken on one camera and pretty weak on another, which let’s me guess that they are pretty old. So get on it as long as you still can!
Today I want to share with you my tiny treasures from the Junie Moon stores in Shibuya and Shinjuku, which are specializing in selling Blythe dolls and accessories for them. Those stores are absolutely amazing, since most of their stuff can also fit different dolls like Pullip, Azone Pure Neemo M and Momoko. If you ever are going to visit one of them, do be prepared to spend a lot of money or at least to be in constant danger to do so! Continue reading My Junie Moon Haul 2017
‘Neko no Kaburimono’ from Kitan Club are little hats for your cats that you can get from gasha or capsule toy machines. Unfortunately, I have no patient kitty cat on hand to tell you, how those hats fulfill their purpose on a living and breathing cutie, but when the right kind of gashapon machines finally crossed my path, I initially had to get some for my dolly collection. These hats have actually been around for quite a while, but when I was visiting Tokyo, there were several series available, which I am going to show you right now!
The newest series is a set out of four different Halloween themed designs, which I was so extremely happy about, since it is my favorite holiday! 😀 I managed to get three different hats for 500 Yen each (sadly, I missed out on the bat) and I was super suprised how detailed each of them is! The hats from this series are a little big on a Pullip and a little snug on a Blythe, but still very adorable on both! The Halloween hats do come with more fabric than the hats from other series, which covers the neck and upper part of the shoulder area. They are all soft and plushy. My ghost hat still looks a bit wonky, since it came out of the capsule, but I love it nonetheless and cannot decide on a favorite! Continue reading ‘Neko no Kaburimono’: The most perfect Gashapon for your Dolls!
After I was super impressed with the Shinjuku Junie Moon store, I could not wait to visit their main store in Daikanyama. I have to be completely honest and tell you that it is not that easy (for us at least) to find because it is pretty much on the complete opposite side of Shibuya’s famous Hachiko exit and Shibuya crossing, so be adviced to have a map available to you, since it is going to be your best friend!
Instead of being inside of a department store, Junie Moon in Daikanyama is located in its own tiny pink house, which is so lovely that it is hard to describe, how much excitement goes through a dolly fan, when you finally spot it.
Their side window display was Halloween themed, which immediately struck my heart. The dolls were wearing outfits that went on sale with a 50% discount a few days prior and were available inside. Just darling!
Another interesting aspect of the Shibuya store are the lotteries for artists’ clothing that are regularly being held. It basically means that you have to enter a lottery to be able to purchase one of those special outfits – a procedure which is also used for Blythe dolls, which are limited and/or in very high demand. When I visited the theme of the next lottery (which is going to be held on October 1st) was Forest Friends 2 and only featured clothing for Middie Blythes. This was also displayed at the shop’s front window, but was even more impressive once you saw the whole presentation on the wall next to the cash register. The outfits were so cute, special and beautifully made, I had to take some detail shots of super cute Middies!
When it comes to the range of outfits available that were to be purchased immediately, the Shibuya store definitely wins, concerning outfits by Azone International and their selection of shoes. They also had a bigger variety of hair clips, but when it actually came to ‘Junie Moon Dollywear’ the stock was basically the same. So, if you can only go to Shinjuku and are piorily interested in Junie Moon’s own line of dolly clothing, you won’t miss out.
That being said, I think that their selection of custom dolls was more impressive. The Shibuya branch definitely has the show stoppers! So many cute, interesting and colorful girls! But just like in Shinjuku I noticed that their faces were barely carved. Very interesting!
What really made my day, was the display of new Middie Blythe release Cute Little Dee, right there on the cash register. Her name 100% falls into the category of ‘Nomen est omen!’.
The dolls available for purchase were exactly the same like in the Shinjuku location, with the exception of Devi Delacour, while Pineapple Princess was only to be found restyled in a summer setting on one of their shelves.
All in all I would say that the Shibuya main store definitely tops the Shinjuku location, when it comes to size, displays and selection. But the one in Shinjuku is easier to access and inside of a fun department store, with a selection of ‘Junie Moon Dollywear’, which has outstanding quality and is fun on its own.
I really hope that you found my posts helpful and/or fun to look at! 🙂 It was an amazing experience to visit both stores!
Thank you so much for reading!
Theri
