A few local readers have asked the famous question “Where to buy Nendoroids in Singapore ?!”
My Nendoroids fly to my doorstep from the sky and one must know that as of writing, I am a new to this collection scene. But fear not, today I decided to leave the comfort of my computer screen and venture out into the shops of Singapore that fulfill the cravings of fellow otakus here with comrade Maverick.
The first stop was Chinatown.
To get to Chinatown, our choice of transportation is the MRT, also known as the Mass Rapid Transit. It certainly lives up to the “mass” side of it’s name with the human packed carriages, but unfortunately the “rapid” part is up for debate.
Either way, we transited to another train line at Dhoby Ghaut. During out transit, we came across the Mascot of Courtesy, Singa Lion, not to be confused with Saber Lion, this lion packs a different of cuteness – if you consider him cute that is. As expected, he is here to promote not sneezing all over the place and make paranoid that you are a H1N1 carrier.
Moving along, we reach Chinatown station in no time, and the first building we saw was a yellow building called Chinatown Point. If you are unable to identify it with the obvious name placed at the side of the building, then hopefully you can locate this high ceiling. If you see something like that you are at Chinatown point. Unfortunately, this is not our destination.
We walked along the perimeter of the building of Chinatown Point. The traffic in this area is pretty heavy. I guess it’s the lunch hour traffic?
we continued walking across narrow walkways with really old shops that sold weird stuff which were mostly Chinese medical supplies. I dared not take the photos of what was sold in case I incur the wrath of any reader who is an animal activist. Just know that Chinese medical supplies can involve really weird animal parts.
And we crossed many roads too.
Always wanted to take a picture like this, where I am standing at the centre of the road ^^
We reached this place called China Square Central. Apparently this place is where you get your figures and all sorts of other collectibles. But for some reason, Friday afternoons seems to be a rest day for most owners? Or maybe they don’t open so early. No point opening so early anyway.
Another closed shop!
But it was finally opened as we were going to leave the building.
ToynToys was opened and I looked around the store. It’s quite stocked up with figures, nendos, figmas, revoltechs and gunplas. The prices are decent too. They even have their own site too. And the owner was quite a nice guy too. I decided to not take any pictures in any shop that I visited today because experience has taught me that no store owners like pictures taken in his/her shop for reasons I cannot comprehend.
ToynToys sell stuff like these too. This is Judge whose-name-I-forgot from FF12. Very nice, but looks really heavy. I bet my Nendos would get squashed if he fall on them. Luckily I don’t find such figures attractive ^^. Don’t need another line of figures to be interested in to burn my $$$
Anyway these three shops are located on the first level, and are all situated beside each other so you can’t miss them!
Moving along to the second level, most shops are closed. The ones they were open sold other collectibles which are interesting on their own right.
This is comrade Maverick/Flashtrigger by the way, our guide for the day!
Here’s a sample of what level 2 is mostly all about; usually the latest movie craze, which is Terminator and Transformers at the moment.
Starwars goodies!
Cute sheep! There’s a whole line of collectibles like this sheep here
Stuck to the glass entrance!
Anyway the second level wasn’t much of an interest to me, there were those terminator, transformers, starwars shops and a shop which sold Kamen Rider thingys; the stuff of interest to comrade Maverick.
Most of the shops were not open, but even if they were, I doubt the second level would be much of an interest to me since I only liked Nendoroids and Figures.
We left the China Town Square after about an hour there and proceeded to another place in China Town.
Scenes we saw along the way…
The whole lane was filled with makeshift shops that sells those stuff only a tourist would want to get. You know, like those little ding dingy ding dings.
We reached our next destination after some leg exercising. This place is called Lucky China Town? Don’t ask me why the building has a huge sign that says “BASEMENT TWO” for no apparent reason.
Anyway the next store which we were going to was located on the basement level 2. Called Mikel Hobby, this store is run by a guy called Mike. He takes in pre-orders mostly and sometimes his nendoroids are sold really cheap. I wanted to get my Mari-tan and Yoshika from him, but he ran out of stocks by the time I contacted him.
Anyway his store is on the 2nd level of the basement, opened after 5pm. Can’t miss it, huge sign + chobits at the entrance!
After that it’s back to the MRT to head down to Sunshine Plaza and Plaza Singapura which was located in Dhoby Ghaut, a place not very far from here, but taking the MRT is highly recommended.
MRT stations are filled with CCTV camera; they make sure you don’t be doing anything hanky panky ^^
Next stop, Plaza Singapura, top level.
Plaza Singapura is a very popular hangout place for students especially. We ate our lunch here and we saw many kids in their school uniform. There is a cinema and an arcade at the top level too, so maybe they are here to watch a movie or something, but I definitely don’t recall coming here after school in my school uniform when I was still a student. I guess times have changed ^^
Otaku House was our next destination.
This place sells mostly cosplay stuff, though there are some figures on sale here too, but it seems that figures aren’t their selling point. Beside it, is a shop which sells swords. Swords for cosplay. Saw the zanpakto of the bleach captains and also Kenshin’s reversed edged sword. There was also a Frostmourne on display too.
Nothing much perked my interest in this place and it’s time to head to the last place, Sunshine Plaza.
Once again, interesting sights along the way…
This place has superb curry!
This is one of the reasons why we never get a life-sized Gundam built in Singapore. Other unimportant stuff like this building is being built instead.
This will be the future “School of Arts” in Singapore.
Sunshine Plaza is that tall building to the right
This guy is everywhere
Some church.
Saw a car which I only thought I would only see in the movies. It got stuck on the road though, because of some jam infront.
Comrade Maverick wittily commented “No matter how expensive the car is, it still gets stuck in a jam”
Sunshine Plaza is probably the best place to pick up loots, you can almost find everything related to anime in the shops here. Manga shops, Gunpla modelling shops, shops that sell keychains, mugs, Jun Planning dolls, magazines, posters, figures, nendos, figmas… You name it, they sell it. I was too interested in getting to the next shop that I took very little pictures ^^
But this is probably a good place to be exposed to the Otaku culture!
Remember, it’s Sunshine Plaza. Looks exactly like the above pictures!
Hope this post helps answer the questions of local readers. There are many many many more places to find information on figures and such. There are many forums such as sgcollect, hobbyhype and sgclub that have frequent posters who discuss about upcoming releases, though I don’t frequent those place because my interest lies in what I have and not what I am going to get ^^ Don’t really see a point in discussing about something which I don’t have yet. Either I am getting or want to get, cannot get or don’t bother.
So when your friends ask you “WHERE TO GET NENDOROIDS IN SINGAPORE”, save your breath and refer them here ^^
< ![CDATA[Huh!?
I'm in one of our photos??
LOL
Anyway, it was a great trip down.]]>
< ![CDATA[Visited toyntoys on wed, they have both yoshika and maritan iirc..
lol didn't know there was a shop at lucky china town, will drop by there some day, thanks for the info maverick & kodomut! ^^]]>
< ![CDATA[nice photo & nice toy hunting trip. i never been to sunshine plaza before. usually i buy my nendoroid @china square central and plaza sing. :D
btw, will u go down to toy carnival this sunday? any news on the sales?]]>
< ![CDATA[that's actually a really nice city - shots are nice too. like the architecture :) and the fact, that you actually have shops where you can phisically GO TO in order to get your figurine fix]]>
< ![CDATA[Nice post. Im starting to want to travel there once in my life...
So much otaku shops ^^
May I ask about one shop I bought online my Kureha?
La Tendo 5 Stadium Walk #02-01 Leisure park Kallang
When I entered in this post I was expecting to see their door xD Like...here I bought Kureha nendo and Maryan Kotobukiya figure!]]>
< ![CDATA[Awesome entry! You're quite lucky that there are quite a number of shops that sell figures! I only know of a few here in our country since most people prefer Western comic book characters than anime characters...
I have a question though, have you encountered any bootleg nendos there in your country?]]>
< ![CDATA[I'm actually to lazy to get my stock from local shops. I usual just get them from online stores. Its even better when they are free from sponsors ^^]]>
< ![CDATA[Nice post. Good thing you didn't attempt to take photos of the inside of ToysnToys. Yes, they do not allow it.
Just to add my thought. I think TnT is THE place to get figures because quite simply they are the authorized distributor in Singapore for most major figure makers.
I think Mikelz only deals in Nendos. I am not sure of other stuff since i only know anime figures. But their location is like... ermm ....
Never been to otaku house though. Do they sell authentic stuff? My impression of most anime shops in the big malls are that they don't sell authentic stuff... aka comic connection. ^^"
Been ages since I have been to Sunshine. I was long disappointed with the shops there, not to mention the prices of their figures. Anyway, that's another long story.
Sorry for the long comment. ^^"]]>
< ![CDATA[oo~ I asked that popular question, lol =_=
your info looks quite useful ^^ but I don't think I will know how to walk O_O and I actually didn't know Singapore had soso many stuff, haha. went to ChinaTown before on a school trip >_> but I didn't see any otakushops T.T
guess I don't know my country very well ><
I don't walk around, lol.
and LOL at basement two!]]>
< ![CDATA[btw, I think there IS a shop in Tampines Mall that sells anime plushies and stuff, and some nendos..and I think the price is like, $25+?
o.o is that a fake or something?]]>
< ![CDATA[thx for the guide
will try on this weekend ^_^]]>
< ![CDATA[Love your first pic with the neon purple lighting at what I assume to be a shopping mall.]]>
< ![CDATA[You are in more than one!
It's like trying to spot waldo in most pics ^^]]>
< ![CDATA[I probably would, but I can't confirm! It's my dad's birthday on that day >_<!
Will you be going?]]>
< ![CDATA[Mikelz (theeeee Lucky China Town shop) will be at the Toy Carnival this Sunday!]]>
< ![CDATA[Kallang is pretty far away from town. This covers pretty much most of the shops in town, though I am sure I missed a few.
Kallang is some other place which is not very near to town ^^]]>
< ![CDATA[Not to mention Latendo's pricings are usually really high.]]>
< ![CDATA[But that is because Singapore is pretty small, so everything is accessible no matter where you stay XD]]>
< ![CDATA[There are quite a few stalls in ChinaSquare Central featured above that sells bootleg. Thus one has to be careful when browsing through the flea market on Sundays.]]>
< ![CDATA[Yes, what comrade alafista said is very true!
I've seen quite a number of bootlegs around, though their quality is so terrible that you can see through their cover ^^]]>
< ![CDATA[oh tats cool, I think gordon will be there too ^^]]>
< ![CDATA[Same. I would rather pay more than walk down lol >_<!]]>
< ![CDATA[Mikelz sales leans towards Gunpla and Kamen riders, with the occasional Nendos and Figmas.
Yeah, I think Sunshine is pretty pricey, but I like the 什么店 (correct?) the ones with the 1001231029 accessories!]]>
< ![CDATA[I've actually read through a blog entry about spotting bootleg nendos... but I'm still unsure if some of the nendos I see are genuine or are bootlegs... @_@; *noob*
I've actually seen the bunny SOS-dan nendos but what bothered me is that they weren't intact inside the packaging (their limbs aren't attached properly) bootleg y/n?]]>
< ![CDATA[yea i'll be there around 10am, got to check out the good deals for toys! :D. but in overall im only interested in some nendoroid & mechas]]>
< ![CDATA[The price looks unbelievably good. You just need to see real one to identify the fake ones!!]]>
< ![CDATA[haha~
ok, what does a fake one look like though =_= lol!
very limited choice though ;x but I thought I saw Haruhi, hmm...]]>
< ![CDATA[(P.S - I hate walking too >_<)]]>
< ![CDATA[Underground train station ^^ ]]>