"Business" Trip - Bandai Namco Cross Store

We decided that enough time had passed since it first opened - it was time for us to visit the new Bandai Namco Cross Store in Brooklyn, NY!

The store is in Industry City - a redeveloped, formerly industrial space, which now has a mix of shops, offices, manufacturing, and bars/restaurants/park + garden spaces. There's a saké brewery and multiple distilleries, a Japanese grocery store, a forge, a shoemaker, book and comics stores, tons of artisans.... and now, a dedicated Bandai Namco Store 😎

Time for a photo-tour. First up, gacha, or capsule-toy, machines, as far as the eye can see...

I love cute little plastic figurines, but tend to prefer the ones that are like dollhouse miniatures, and there weren't any machines that tempted me to part with $3 (at least not this time around).

To the other side of the entrance - model kits!

One subsection contained all the snap-build Pokémon model kits - kits that can be built without cutting tools or glue, making them ideal for kids or for someone who wants to try out model-kit building before they fall down the speciality-tool rabbit hole.

The display above shows what each kit looks like once it's assembled:

Above the shelves with gunpla (plastic model kits of mobile suits from the Gundam franchise), examples of fully assembled kits with accompanied by handy explainers aimed at the new, the curious, and those buying kits as gifts. Explainers like "What is GUNPLA?" and a chart differentiating the various different "grades" of kit:

I learned something new during our visit - apparently Tamagotchi is a Bandai Namco brand!

Toward the back of the store, there's a section with tables and seating (presumably for trading card game tournaments and events), and some assorted arcade machines:

Not pictured - a section dedicated to trading card games, a display of life-size Haro plushies (I may need to go back for one...), and a small display of stationery, since (and I keep forgetting this) Bandai Namco owns the Sun-Star stationery brand.

We went in the middle of the day on a weekday, but it would be fun to go back on a weekend or during an event, to see what it's like with more of a crowd.

Have you been to this or another Bandai Namco store? What did you think of it? Are there other Gundam-related locations we should visit? (local to the US please; this podcast cannot yet support international travel 😭) Comment below!

And as always, stay genki.

~ Nina