How awesome is the Volks store in Akihabara?
Wed 2010/11/17 11:16 JST
So since I am going to Tokyo in May, 2011 I was wondering if the Volks store is worth going to checkout. I am thinking about getting a Dollfie Dream but I do not know if I should wait til after my trip or before. So for anyone who has been there, how is it? Do you need a special pass to enter? Lastly should I get my Dollfie before or after I go? This image I believe is the building Volks is located in.
I was in three Volks stores last month and all of them were completely awesome! The Akihabara store was very nicely setup and had tons of Dollfies in the display cases. They did not have very many actual DD's for sale tho, I saw 2 or 3 Aoi's and one Yukino in Akiba. But they had lots of clothes and tons of nice displays to drool over.
I also hit Osaka and Shinjuku Volks showrooms, both of which were equally cool to see. But if you are in Akiba, I'd check out any Mandarke shops you can find as well as other second hand shops for Dollfies. They'll have some good selections and fair prices. The building that Volks is in has many such shops in it. I got my Rei from a Mandarake and Yoko from another secondhand store while over there. The store that had Yoko had three Yokos, a Kanu and some other newer girls too as well as lots of Volks clothing sets that arent available anymore from Volks.
And there is no special pass or anything needed to go into a Volks store, you just walk right in like any other store. The only problem is that no pictures are allowed in their stores :( I wish they did allow it because I could have taken a hundred just in one store! ^_^
I must say do go to the one in Akiba while you are there, you will not regret it!
I've actually been to that exact VOLKS in July.
It's fairly big. VOLKS occupies a bit of two floors (6th and 7th if I remember right)
One floor has all the DD / SD and a lot of figures and garage kits. The floor above it has rental boxes.
As for looking for DDs, you're likely only to find standard DDs inside the VOLKS stores.
Sometimes there may be image characters left over, but it's unlikely.
The picture you put there is Radio Kaikan, it's where VOLKS is located in Akihabara (infact you can see it, right above 5F, there's a VS sign in blue, that's VOLKS)
Despite what balldylox said, I actually have a bunch of pictures from that store. I had tons of shots before realizing that photography was not allowed. If you're interested, tell me and I guess I'll post it up on figure.fm
Anyway, you could consider waiting till your trip to look for a DD. They display many image characters inside, but usually don't have them for sale.
You can find DDs in all sorts of places, such as Mandarake, Wonfest, or even in places such as rental boxes. The VOLKS rental box place had a DD Fate up for grabs when I was there, but she was expensive, and didn't even come with default items.
post it please LOL
LOL okay. I will do so chun ;3
When I got into my first Volks store in Osaka, they had signs all over the place saying NO PICTURES, they even had a picture of a camera with the big red circle and slash line thru it. :) I asked if I could take one picture of the display that had like 7 girls in it and they politely said no.
The same thing was in each Volks I visited, signs everywhere saying no pictures. So rather than temp fate and trying to sneak some shots, I just kept the camera off and in its bag.
For me it was a situation of "oops".
By the time I realized the no pictures icon, I already had a good 20 shots in the camera.
That was when I called it quits after noticing, seeing as no staff member noticed I was taking shots ;3
Never quite understood why the stores don't allow photography.
Well, can't blame you for the "oops"! ^_^ I wish I could have gotten a few shots as the DD displays were just unreal.
From what I gather, I think some of the reasons for no pictures is for pricing and display setups in the stores. Not just at Volks but almost *all* the stores I went into in Akihabara had "No Picture" signs up. My friend that lives in Osaka says he heard that some stores used to send people out to other stores in the guise of being a normal customer but they would take pics of how their competition had their stores setup as well as how they had things priced. So if you can't take pics, it's much harder to remember exactly how things were displayed, how many of them that store had and what prices they were at.
It sounds odd but I think the competition between stores there is a bit more cutthroat than it is in the US. I know people get "shopped" here in the US but not to the same extent.
It makes sense to me a little but if an obvious foreigner such as myself comes into the store and actually *buys* stuff from you, I'd think you could be nice enuff to allow a few pictures to be taken. I had a lady in Nakano Broadway do just that for me after I bought my DDdy Lacrosse outfit from her. I asked if I could just take one photo of her DD display and she agreed to just one. I made sure to thank her too.
Small world! I'm going back in May as well. I've seen the store although I'm not into DD and they do have a lot of stuff to see.
Tenshi no Sato in Kyoto ftw!!
Here is a photoguide to the stores. Keep in mind the Ginza Tenshi no Sumika is shut
http://www.angelden.net/photoguide/
The Volks Akhiba store is nice but that one is heavily picked over. if you are going to Kyoto you have to visit the Tenshi No Sato there!
Do they even allow people with Dollfie Dreams to darken the doors of the Shrine To All Things Super Dollfie????
They dont sell DDs at Tenshi no Sato.
But there are amazing Gardens and meeting areas where you can bring DDs and take photos. Quite a few visitors had DDs rather than SDs.
You can witness the Birthing Ceremony of the Supers in all its zany glory!
Afterall you are bring Volks product in! ;)
The museum at Tenshi no Sato that has every single LE Super is amazing.
Cool. Glad to hear that people who are owned by their Dollfie Dreams can bring theirs to Tenshi no Sato. I had heard some comments about the place that suggested that DDs were not welcome there.
However, maybe they should consider expanding the Akihabara Volks and maybe even making it the "Yume no Sato," (Home of Dreams) the home of the Dollfie Dream.
I've never been much of a Volks or DD fan. I lean more towards the Volks PVC figure end of the spectrum. That said, I can 100% vouch for the Volks store in Akiba. It's one of the greatest stores in Akiba, and will suck up the greater part of your day if you are not careful.
0_0 I'll be going there on Friday i think...
Shame I was there in the summer but I wasn't too into dollies then..... Now I have to play so much more to get one..... I wanna be there again :(
*jealous* >.> lol
Actually Danny made a post about it not too long ago, with lots of pictures too.
http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/25832/Volks+Store.html
Seems like a really dangerous place for dollfie owners' financial state ^^;