Hey everyone! Following my recent visit to Berlin, I discovered a couple of great little shops that I definitely think you ought to check out if you are in the area! Here are three I was able to visit:
BIG BROBOT
First up, is Big Brobot! Check out their website. Big Brobot is a very cool shop! It is filled with all manner of interesting goodies! Their main focus appears to be a large collection of cool indie clothing as well as a tonne of graphic novels and art books (both English and German). There are some great household name brands including Stussy as well as some very cool art books including ones from Tim Burton and Studio Ghibli.
They also have a great collection of vinyl toys including: Bearbricks, blindboxes as well as some larger scale Kidrobot & other figures (see their website for more on the stuff they have). Although some of the items here can be a tad pricey, there's something for almost everyone! I managed to snag a great little 5” Kinsey for Adfunture Blindbox figure which was on sale for a measly 5 bucks as well as a few bits for the GF of course!
TOYBOXX
Next up, I’d like to mention ToyBoxx Berlin. It isn’t the flashiest, well branded place from first impressions. But as soon as you enter, you will come to see it is an absolute treasure trove for toy lovers! It is quite small, but there are toys absolutely everywhere, in every nook and cranny.
There are glass cabinets filled with all manner of toys, some brand new, some open (almost like the ones they have in Japan).
They also have stacks of comics, most of which I saw to be in German however. there are hotwheels, action figures - big and small - boxed and loose, from most of the movies and comics I can think of off the top of my head. I found some Kidrobot goodies, and managed to grab a sweet haul of three Mindstyle – The Scavengers by Kathie Olivas which were loose but mint, for only 10 bucks!
Some of the brands included: Neca, McFarlane Toys, there were Star Wars, Simpsons, Disney, Lord of the Rings and a lot more! I am willing to bet any toy collector will find at least one thing that they cannot resist getting their hands on at ToyBoxx and at a pretty good price at that!
J STORE
Finally, I’d like to mention J Store Berlin! For fans of all things Japanese! They have a healthy collection of Manga, some cool clothing and some Japanese confectionery. I couldn’t resist purchasing a can of boiled sweets based on the one from Studio Ghibli’s – Grave of the Fireflies.
They also had a great collection of anime figures including larger Megahouse and Kotobukiya pieces (these were however in my opinion quite pricey). But, their small blind boxes, including Pokémon Gacha and Bearbricks, were actually quite reasonably priced which is why I purchased a few of those! If you like a bit of Japanese culture, anime, figures etc. it is definitely worth a visit.
P.S. They had this insane photo-booth where everything was in Japanese and you get to put a tonne of stickers and stuff all over your pictures – It was super confusing, but super fun as the staff were very helpful in explaining everything!
I missed out on visiting the Zozoville Gallery containing work by artist Mateo – which is definitely worth checking out. Also Oslo Kaffebar Berlin is a great little coffee shop which has an art space curated by Matt Jones (creator of Lunartik in a cup of tea) which I would recommend taking a peek at! Other than that there are quite a few comic shops, a metric tonne of art galleries as well as a massive buttload of beautiful looking streetart scattered around the city. There are also a tonne of great local artists so do be sure to google any upcoming shows (I wasn’t there for long, unfortunately missing out on a few).
Hopefully this provides some interesting info from a non-Berlin resident’s perspective on some of the art and figure related things that can be found in the city within a short visit. I of course haven’t mentioned the historic and well-known art venues as they tend to be listed everywhere and I wanted to provide a different point of view!
Thanks for reading!