In a previous article, I covered a visit to the Pokémon Centre in Skytree,
(Pang Man Part 17) however for completeness, I thought it best to pay a quick visit to the only other Pokémon store in the city; the Pokémon Centre Mega Tokyo branch.
The 2nd Pokémon Megastore is in Ikebukuro and was a 20-minute subway ride away from my hotel.
The store is located in Sunshine City (Address: 170-0013 Tōkyō-to, Toshima-Ku, Higashi Ikebukuro, 3 Chome−3−1−2, Sunshine City Alpa), which immediately reminded me of Super Mario Sunshine on the Gamecube, but unfortunately there is no connection.
Location wise this branch has the advantage of being a few floors from Namco NamjaTown and J-World Tokyo. I didn’t have time to visit either but I was intrigued nonetheless.
Namco NamjaTown is an indoor theme park but surprisingly not a game related one,…
Whilst J-World Tokyo is an anime theme park catering to titles such as Naruto and Dragonball Z.
Maybe I will check them out on a return visit!
The entrance to the Pokémon Centre Mega Tokyo store has a giant Pokéball floating in mid-air:
Much like the Skytree branch, this Pokémon store has a large selection of soft toys (including some limited edition Christmas ones!)
I think the store owners missed a trick, by failing to stock any Pokéball merchandise, but luckily I managed to pick up a few Pokéball collectibles elsewhere.
I found this Pokéball replica in a small shop in Skytree Town and this Pokémon cap from Forbidden Planet in Tottenham Court Road in London.
Surprisingly there was no special edition Mario or Luigi Pikachu’s available at the Mega Tokyo store, which meant they must have sold out. So I’m glad I purchased my ones earlier that week from the Skytree branch!
Speaking of limited edition Pokémon, my understanding is that when the Mega Tokyo branch opened originally in Dec 2014, the plushes available at launch included a Pikachu wearing a Charizard costume!
The branch also sells other Pokémon merchandise such as; tea, posters, key chains, mugs, pillows, mugs, clothing, and socks
For families with babies, the Pokemon Centre had you and them covered!...
It was nice to see Team Rocket getting some love on the merchandising front as well:
Fittingly for the Mega Tokyo branch; there are life-size statues of Mega Charizard X and Mega Lucario within the store:
Fan favourite Mega Mewtwo Y also makes an appearance:
What is great is that I didn’t feel like the Mega Tokyo Pokémon branch was a carbon copy of the Skytree Pokémon branch.
Of course, there was a crossover in terms of some merchandise but there were a decent amount of collectibles that appeared to be exclusive to each store.
The life-sized statues were also different in each branch which meant photo opportunities were unique as well. (My favourite was the Pikachu riding a Mega Charizard Y!)
If you are debating which of the two Pokémon stores to visit, unfortunately, there is no easy answer, but if you are a Pokémon fan then I don’t think you would be disappointed with either.
Pang Man
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