GundamPodcast
patreon
"Business" Trip - Bandai Namco Cross Store
🕑 Added 2025-09-02 22:06:04 +0000 UTCWe 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
Comments
Mobile Suit Breakdown
I'm fairly certain they weren't open yet at that point - I considered visiting the first weekend they were open, but decided not to brave the crowds 😅
CJ
Omg! I was in beautiful NYC 4 months ago and I'm so sad I missed this stop on my trip. Maybe it just wasn't open yet in May...? Regardless, I appreciate getting to live vicariously through your photo tour 🩷
Marcelo Caldera
The Tomino hat!
Ethan Davenport
my gf and i stood in a hot parking lot in Kennesaw, GA, for three hours last summer when the mobile gundam base came to town. weirdly, it was the same weekend as JapanFest, but on the other side of the metro area? other than being roasted alive on the asphalt, it was really cool and i bought some special edition gunpla.
Mobile Suit Breakdown
I don't have a great sense of the average size of a hobby shop (can only really think in terms of the shops I know, which are all in NYC), but yeah, I'd say it's larger than average. It's also a lot airier - most hobby shops are jam-packed full, shelves up to the ceiling, warren-like layouts, etc. This shop has wide open walkways, shorter shelves, and a lot of open space.
Mobile Suit Breakdown
We each have enough of a backlog that we left without any new kits, but it's bound to happen one of these days...
doctorx0079
Mobile Suit Business Trip 😄
Phaz
We've got a Gashapon Bandai store here in Los Angeles...I've been trying to avoid it to save money. L.A. has multiple Japanese neighborhoods - we're spoiled with food, bookstores and gunpla.
J.W. Tuggles
But did any of the gunpla manage to find it's way home with you?
The Devil You Know
It's glorious😭
CobraPanic
Is the Bandai store relatively big compared to your average "Mom & Pop Hobby Shop"?
