Back in June, The Pokemon Company announced that it would be opening the first Pokemon Centre Pop-up Store in Malaysia, with another for Nintendo in general right next to it. The company even released an entry guide for the first three days of the pop-up stores’ opening, anticipating the huge crowd that would turn up.
The good news for us is that we were invited to take a quick look at both pop-up stores about an hour before they were open to the public. So if the stringent crowd control measures have turned you off from personally visiting on the first few days, here’s a quick look at what you can expect to see from both pop-up stores.
At a quick glance, the most numerous forms of merch are either plushies or plushie-adjacent. These come in various sizes, though even within the same size category, you can have some price variations depending on the specific Pokemon evolutionary line. For example, the Froakie and Greninja plushies are priced slightly higher than all three Kanto starter equivalents, for whatever reason. Of course, it’s not just plushies, as you can also find Funko Pops, action figures from various brands, as well as plastic models. Y’know, PokePla rather than GunPla. Beyond those, you get your usual range of blind boxes.
There’s also that Takara Tomy virtual pet-styled Poke-nade Monster Ball that was announced last year. As you’d expect, the local price has been marked up, but the degree of that might cause your jaw to slack a little. Beyond that, you have a small selection of the obligatory bags and stationery, though the latter consists only of liners. As The Pokemon Company previously announced, there’s nothing Trading Card Game (TCG)-related, at least for now.
Moving on to the Nintendo Pop-up Store, this one actually takes up a shop lot, so it being called a pop-up feels a tad incongruous. Anyway, since this is one for Nintendo in general, there’s a lot more variety to the products here. This applies to not only the range of IPs, but also the nature of products as well. There’s the promised Malaysia-exclusive Twin Tower pipes, to children’s clothes, to even an Animal Crossing-branded enamel cooking pot.
One thing I did not see at this pop-up store were Amiibos. But for what it’s worth, you could get yourself a Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 here, as well as their games. There’s also a play area of sorts right outside, where you can try out not only Mario Kart World, but also Pokemon Champions and Pokopia.
To reiterate, the Pokemon Centre and Nintendo Pop-up Stores will be at Ombak KLCC until the year ends. If you don’t want to deal with the whole ticketing thing that’s going on until 14 September, you can always drop by anytime before the year is out.
