| Every Toy Collector has a go to place to find things not found on retail. There’s no term to call it but a place where they also meet likeminded individuals, who enjoy the same hobby in this particular realm. It can be comicbooks, sports trading cards or all things collectible.
There’s one in the Philippines particularly in Metro Manila, where all things collectible can be found and that place. Some say it’s the mecca of all things where geeks and nerds go besides the annual comic-cons and toy conventions which it’s highly regarded as ‘the place to be.’ |
Greenhills is a shopping centre located in San Juan in Manila, and has been around in the 1970s ever evolving and changing of the times. It used to be a shopping centre of random things where your parents shop and bring their kids around during weekends. Back in the 1980s a store named Nova Fontana became the household name for anything the kids would buy their toys until it slowly closed its doors in the mid-2000s. But with that a slew of local specialty stores started opening their doors to fill the void.
With the coming of the internet age local toy groups were forged and interest in the hobby started to grow. Local toy conventions started being organized and all manner things in the hobby started to flood the local retail, and Greenhills continue to be that place everyone know where to get their hobby fix.
There have been stories and evolution about the place and at the heart of of this place is Shoppesville Plus, it’s where you’ll find the hard to find exclusives you can only salivate and see online. Some of them are US store exclusives and most of the other stuff are the old toys that were almost forgotten. It is also the place where you can find second-hand collectibles no longer in their packaging if you wish to only get the figure without the BAF (Build-A-Figure) part that came with it.
Though everything is as mesmerizing as being in Disneyland, the toys or any particular collectible is not cheap. Some of them carry a serious price tag, and most of the time the absurdity of how some of the store dictate the value of a particular collectible is quite like being on eBay. Some of them you’ll find on retail in their original price point, but here you’ll find it inflated saying that it is ‘rare’ but sometimes it’s not one for the desperate to cash in.
But not all stores are cutthroat as you’d expect, and there other shops you’ll find giving you a good deal if you know how to navigate through these place without being distracted with their enormous catalog of toys that you rarely you’ll see in the general retail. Sometimes you need trusted friends to help you go through this place if you’re entirely a noob. Also, if you have the ‘word of mouth’ to find out which store that definitely deserves to benefit you and theirs. It’s not a one-sided situation just like the sayings goes, “I scratch your back and you’ll scratch mine” is mostly the relationship that is rarely seen in this place.
The pandemic greatly changed the way people buy their collectibles with online marketplaces and Facebook Pages becoming the online destination. But at the end of the day you’ll still find your way back traveling to Greenhills despite the distance whenever you may be within Metro Manila.
It is still the mecca for the fandom you have grown up making visit whenever they are from overseas or foreigners hailing it a destination when they visit this country. Some say it’s nothing like it because you find everything in one place. Even though the cancellation of local conventions due to restrictions about the pandemic this location continues to churn in, and bring out the best despite the premium of price point some of the collectibles being carried.
In the social spectrum it is not a place for everyone, but for those who still want to relive their youth and wanting to see nostalgia of collectibles this is the place to be whenever you are in the world.
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