Travel – Hong Kong 2007 Pitstop 3: Richmond Shopping Centre @ Mongkok

The Richmond Shopping Centre was a gem of a place that I missed in my first trip to Hong Kong in 2005. Well, I did not know it was quite a gem then. But reading reports from other toy hunters who had visited it convinced me that this place really seemed to be another CTMA Centre. Found at the junction of Argyle Street and Sai Yee Street, it’s less than 100m from the Argyle Street Mongkok MTR exit. Once you are out of the MTR exit, just walk along Argyle Street towards Sai Yee Street. You can’t miss it, it’s the last building before Sai Yee Street. For a map to Richmond Shopping Centre, please refer to this post.

Richmond Shopping Centre has a peculiar building front(maybe not peculiar in Hong Kong). What’s there is just an escalator going up, a flight of stairs heading up and another heading down. Secured on each side of the building’s front… lobby(?)… are two shop directories. A quick glance on both directories and you are likely to spot the common words ‘toys’ and ‘hobby’ in the tenants’ shop names.

I headed down to the basement and was greeted by many toy stores. Similar to CTMA Centre only you can tell that the building is more aged. The range of toys found here is similar to CTMA Centre shops. However, there are some 1/6 figure specialist shops. One of them is a small shop called Sergeant Barrack(or something like that). You can find 1/6 accessories here. But most are for military figures and the shop is really small. If I was fluent in Cantonese, I might have asked the guy inside if he made his own 1/6 clothes and gear!

Another shop here which I am more interested in has its exterior covered with toys during operating hours. The toys literally covered up any evidence of a glass display in the shop if you are viewing from outside. It was only when it was closed that you can see what is displayed on its glass front (because now all the toys displayed outside are now stuffed and locked in the shop). It was here that I spotted the 12″ Brad Pitt Achilles figure from the movie Troy. I had inquired about this figure locally before my trip and I was pleasantly surprised that it was going for 500 HKD less in this Richmond shop. Too bad the shop did not accept credit cards so I had to make a trip to the ATM in order to snipe and snare this figure! After a quick bargain, I got it for 840 HKD. A good price by my standards for this commander of the Myrmidons in the Trojan War.

 

 

This shop also offered me a closer look at a displayed Guan Yu figure from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms line of 12″ figures. Honestly, it looked fantastic! Very droolicious. If my toy kitty had been bigger, I just might have snapped it up. But then, there are more than one figure from this line. Dilemma dilemma. I was also able to spy an excellent Chow Yun Fatt 12″ figure on display. Good unique stuff from non-Medicom-Takara-Sideshow 1/6 figure companies! I believe that there are more interesting stuff that can be found here if you have to time to scrutinise every nook and cranny. Something fresh.

Heading up to the high levels of Richmond Shopping Centre revealed more toy shops there. I spotted a pretty good bargain for a Macross Monster in one of the shops. Generally, Richmond Shopping Centre is really similar to the configuration of CTMA Centre except that the building is older and quieter. The latter is largely due to the building’s location on the fringe of the Mongkok main shopping zone. The toy shops here offer a good variety of toys. Good buys are waiting to be found by the determined. However, it does not really have anchor toy tenants like Toy Hunters or Superman Toys at CTMA Centre. So it’s a multi-way fight for the buyer’s dollar here by smaller independent shops.

If you want to visit a second toy location besides CTMA Centre, Richmond Shopping Centre is my recommendation. For the excellent value it gives to the toy hunter and it’s unique toy offerings, Richmond Shopping Centre is ranked the No. 2 toy hunting desitnation in Hong Kong here at SWFToys.