Hoarding and collecting. The line is thin in the world of
figurines, and it is a difficult task to put the boss of Figure Museum W into
one or the other category. Safe to say, he has spent a fortune on figures,
which provides to give an unforgettable experience at the museum. Before
entering, I am sure few people would imagine that some of the figures are more
expensive than Louis Vuitton bags and have more diamonds than Swarovski jewelry.
Actually, tucked away on the top floor and easy to miss if you don’t have an
eye for shiny and sparkling things, is a miniature car ornamented to the brim
with real jewels provided by Swarovski. Just a few meters next to it is a
Batman car that was used in the old Batman movies by Tim Burton, bought off the
movie producer himself. And in the corner of the same floor is a Bruce
Lee-figure with real human hair. If you enter on a humid day, the hair is
rumored to go all frizzy.
Figure Museum W consists of dozens of these hidden
gems that are easy to miss if you do not ask for a guided tour. Luckily Figure
Museum W caters to an international crowd with not only Korean, Chinese,
Japanese and English, but also Spanish starting about two days before our
visit. So even though the official website is currently only in English, most of
the staff actually speak English. If you want a
personal and informational guide, ask for Mr. Tori Bee who will sprinkle some
of his personal opinions on top of the information about the prices, limited
availability, production country and story of the particular figures.
The museum consists of six
floors, each with a different theme. On the top you have cars, Bruce Lee,
Gundam and Evangelion figures. Just below there are Avengers, Marvel and DC.
One floor is dedicated purely to Japanese animes, comics and games. My personal
genre is Street Fighter, so I enjoyed seeing a bust of Akuma/Gouki and an
illustration of how Sagat got the scar on his chest from Ryu’s shoryuken,
accompanied by the guide’s “Hadouken!” sound effect. As is standard, the museum
also has a shop with prices ranging from about 10,000 – 300,000W. I like the
fact that they’ve also managed to fit a cafe and board game area into the
museum. On top of that, there are some old arcade machines sporting a tweaked
up version of Street Fighter 2, Virtua Fighter 2 and some shooters.
Admission: Adults 15,000 W / Youth 13,500 W / Children 12,000 W
Address: 3, Seolleung-ro 158-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.
Close to Apgujeong Rodeo Stn. Exit 4
Homepage: www.figuremuseumw.co.kr (Korean)
