Nevertheless, it's great to see them open a branch here in Singapore, even if it's all the way at Westgate Mall (Jurong East MRT).
For those who are new to this brand, Tokyu Hands is a famous departmental store from Japan, well known for their wide range of art and craft tools and materials, as well as their departmental/lifestyle/beauty/stationery etc items.
http://www.tokyu-hands.co.jp/foreign.html
It is a pity that their craft range was limited to one shelf of "basic school supplies" of drawing paper, Sakura air dry clay (??) and carving tools. Nevertheless, hooray for a (possibly) wider variety of supplies in Singapore!
*pardon the enthusiasm but I had been so envious of my friends raving about the ease of availability of materials from Tokyu Hands Japan and now that they have opened a branch here, there might be a chance for us miniature lovers to easier obtain materials....if only they brought them in!! If there is a demand, there will be supply, so keep suggesting and feedback-ing bwahaha! Now, to find a way to better convince them that there's a market here without crossing the "harassment" line....I dowanna be blacklisted and banned huhuhu
ON to the IMPORTANT stuff. PICTURESSSSSSS
D and I didn't even notice this huuuuge display and walked right past it as we were distracted by some social media kiosks. no pics of that, as a lot of teenagers were doing neo-printy stuff on them. fwao, neoprints hahah do they still have those machines??
The whole area was very bright and inviting, thought quite smaller than I expected. We had arrived at about 4pm and there was quite a crowd still, given the timing.
We walked 2 rounds, a first 'recce' round, and a 2nd more browsing round. The fiance is quite a fountain pen collector, and he told me that the facebook group he was active in had already been flooded with photos from fountain pen buffs. there were at least 3 (might have been 4 or 5) pen shelves full, with 1 seemingly dedicated to fountain pens!
wahhh colourful cartridges~
even a fountain pen stand. haven't seen one of these since i was a kid.
given the popularity of food related accessories, it's no wonder they had a shelf full of them. These caught my eye simple due to the size and price. only SGD$6 per keychain! (or was it phone dongle thingum. eh) Pretty decently made, rather realistic! The rest of the range were miniature magnets and such, didn't pay much notice cos I'd seen them in various shops before and given the crowd, was difficult to take photos....:-/
as mentioned, there wasn't much of an arts/crafts section. Just one vertical wall shelf with a small range of Copic markers, drawing papers and 'basic' school arts supplies. I did however find this Sakura brand air dry clay. It was really soft, the outermost pack had already been squished to...ugh. but anyway. It costs SGD$6 and though I was tempted to try it out, decided against it as I had rather alot of stocks waiting to be used for SGDC2014. I will have to get round to that ADC post that I'd been meaning to write up.....
=_="
There was a fancy shmancy Sakura carving tool set that tempted me - forgot to take a pic-, but $22 for 5 knives with plastic handles just seems a little overboard, when the $4 set I use seems more than ample for my current needs. kek.
As there were too many people around, I decided not to take anymore photos, and browsed through almost every shelf. The left half of the store was dedicated to beauty products, centre mostly for promotions and knick knacks, right side mostly stationery and luggage/travel/umbrellas. Yes, they even carry the self-closing automatic brollies, which start from SGD$60. ouchies.
So....what did I buy? well...let's just say since I'll be using them for SGDC2014, I'll keep you piqued for the moment :P But I did get this cute little box of ink cartridges, not sure what i'll do with them yet, for SGD$2.90, why not?
Also, hadn't paid attention to the promotion they had, which was a free hand towel for every minimum $30 purchase! I had just grazed past the mark, which means I get to replace my grubby old work chamois. which I probably wouldn't but...it does look like quite a sad state, given it was originally bright yellow coloured.....3M Scotch Brite rag hahaha 'branded' rag! :P :P :P I think the promotion is a 'while stocks last' thing....
Anyhow. You can probably already tell I was rather disappointed, but I already guessed they wouldn't focus on arts/crafts supplies, but THEY SHOULD! Singapore, though small, is pretty thin on variety and range when it comes to art/craft supplies for the -a little more than miniature food- miniaturist....it would be nice to have more options, not that Art Friend and Overjoyed are not good, but they're targetted more towards fine arts and general DIY crafts. I just prefer to have a choice, and range, more suited for builders, modellers and tinkerers. I'll definitely write up a post on where I like to shop at locally, soon-ish! :P
If you are in Singapore, and have a favourite art supplies store, please feel free to share them in comments! Meanwhile, I recommend making a trip down to Tokyu Hands...nice to have some place other than Daiso to rave about huhuhu!!! ;)
wahhh colourful cartridges~
even a fountain pen stand. haven't seen one of these since i was a kid.
as mentioned, there wasn't much of an arts/crafts section. Just one vertical wall shelf with a small range of Copic markers, drawing papers and 'basic' school arts supplies. I did however find this Sakura brand air dry clay. It was really soft, the outermost pack had already been squished to...ugh. but anyway. It costs SGD$6 and though I was tempted to try it out, decided against it as I had rather alot of stocks waiting to be used for SGDC2014. I will have to get round to that ADC post that I'd been meaning to write up.....
=_="
There was a fancy shmancy Sakura carving tool set that tempted me - forgot to take a pic-, but $22 for 5 knives with plastic handles just seems a little overboard, when the $4 set I use seems more than ample for my current needs. kek.
As there were too many people around, I decided not to take anymore photos, and browsed through almost every shelf. The left half of the store was dedicated to beauty products, centre mostly for promotions and knick knacks, right side mostly stationery and luggage/travel/umbrellas. Yes, they even carry the self-closing automatic brollies, which start from SGD$60. ouchies.
So....what did I buy? well...let's just say since I'll be using them for SGDC2014, I'll keep you piqued for the moment :P But I did get this cute little box of ink cartridges, not sure what i'll do with them yet, for SGD$2.90, why not?
Also, hadn't paid attention to the promotion they had, which was a free hand towel for every minimum $30 purchase! I had just grazed past the mark, which means I get to replace my grubby old work chamois. which I probably wouldn't but...it does look like quite a sad state, given it was originally bright yellow coloured.....3M Scotch Brite rag hahaha 'branded' rag! :P :P :P I think the promotion is a 'while stocks last' thing....
Anyhow. You can probably already tell I was rather disappointed, but I already guessed they wouldn't focus on arts/crafts supplies, but THEY SHOULD! Singapore, though small, is pretty thin on variety and range when it comes to art/craft supplies for the -a little more than miniature food- miniaturist....it would be nice to have more options, not that Art Friend and Overjoyed are not good, but they're targetted more towards fine arts and general DIY crafts. I just prefer to have a choice, and range, more suited for builders, modellers and tinkerers. I'll definitely write up a post on where I like to shop at locally, soon-ish! :P
If you are in Singapore, and have a favourite art supplies store, please feel free to share them in comments! Meanwhile, I recommend making a trip down to Tokyu Hands...nice to have some place other than Daiso to rave about huhuhu!!! ;)
Hahaha! When I visit Tokyu Hands, I will suggest to them! :P Actually, a lot of places carry miniature supplies now, though some of the stores I've gone to only carry Padico products.
ReplyDeleteHaha Rui!! I saw only Golden Dragon carry some Padico supplies, but ADC is a little finicky due to the shelf life and itchy-pokey fingers :( I'm actually more interested in other model-building supplies like moldmaking, casting supplies, or even tools for building miniature dioramas...art friend has limited range and not much variety...always good to have more options!!! Thank you thank you! Get more people to suggest to them also hwa hwa hwa!
DeleteHi Cindy, This is a good way to rest your hand by only just using your eyes!
ReplyDeletemeanwhile, I think that having this new store in Singapore is a Great Start. :))
elizabeth