On the morning of July 26, hundreds of One Piece fans, adorned in cosplay and series merchandise, stood in line outside the MINISO x One Piece pop-up inside the Tangram Mall in Flushing, New York City. The immersive pop-up, running until August 17, is the first-ever of its kind in the United States and marked the launch of MINISO’s One Piece collection in North America.
Collaborations like this one are always exciting, and this one is no exception. The new One Piece collection features a variety of mini acrylic standees, bags, t-shirts, plush pendants, pillows, and variety of cups and water bottles. In addition to the new collection’s items, items such as figurines (including One Piece Grandista special editions featuring characters like Zoro) trading cards, and general One Piece merchandise were all available within the store.
As far as pop-ups go, this one was a pretty decent size. With the exception of a few people who were overeager to get their hands on One Piece trading cards, there was a relatively quick and calm flow of people moving in and out of the space and plenty of associates to help retrieve merchandise and expedite checkout.
What surprised me most of all was a rather wholesome element of the experience: the socializing. Anime fans and nerd culture writ large often have a reputation for being full of relatively antisocial people. But, anyone who has been to an anime convention knows that this couldn’t be farther from the truth, especially when anime fans are around likeminded people.
I saw lots of cosplayers coming up to each other for photos and to recreate common groupings of characters, like members of the same crew, Sanji cosplayers posing with any of the women of the Straw Hats, and Cipher Pol agents coming together. The storefront itself contains a large One Piece themed backdrop perfect for taking pictures, and plenty of people were making use of it alongside some influencers putting out content. People were chatting about different items and informing others if something special was out of sight nearby. It was nice to see that.
Pricewise, things were surprisingly reasonable, especially for a limited time pop-up in New York City. You’re likely to spend anywhere from $10 to $20 on the smaller items like standees and plush pendants. Larger items like the Grandista special editions are just under $50, and things like bags, umbrellas, pillows, and t-shirts were slightly under or slightly over $20. At least compared to the prices at some conventions, this felt more than fine to me.
Overall, I would say this is definitely a collab and a pop-up worth checking out. As stated previously, the pop-up event runs until August 17 at the Tangram Mall in Flushing, New York City. The only real “negative” I would point to is that this location can be a bit far for some, but that was bound to be true no matter where the event took place. That mall is also the perfect place to grab food from a variety of Asian restaurants, so you can even grab a bite to eat after you’ve done your fill of shopping.
Disclosure: Anime Corner was provided with a MINISO gift voucher and Uber voucher for travel to the event.
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