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Categories: Toy Stores, Art Galleries [Edit]
Neighborhood: Ukrainian VillageMon-Sat. 12:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Sun. 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
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Vinyl toys are like crack to me. I have tons of them in my office at work, and a few scattered about my apartment. Rotofugi is the best toy store of its kind that I've been to. It even tops Kid Robot in NYC. The owners, Whitney and Kirby, are very friendly and willing to chat at length about toys. In addition to toys, they have a small selection of magazines, tee shirts, and stickers.
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Got Domo addiction? A Shawnimals habit? Head to Rotofugi immediately! There is an incredible amount of cool collector toys packed into this tiny space, yet it is impeccably organized and easy to shop.
They have everything from everyday collectibles to more rare (and expensive) finds. You can walk out with a serious dent in your paycheck, or simply indulge in a Dunny, a magazine, and some supercool stickers and have some money left over for dinner. Their store-logo stickers are great, too.
The staff is friendly and it's a place that encourages browsing. Be sure to check out the Gallery next door for some neat artwork. Whether you are buying a gift for someone else, or indulging yourself, a trip to Rotofugi is sure to make you smile, or if you are like me, emit a happy squeal or two.
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If you want to fuel your vinyl/plush/plastic toy addiction, you must hit this place up! I went into the store looking for Shawnimals and Jenn who was working there was extremely friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. Everything was ever so neatly arranged in this quaint little toy boutique. It was almost ironic that they're toys and you want to pick them up, but not mess up their display either! A must see place by any means, and not all too expensive either.
Toy collectors unite. Wallet be afraid, be very afraid.
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Only good place to get Kaiju in the Chicago area. Talked with Kirby for like 30 minutes today about toys, it was very nice. really made me want to concentrate more on my Gargamel Collection.
Keep up the good fight, and I'll keep supporting. Looking forward to Toy Karma 2.
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I know almost nothing about these cute, crazy, colorful little Japanese toys, but I absolutely LOVE this toy store and the art gallery next door. I could spend hours just walking around and looking at everything. :)
ROTOFUGI is a great shop in Chicago, but it also occupies a special place on the national scene because of its wide variety of designer vinyl toys and excellent art shows featuring the newest artists of the lowbrow, juxtapoz, "pop surrealist", whateveryouwannacallit school. They even produce great toys! The "Teardrip" pic on this page is squibbles ink + rotofugi special release!
If you are a collector, you will find a store on par with Giant Robot in LA, Portland's Missing Link or Voltage in Vancouver BC. Their selection of Secret Base/Super 7 is deep, with generous helpings of the usual suspects: kidrobot, gama-go, ugly dolls, friends w/ you, max toys, qee, unipo, tokidoki, etc. The prices hit all levels, from $5 to $1000. This is a true toy store, with little in the way of apparel, books or magazines and the small space benefits from this focus.
After years of buying from them on-line, I finally had the chance to see the store in person. ( Illinois - ohhh! that's why they use a picture of Lincoln! duh!) The gallery was closed when we reached the store, but the woman at the counter called next door and someone let a bunch of us geeks in to pay our respects. Opening the gallery for geeks - that is love. The current show is Commonnonsense, featuring Ken Keirns & Scott Tolleson. (oh how I coveted the Major Minnow toy, Mr. Tolleson...you have no idea)
A great staff, a large collection of unusual toys laid out with all the love and care of a museum. If you are really the toy nerd you think you are, you will make the pilgrimage to ROTOFUGI!
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Rotofugi is a toy collectors dream store! If you like weird and wacky toys from all over the world, GO! I have a bunch of them sitting on my desk at work and they put a big smile on my face every time I look at them. I hope this store never goes out of business, it's a truly unique "toy boutique". don't miss this one...go...today!
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Spend $$. Plastic love toy. Gotta have more. King Ken Mini. Daniel Danger. Kidrobot Dunny, Buka, Fatcap...my friend Andrew's Fluffy Yuk Yuk (OhNo!Doom ) is pure love. the happy kind of love. get your own.
this kind of addiction can't be cured.
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this lil' place gives me happiness.
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I've always had a knack for falling in love with things I absolutely do not or would never need.
A plastic piece of tofu with a big pink nose? Yes, please!
A tiny vinyl baby with big Blythe-style eyes suckin' on a passy? I want one!
And I of course need to collect ALL of the keychains that resemble breakfast items with faces on 'em!
Hold on to your Dunny, Munny, and Tokidoki! So much fun!
P.S. Grab a blind box. They're cheap and fun with a hint of mystery.
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Dear Rotofugi,
You're the best toy store an adult could have. I really just want to smash your face in, because I adore all your vinyl, stuffed, vibrating, and mystery boxed items. Even the stickers are pretty neat-o.
If I could, I'd buy as much to fill a room as I could.
you're my boy blue..you're my boy
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I want to write this review to thank whomever the kind dude behind the counter was about a year ago when I came in during the Renegade Craft Fair.
I had made a bit of money, so, i wanted to celebrate by going to Rotofugi. I had run like a half mile over there with my $60 in hand to buy something cute. The only thing I spotted that I really really wanted was $63. It was a cute toy from James Jarvis, and I was super bummed out that I couldn't afford it. They were closing in like 20 minutes, and I wouldn't have enough time to run back to my booth and back with the money. The guy behind the counter rang it up so that it costed exactly $60, and sent me on my way.
Thank you Rotofugi!
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Cute store, well organized. Really intersting gallery shows.
Color me a fan.
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As you can tell by most of the reviews, people absolutely love this place w/ quite the passionate devotion! Add me to that list, Rotofugi rocks the house like not many stores I know. It's pretty small inside, but packs seemingly hundreds of different japanese toys, shirts, stickers, and novelties galore! It's one of my favorite places to buy gifts, w/ the plush ninja doll and tshirt being my first purchases. The mini dolls are great, w/ quite the selection to choose from.
You owe it to yourself to at least browse around... it's easy to pass an hour there checking everything out. Half the stuff makes me crack up, I def feel like a little kid again. Spend some time in the area as well, it's a pretty hip and uncoventional neighborhood worth exploring!
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Yeah, Rotofugi is pretty tight. My favorite part about this place is the people that work there. No pretension, totally ready to geek out with you. I particularly appreciate that.
You have to stop by here. The coolest stuff, and nothing too expensive.
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There really isn't a store like Rotofugi in Chicago. The items they carry are unique, funny, creepy, weird, silly and everything else in between. The staff here is friendly and they don't harrass you. You can go in and browse through all the things they have and they won't make you feel bad about it.
This is a great place to get different gifts for different people.
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Feeding my addiction for the white stuff...
Wait- that's white DIY blank vinyl dolls, nothing else. They're almost as expensive, but last forever. Just make sure the chicks you dig dig big boys with little toys. NOT redneck 'big boys toys' as they don't eat gasoline, and they're much cooler (and the exact opposite, conceptually). Enough.
If you're in to vinyl, designer toys, or anything related, this is the place.
I'll get lynched for saying this (they'll sick gloomy on me...), but come here for gifts for everyone who appreciates fun/cute/interesting/playful- can't go wrong. Unless you're like me and spend rent.
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I have since moved, and Rotofugi is so much easier to get to now! Just walk out my door, hop on the Chicago 66 bus for about 10-15minutes, and it drops me off right at their door. I've been there twice in the past 2 weeks! The staff is always so nice and helpful, and there is always something new to check out.
I always seem to get there just as they are closing the gallery, and I feel too bad to ask them to open it just for me, so hopefully one day I'll be able to check that out.
Love this place. And the website is awesome, too.
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I love toys, and I love Rotofugi.
I don't get to go there as often as I like since its sort of a…
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This place is Aces! The staff is always keen and the toys are always rad. nuff said.
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You know I am really sad... I've been waiting for my Tokidoki Sandy plush since the day I ordered it, on August 4th... I still haven't received it yet. I got my Dunny vinyl toys from New York in the mail through USPS too and I got it last Saturday and ordered the same time I did at Rotofugi. Very disappointed, I just checked my tracking and it left on August 8th from FOREST PARK, IL. FYI: ; you might want to consider using Fed Ex Ground... them little toys ain't cheap and deserve a better shipping transportation than USPS.
So, I got my Sandy doll on the 15th of August, finally. I never had a problem getting things though the mail, but the store offered different delivery options, yeah I guess it was my fault for not looking carefully...
I added two more stars, and that is it for getting my package in good condition, and for having good products to sell online.
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I'm giving Rotofugi 5 stars just because of how meticulous they were in shipping some toys out to me here in California. Whoever packed it literally made tiers within the box, so each toy had their own section. Not to mention that they wrapped the toys like gift wrap to protect the designs on the boxes themselves. That, my friends, is "care". Not to mention shipping was free!
They just have a very wide assortment of designer vinyl, and I'm sure I'll be back to throw more hard earned money at Rotofugi to aggrandize my vinyl army on my desk.
I got doubles from my Medicom Be@rbrick order though. F&$#!
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So I made the drive out to the Ukrainian Village last week, specifically to go to Rotofugi, and I have to say I was not disappointed. They had a very wide selection of Vinyl toys, including some Be@bricks I had been looking for, and The Kid Robot Simpsons toys! I was so stoked.
But what impressed me, was the owner, who was so very friendly and talkative, and we struck up a conversation about Be@bricks, and learned that they may be having a certain series I was looking for. Needless to say, they have earned a fan, and I will be back soon.
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2 awesome/positive statements about this place:
1 - I want to buy so many things from this store just so that I can put them in my cube at work. Everything is colorful, cute and fun.
2 - I love the blind box concept; it keeps things interesting! You never know what you're going to get with each purchase.
Smoking Bunny. Make it happen.
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I really should never step foot in here again. It seems whenever I walk in, no matter how low on cash I am, I always end up walking out with SOMETHING. And it's always something that I don't need (I mean, really, who needs a glow in the dark 3" Ronald McDonald action figure?), but it's always something I'm delighted to have.
Rotofugi, you bring out so many conflicting emotions in me...but in a good way.
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So stinkin' cute sprinkled with just the right amount of evil!
This place is great for quirky gifts, even if your friend isn't necessarily an avid collector.
Rotofugi is so great for picking up something special for that someone special!!
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I like to go in here and pick everything up, put it down, then leave without buying anything. mmwwwhahahaha
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Dear Rotofugi, I totally love you from the bottom of my heart.
I'm so glad that I stumbled upon this little haven of happiness on my way to breakfast with friends. Seriously, as soon as I peeped in the window, I almost ran over my poor friends with my little feet as I barreled my way into the door with a half-hearted "EKYOO-MEEE!". Oh my, good times... I even made it a point to go back there a second time before I left town.
Thanks to the lovely lady who suggested "Split Obsession" as a sister store in my home base, Hawaii. I checked it out, but honey, it ain't half as good as Rotofugi. Um, but don't tell them I said so. ^_^
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if you're into japan-inspired vinyl figurines, toys, books, plushes, prints, t-shirts, and such... you've just hit the jackpot at rotofugi!
they have a big selection of limited edition collectibles to blind assortment figurines... they have a lot of kidrobot, dunny, uglydoll, tokidoki, labbit, munny... as well as other less widely sold things...
a lot of cool larger vinyl figures that i'd love to buy, but i'm only visiting this area so i have a limit on how much stuff i can take... but i was still able to pick out a few blind assortment toys to add to my growing collection :)
some people decorate with antiques and ceramic figurines and statues... i'd prefer decorating my home with things you can find at places like rotofugi...
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I'm not the designer toy collector enthusiast and fanatic, however, I am a nick-knacker and for that reason I love trolling around in this place. It's more like a museum than a toy store and they have some really off-the-wall items. For valentine's day, I got a Mr. Mustache from here(yes, he's romantic).
Personally, I'm a fan of the "Uglydolls". They're supposed to be ugly but they're cute as hell and since they're "designer" toys, it makes it ok to own stuffed animals in your mid-late 20's.
They also occasionally have events to showcase a new designer with music and drinks where you actually get to meet the designer.
Very cool place and somewhere worth popping into while out shopping.
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If you like Kid Robot, you'll like Rotofugi. It is one of the few designer toy stores in Chicago. The owners are really nice and they always have one of a kind pieces that can be hard to find. They have toys, clothing, gallery items, etc.
Every two months or so, they have a gallery event where you can meet the artists behind the collections they present towards the west wall.
I like that they carry Tim Biskup's Gama Go products :)
SUPPORT THE INDEPENDENTS!!!
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Yes Yes Yes, this place is fun. The people working there are nice to talk to and friendly. It's fun to look around the store then check out the gallery.
I love purchasing the blind boxes with the figures in them.
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C'mon, a place that gives adults permission to indulge in hardcore geek-ery? Like many writing reviews here, I am not a collector. BUT, I love this place. I come here when I'm trying to find a unique gift for a friend with a sideways sense of humor. Random, random stuff here but above all a NEAT place.
Everyone that works here is ridiculously nice and helpful, trained to be patient with all the noobs. I've gotten a few items here, and had great feedback from friends especially on the Gloomy Bear series.
No more words, just go.
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I. love. toys.
I'd rather have a new dunny than dinner, so having Rotofugi in the neighborhood makes me a very, very, happy girl.
I am compulsive blind box buyer so if anyone ever wants to trade...find me.
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for reasons that i cannot necessarily disclose...i needed an ugly doll. now, my favorite is ice bat, but since i don't want to bite certain people's style, i didn't want to get one. BUT they had ninja ice bat. awesome. he's having a nice sleep in my bed right now.
and they had everything you can imagine there! i love it and can't wait to "need" to go again.
rotufugi rules.
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Bought some cute things from Rotofugi today for gifts for friends, and I really liked being in the store. It's laid out well so you can see everything they have for that week, and the guy behind the counter was really friendly and nice.
But they don't open until noon on Saturday? What the heck? I was out there at 10:30 trying to get some shopping done and had to come back later. Oh wells.
I also didn't give it 5 stars because I am still skeptical about this whole "toy as art" thing and how expensive some of the pieces can be. Luckily there are plenty of cheap toys that you can buy without feeling like you're missing out.
ALL HAIL SON OF MOUSTACHIO!
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For my birthday, my roommate got me a Wee Ninja cuddly toy and a matching badge from Rotofugi. He is very stealthy yet lovable. He used to stand guard on my dashboard and then as soon as I brought him in the house, theiving bastards broke into my car. Horseshit.
And though my Wee Ninja is content to be solitary, I have been meaning to get him a companion for some time so I need to get back here. Prices and manageable and the store itself is bright and cheery. You'll enjoy yourself.
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Great shop with the hottest toys for grown-ups. They carry unusual lines of Japan, Hong Kong, and US-designed vinyls. They also have one-of-a-kind stuffed toys and artwork. Owners are sweet as pie.
Vinyls are like action figures, but they are for adults, not kids. Contemporary artists like Gary Baseman and Michael Lau are commissioned to design lines of these toys that retail anywhere from $4 for a mini to $100 or more for a jumbo sized one. The vinyls in an edition come out in unique quantities (and on the inside slip they tell you the percentages of each design made) so rarity is a built in factor. Because everything is boxed up so you can't see inside, you never quite know what you are getting unless the store owner takes a peek for you.
I once gave one to a four year old who threw it across the room and never looked at it again. Lesson learned.
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Shortly before Christmas, I jaunted across tundra and through gauntlets, searching up and down Michigan Ave and State Street, FAO Schwartz and suburban malls, book stores and boutiques... for an UGLYDOLL for my girlfriend for Christmas.
For a long time, no luck. I traveled many miles and wore through many shoes. I fought nymphs and demons, and saw the true face of God. I felt the lash upon my shoulders and an acerbic throbbing through my legs.
Not even Toys R Us had this item that I thought to be common.
Then, I found Rotofugi. They had a MASSIVE, almost INTIMIDATINGLY SCARY selection of Ugly Dolls; small and large, the classic or the limited edition Ice Lodge... in edition to Gloomy Bear, Domo, and all the random what-have-ya that geeks in my life love. Plus, the prices were about the same as if you specially ordered them off the Intarwebz.
What sucked, though, is after traveling miles and miles, from Schaumberg to the Mag Mile, Rotofugi turned out to be 6 blocks from my apartment. Shiver me eef-in' timbers.
I will be heading there for V-day coming up, for sure.
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I love their art gallery just as much as their toy store, but I agree with everyone else, this place loves what they do. Everyone is so passionate about their jobs and what they are selling, it would be great if there were more places in Chicago like this.
Like I said... amazing little store, that also happens to have a kickass gallery that is on the up and up right next door.
Kirby and Whitney are indeed..... classy people.
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One of the best conversations I've ever had w/ a store propeitor:
Me (talking to a friend) "ooh they have Shawnimals here! There's a Shawnimal thats in the shape of a turd"
Store guy: "We're all out of turds. His name is actually 'lonely dollop'. but...yeah, he's a turd."
Where else can you have a conversation like that?
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Neighborhood: Lakeview
Category: Toy Stores
Chicago, IL
Category: Jewelry
Neighborhood: Streeterville
Category: Shopping
Neighborhood: Near North Side
Category: Bikes
Oak Park, IL
Category: Toy Stores
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