Where to buy toys in Manila: Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Makati

Maxiworks, Power Plant Mall

Where to buy Toys in Manila: Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Makati.

We're trying something new today: producing a guide as to where you may find toys for sale here in Manila, Philippines.

While the toy Mecca of Manila will, in our opinion, always be that wretched hive of scum and villainy called Greenhills (Seriously, it used to be a real hive of scum and villainy); time, circumstance and company sometimes prevent us or visitors from going to Greenhills - especially with the traffic.

So we've decided to start compiling alternate places where you or visitors to our country may find toys.

First off: Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Makati. Wikipedia defines the Power Plant mall as: "...an upscale indoor shopping mall in Makati City, Philippines. It is the anchor establishment of Rockwell Center, a mixed-use area north of the Makati Central Business District on the Pasig River waterfront across Mandaluyong."

It opened a day after Christmas in 2000 and sits on Rockwell Drive cor. Estrella Street, Rockwell Center, Makati City, Philippines. Believe it or not, it does stand on the remains of a former power plant.

MORE AFTER THE JUMP


Happily Power Plant mall has clustered all of its toystores on one floor - the 4th floor where you can also get a lot of bright sunlight, hang-out in Coffee Bean, buy good book or watch a movie.

1) Hobbes and Landes: Hobbes and Landes describes itself as a "...unique specialty store created to enhance precious family moments and reminisce a playful childhood"  That's a bit of an awkward sentence off of their Facebook page, but it does carry a lot of unique and creative toys that help stimulate creativity and intelligence like Lego. It's also one of the nicer places to buy aquariums and fish that young boys and girls can use to kick off a hobby that teaches responsibility and a love for nature.

For their Facebook page, click here.

As of this writing, their window has an interesting collection of wooden animated musical toys:

Samurai Teddy

2) Tickles: We were wondering if we should included Tickles as it's not a toy-store per-se. However there are people who collect cute stuff, some toy collectors are women, and some parents who read this blog just want to find a bear or a cute little token to take home to a waiting child.

Unfortunately whoever owns Tickles doesn't really seem to have any social-media presence whatsoever. The best links that we could find to the place were customer reviews on Yelp. They don't even have a Facebook page.

Still, trust us, it's there. As of this writing they have a really cute set of teddy-bears up on display in their window. We're especially partial to that brown teddy-bear donning a blue kimono.

Closed?

3) Build City: Apparently Build City is a division of Hobbes and Landes. We love their selection of Legos - always new yet a bit pricey - and all the creative toys that they bring in. Their Facebook page currently promotes the availability of UGears - mechanical model safes. Build City in Power Plant mall also now carries model kits. WWII tanks and airplanes now sit side-by-side with Star Wars models on their shelves.

For their Facebook page, click here.

Unfortunately - and strangely - they were closed when we were in the mall.


4) Maxiworks: We could spend literally hours just sitting down and looking at all the drool worthy toys that this store sells.

Their website makes this claim: "We are the Official Distributor of your favorite brands like Sideshow Collectibles, Hot Toys, Enterbay, Toynami, Efx Collectibles, Gentle Giant, Funko, Hollywood Collectibles Group & Diamond Select among others."

So this store is definitely worth visiting even if just for the eye-candy.

Click here for their website.

Yes we don't want to grow up

5) Toys R'Us: Whether or not we would like to admit it, there is a bit of an elitist feel to Power Plant Mall in the sense that there is no way to commute to it from the main road without walking. The best way to get to the mall is to drive or to take a cab.

As such, a lot of toy raiders tend to ignore this mall when new toys appear. This makes this mall an ideal scrounging place for hard to find new releases.

And true enough, a week after Force Friday we still have a lot of rare Star Wars toys available in Toys R'Us, Powerplant mall. 

Click here for the Toys R'Us Philippines Facebook Page.