© Various Associates / Photography: SFAP

There are toy stores…and there are toy stores. In the latter more superior category falls the newly opened Plastique Mo Depo store at Taikoo Li Qiantan shopping centre in Shanghai. Occupying a compact unit on the second floor in the shopping centre’s Northern or ‘Stone’ section, the retail space features a nifty interior design by Various Associates, an architecture based in Shenzhen. Plastique Mo Depo is a new hybrid retail concept by trading company The Communiti which combines toys, fashion and contemporary art. The setting features a seemingly floating open box facing a public gallery, and given its construction, use of reflective materials, kaleidoscopic visual effect, and last but not least, the dense showcase of coveted merchandise, it effortlessly draws in shoppers from afar. On one side, and part of the shop’s outer shell, the suspended toy display room is flanked by an elongated sales counter.

The setting here is captured by aluminium grained panels, galvanised iron and mirrored stainless steel which all provide a seamless extension of Plastique Mo Depo‘s suspended inner core. Interestingly, the store concept is based on the notion that toys aren’t merely plastic objects or commodities, but companions with a human personality and warmth, and consequently, a variety of display areas have been incorporated in the settings across the premises that aim to stimulate interaction with shoppers. An actual depot in the back of the store lives up to the last bit of the store’s name, and it’s one that’s within sight for all shoppers. The depot faces both the centre of the store and the circulation loop, and the spaces both left and right are for storage of large toys, supplemented by meshed shelves. So, what’s on the shelves of Plastique Mo Dep? First and foremost, the store is the Chinese retail partner of Medicom Toy, the manufacturer of the cult BE@RBRICK dolls, and all of its products are stocked here.

Plastique Mo Depo
Taikoo Li Qiantan, 500 Dongyu Lu, Shop S-L2-24 (Liujiazhai)
200126 Shanghai

© Various Associates / Photography: SFAP