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LOS ANGELES, CA- For collectors accustomed to browsing AmiAmi through a computer screen, Anime Expo offered something considerably more dangerous to the wallet: the opportunity to encounter the legendary Japanese hobby retailer’s merchandise in person.
AmiAmi’s “Hobby Camp” booth brought the company’s enormous online presence onto the Anime Expo floor, transforming the familiar experience of scrolling through figures, plush toys, and character goods into something visitors could actually walk through.
For anyone accustomed to meticulously filling a digital AmiAmi cart and praying the international shipping isn’t exorbitant, seeing that catalog represented in person was a genuine event.
The booth featured figures, plush toys, and official merchandise from Attack on Titan, Blue Archive, Chaos Zero Nightmare, Elf Village, Hyperdimension Neptunia, and other properties. AmiAmi even maintained a connection to its digital storefront through a large interactive screen that allowed attendees to check the retailer’s online inventory in real time.
The result was an interesting bridge between two versions of modern collecting. AmiAmi’s website gives collectors around the world access to an enormous selection of Japanese hobby products, but Anime Expo gave those same fans an opportunity to browse together, see merchandise in person, and experience the frenzy of a convention-exclusive retail environment.
Several KOEI TECMO Games products also made their North American retail debut through the booth, including merchandise from Atelier, Dead or Alive, Nioh, NINJA GAIDEN, and other series.
And, as longtime convention shoppers understand, sometimes the container carrying the merchandise becomes merchandise itself.
Purchases came with limited-edition shopping bags and thank-you cards, which were almost immediately treated with the same reverence as the collectibles they were meant to carry. At a convention where exclusivity can turn an otherwise ordinary promotional item into a souvenir, even AmiAmi’s packaging became part of the attraction.
Unsurprisingly, fans swarmed the booth. Merchandise disappeared from the shelves at a rapid pace, with sought-after plush toys selling particularly quickly. For collectors accustomed to watching an online listing suddenly change to “Order Closed,” there was something amusingly familiar about seeing the same scarcity play out physically in front of them.
But Hobby Camp wasn’t simply a temporary version of an online store.
AmiAmi’s hololive English area included a large Wishing Wall where fans could leave handwritten messages. The installation turned part of the booth into a communal space, giving attendees an opportunity to contribute something themselves rather than simply purchase something and leave.
That distinction captured what made AmiAmi’s presence at Anime Expo work so well.
Online shopping is efficient. It can provide access to merchandise from thousands of miles away and make an obscure figure or character good available with a few clicks. But it cannot quite reproduce the feeling of standing among hundreds of other collectors, spotting something on a shelf, watching merchandise disappear in real time, or comparing what everyone managed to find.
For a company built around delivering pieces of Japanese pop culture to collectors around the world, Hobby Camp reversed that equation. Instead of shipping the convention experience to someone’s doorstep one box at a time, AmiAmi brought the warehouse to the fans.
And judging by how quickly some of those shelves emptied, the fans were more than happy to save it the trip.
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CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT MORE COVERAGE AT ANIME EXPO 2026
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CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT MORE COVERAGE AT ANIME EXPO 2026
