Well, well, well, look who came walking back.

When you see that Donguri Kyowakoku is offering an item called “Moving Howl’s Castle” for sale, you might think the Studio Ghibli specialty shop has had a rare slip-up and jumbled the word order in the title of Hayao Miyazaki’s celebrated 2004 anime movie, Howl’s Moving Castle. But “Moving Howl’s Castle” isn’t a typo, it’s just the designers making it extra clear that this figure of the titular mobile fortress really does move!

Press the switch, and the castle lumbers forward, swaying back and forth with the multi-jointed compellingly controlled chaos it was animated with in the movie. Its “eyes” bulge…

…its central turret rotates…

…and if you peer into its mouth, you’ll find fire spirit Calcifer flickering there!

Though this isn’t the first time for the Moving Howl’s Castle to saunter into stores, it’s been sold out for several months, and is now finally back in stock and available for purchase once again.

At 14 centimeters (5.5 inches) in length, the castle is big enough for the modelers to have included an impressive amount of little details.

Even the power switch is artistically incorporated. Rather than an obtrusive prong or button that would ruin the sense of design cohesion, instead you start or stop the walking motion by pressing down on the door that protagonist Sophie first enters the castle by.

The Moving Howl’s Castle is priced at 22,000 yen (US$144), and is available through the Donguri Kyowakoku online store here. Just be careful that it doesn’t crash into Mei and Satsuki’s house.

Source, images: Donguri Kyowakoku
Top image:
Insert images:
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!