Oh mama! The Mother Shop is now open.

Upon its opening in 2019, the sixth floor of the Parco department store in Tokyo’s Shibuya neighborhood quickly established itself as a must-visit destination for video game fans, since from Day 1 it had dedicated Nintendo, Capcom, and Pokémon stores. This month, though, Shibuya Parco has made an addition for gamers with more particularly refined tastes, as it now has an EarthBound shop too.

OK, so technically it’s called the Mother Shop, using the Japanese-market title for the franchise which was renamed EarthBound for its overseas releases. But just like a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, the characters and creatures from Mother/EarthBound are as quirkily unforgettable regardless of what appears on the title screen.

▼ The Mother Shop (right photo) on its grand opening last Friday

Among the items on offer are acrylic character/monster keychains, with a whopping 31 different designs!

For online shoppers, the only way to get these is to order the entire bundle, at an intimidating price of 23,970 yen (US$165), through the Mother online store. The new Shibuya physical shop, though, also lets you make individual blind-buy purchases for a much more manageable 770 yen a pop.

▼ The bases can be removed for easier looping of keys or use as decorative bag straps…

▼ …or left attached for use as standees.

Other cool new items include T-shirts of the cast and the game’s iconic “SMAAAASH!!” critical hit indicator…

…and even an ice cube, or ice character, tray.

But probably the most appealing of all are the figures of EarthBound’s core cast, Ness, Paula, Jeff, Poo, and Mr. Saturn.

If these renditions of the characters look especially familiar, that’s because they were produced by 3-D scanning the clay figures used for photographs in the game’s instruction manual/player’s guide.

The PVC figures range in height from 8 centimeters (3.1 inches) for Mr. Saturn to 11.2 centimeters for Poo. They’re only being offered as a set of all five for 19,800 yen, with a limited quantity to be produced to order, and delivery slated for early October.

▼ There’s pixel art on the box tops too!

The Mother Store isn’t being billed as a popup shop, as it’ll be around for longer than the scant few days that term often implies, but it’s not a permanent addition to Shibuya Parco. It’ll be open until September 8, as its residency is running alongside that of a paid Mother art exhibit on the building’s 8th floor, The Shape of Mother, where the original clay versions of the core cast figures will be among the displays. Thankfully, the items shown above can also be ordered online here, but the Mother Shop looks to be a great place for fans to gather while they’ve got the chance…

…especially with its art wall which visitors are invited to contribute to by trying to draw the series’ characters from memory.

Related: Shibuya Parco official website
Source: PR Times, Hobonichi
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: Hobonichi (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), PR Times
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