Anime fortress is ready to make the move into your home, but you’ll need to set aside a half-day or so to build it.
Howl’s Moving Castle is a multi-functional place. As shown in the Studio Ghibli anime film it shares its name with, it’s a home, a fortress, and a mode of transportation.
So it’s fitting that the Howl’s Moving Castle for your home that we’re looking at today isn’t limited to a single role either, as it’s an awesome decoration, a challenging puzzle, and a cleverly convenient organizer too.
Now available through Ghibli specialty shop Donguri Kyowakoku, this wooden reconstruction of the marque stronghold stands 15 centimeters (5.9 inches) tall…once you put it together. The assembly process apparently isn’t as simple and uneventful as putting together a simple model, either, as the designers say it’s a 3-D puzzle, and designate it with a five-out-of-five rating in terms of difficulty.
It’s recommended for builders age 15 and up, and the estimated time from start to finish is somewhere between eight and nine hours. For fans of the anime, though, that time investment is really just more time to admire all the little details that make the castle’s design so unique.
▼ For instance, did you ever notice that Howl’s Moving Castle has ears?
The product description says that it does come with an explanatory booklet, though, so it’s possible that even though it’s called a “puzzle,” it might be more like constructing a complex Lego set, and you probably won’t need to worry about getting stumped and ending up with a half-built castle.
The castle’s mouth is open, and not just to create a dynamic atmosphere. Once you’ve got the place put together, it starts serving some practical purposes.
Inside that turret is a compartment which you can stock with paperclips. Give the turret a twist, and the clips slide out to you through the castle’s mouth!
The smokestacks on the back? They’re pen/pencil holders, and the castle’s other slits, slots, and posts are places to hold cards, memos, photos, or rubber bands.
▼ With Studio Ghibli’s love of hand-drawn animation, it’s nice to have Howl’s Moving Castle support your stationery-related creative endeavors.
Officially, the puzzle/figure/organizer is called the Howl’s Moving Castle ki-gu-mi Howl’s Castle Color Version, and is priced at 17,600 yen (US$115). Though it’s been unavailable for a long time, it’s wandered back into the Donguri Kyowakoku’ inventory in a recent restock and can be ordered online here.
Source, images: Donguri Kyowakoku
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