Before I start, I should mention that just before I went, a dolly friend of mine (dtpconcepts on instagram) had just visited Platina. Her photos from Platina are here. She was the one who shared that Platina was not just a showroom, which was what I thought, but also a shop. They had wigs, clothes, doll heads (blank), doll bodies, and also raffle dolls (if any, depending on when you visit). After she told me that, I was really tempted to go. I knew it'll cost my wallet (lol) but I have also always wanted a Waseon, but never managed to buy him online, so I thought, why not?
So after that, I decided to go visit Platina, and here's how it went~~
1. RSVP via email
First of all, Switch has instructions on how overseas guests can write in to visit Platina on their website here. The website actually says to "Please RSVP at least one month in advance. No visits are guaranteed otherwise". I was hesitant to email them at first because I only had two weeks to my trip in Seoul (it was a last minute trip to catch a concert), but I decided to try and see if they could accommodate me. Luckily, they accepted my request :D
Switch gave me a date and time for the visit, and also a rough list of items available on the day I'll visit. Of course, the items available is subject to change, and I didn't see Waseon on the list, but (spoiler alert) he was available when I went. So yeah. If you have anything specific in mind, you can always consider asking Switch. They were really helpful in replying any queries I had. :)
2. Getting to Platina
Switch has provided a map, which I followed. I went by subway, so I exited Pyeongchon Station, Exit 3.
This is the building you will see at the first traffic crossing, which is the "NEON" building in the map. The crossings are further apart than I thought from the map, but they should be the most helpful in judging where you are, especially if you can't read Korean at all. There might have been smaller crossings (without traffic lights) in between, but just look out for the two main traffic crossings with traffic lights, and you should be fine.
The second crossing:
This is what the "KIA MOTORS" building look like. The logo was quite high up so it took me a while to recognise the building, haha.
After that, the map from Switch seems to show that the building immediately next to "KIA MOTORS" should be the correct building, but it wasn't. I got confused climbing up a random building, but eventually I went back down and walked a little further, and viola, I finally see the correct building. You should be able to see the "PLATINA" signboard on the 2nd storey from the streets. This is what the building looks like:
There is a convenience store on the first storey. The elevator is behind the store (you don't have to go through the convenience store). There was a sign for Platina on the side of the elevator door when I went, showing that it's on the 2nd storey:
Press 2 and we're ready to go:
You'll see the Platina poster once you exit the lift.
I didn't take photos of the dolls in the front display because I went in fairly quickly. I can't remember if I knocked first, or if the staff opened the door first, but either way, I went in before I looked at the display at all lol. There were two staff there that day, one was a lady with chin-length hair and she spoke to me in English, while the other lady stayed at the back for most of the time I visited (I think she might not speak much English?). Anyway, they were really nice and welcomed me in.
3. Inside Platina
Once inside, the first thing they did was bring me to a table in the middle of the room to show me the catalogue. They let me sit down to look through the catalogue, and the lady who spoke English sat behind the counter, and told me I can just ask for her when I have any questions.
Anyway, I wanted to quickly see all the dolls on display first, so I did a quick round around the room. The showroom is not super big, about 5m by 5m or so, with a storage/staff room next to the counter. It's a good thing I quickly took some photos before I sat down to look through the catalogue, because I realised afterwards that I didn't really take any photos inside! OTL I was too excited about buying things from Switch lol. The lack of photos means I'm going to be just describing some things, but hopefully it's still useful or interesting, haha.
So, displays first. There were 4 when I went. The first one was some art students kind of setting:
This boy is so pretty. I forgot to ask what sculpt he is (or if I did ask, I forgot what sculpt he is already ah... haha).
The second display.
The third display:
The fourth one which actually has one more doll but I wanted a closer photo of the Mocha skinned Waseon. He's so gorgeous ahh~
A further shot of the room from left to right when I was seated. There's drawings from various artists hanging on the walls. I think one was done by laminarflow.
If you see behind, there are those tall display cases right next to the walls/windows. Those had the raffle dolls when dtpconcepts went (in Oct 2018), but they were already empty when I got there because the raffle event has ended. It was a pity I couldn't see those, but oh well.
This is the cashier/counter. You can see a bit of the corner of the table I was browsing the catalogue at on the bottom of this photo.
Some of the stuff at the cashier/counter area. They have things behind the counter, and also in the room that is to the side of the counter (I didn't take any photo of this haha). I think the room is where they store their bodies because the lady went into it when I asked to see the Switch Attractive 65 body. And for dtpconcepts, she mentioned that someone was inside the room painting when she went (probably their faceup artist?).
This was what was on my table after a while. The catalogue on the bottom, and a bunch of wigs and the Waseon head in the back. I did end up buying most of the stuff I asked to see... hahahaha
Okay, that's all the photos I have inside the shop. I'll be describing the rest in words~
So when I first got to the shop, I took a look at all the dolls on display. The 2 staff stayed behind the counter to let me roam (lol), and I was free to see all the dolls on display. There are signs saying do not touch, if I remember correctly. I only had my phone, so I took photos with those.
At the table, there were a few things:
- The clear file with the main catalogue showing a photo of the product and the price in Korean won. There were clothes, wigs, shoes and other miscellaneous items. In my photo above, you can see the misc items in the catalogue.
- A page showing the wigs available (style, size, colours). I suppose this is because the wig stock changes often, so they prepared a separate sheet to show the wigs they have.
- A stack of photocards/postcard-sized photos of the doll heads that are available.
I immediately started finding Waseon in the list of photos (lol). The staff left me alone to browse, and I could just wave/motion to get them if I have any questions. It was a very pleasant experience overall. Anyway, I asked for the price of the blank head, which she informed was only available in Normal skin. The head was 160,000won blank. I'm not sure if they might have other colours because I didn't think to ask (I just assumed they don't, since Mocha and white skin were limited edition).
Anyway, I also asked to see a bunch of wigs in various sizes. Switch wigs are available in 3 sizes, M, B and L. I can't remember the exact sizing but L is closest to 9inch, while B and M are slightly smaller, to fit the various sized Switch heads better, I think. Since there was more size choices than the usual 8-9inch I was expecting, I decided to ask which size they thought would be better for my incoming Kanadoll Adrian. They were very helpful and searched up the doll for me to see the head size (which just wrote 8-9inch lol). Although the lady spoke English, I found it better to speak simple English to avoid confusion., and to show any photos for clarification. I ended up showing a photo of Kanadoll to help her understand what I was asking, and we realised Kanadoll didn't have a more specific head size so I just bought some L wigs thinking I can have someone else in my crew wear it if it didn't fit. I also picked up some wigs for Waseon, who wears M sized wigs.
For clothing, I didn't have much cash budgeted for spending after the head and wigs, so I just bought a Soave (turtleneck) in an olive green colour. They have more colours than on the Switch website, but I think you can also find these colours on Faythz (according to another dolly friend), so there's that. Regardless, Platina has items that were out of stock on the online Switch website, so I was super tempted to buy alot of things. The prices are also slightly lower than the English Switch website. For example, the wigs were 27,000won in Platina while they sell for 30USD on the website.
The ticket for my visit:
For all the items above, I paid in cash. I also bought a Switch Attractive 65 body, which I paid with a debit card. In the first RSVP email, Switch did mention that they accept credit card, but may not be able to accept all cards. Mine was a VISA and it worked, so there's that, if anyone is interested in getting things by card. The staff actually brought out both the old body and the Attractive body when I asked what the differences in the bodies were, because I couldn't tell from the photos on the website. Apparently the hands and feet are bigger, and there are slight updates to the detailing of the body overall, the back being the most obvious one. It's not so easy to tell unless you have both bodies side by side!
They left the bodies for me to look at, and unlike Volks (when I visited Volks Korea in 2014), they didn't need me to wear gloves or anything to handle the body. Side note, Volks Korea has either moved, or the shop is no longer there... because I went to find it on this trip but there was another shop in its location :(
Anyway, Switch let me handle the 2 bodies but I didn't move the dolls too much because I was worried my hands were leaving prints (I am a bit paranoid when it's not my own dolls xD). I ended up getting the new body (aka the Attractive body), and asked if they could ship it back by EMS. They said it's okay, and I paid for the body and shipping (555,000won total). I forgot the exact cost of each, but I think the body was 525,000won? Anyway, it's cheaper than the online price ahhh. The body has arrived on the day I'm typing this (9 Nov 2018), and overall it's been a very pleasant and lovely experience going to Platina. They were super helpful and nice, both in person and on email, and I really had fun~
Back to the visit, in total I spent about 1.5-2 hours there. I brought the head, wigs and clothes home with my luggage, and only the body was shipped via EMS.
If anyone is going to Korea and is considering visiting Switch, I hope this post has been informative! Or at least entertaining in some way, haha. I recommend visiting if you like Switch dolls and have time when you go to Seoul, but do budget for the amount you'll spend because it's super tempting to just buy everything when you're inside.... ahhhh. Well, it's money spent without regrets, so I really don't mind.
Anyway, the next part would be after visiting Platina, aka the box opening photos of my loot from Korea, which I'll do as a separate blog post :) I'll have a link here when it's up~
Thank you for reading~ :)
