The Animetal Reviews 181

Prices are just way too insane to even justify thinking about buying anything especially when they have the same figures as every other store but double the price. £230 for a Franky figure that's £34 elsewhere? Go to the Bandai store in Camden or forbidden planet they're cheaper and don't have off-putting staff wearing fake kimonos that are rude when you ask them questions about animes that they don't know

Genuinely I am overly shocked how much the store is over priced the figures when you can buy affordable online with reasonable sellers. The place was nice and staff felt bit unprofessional

almost all the merch in the store are either ripoffs or overpriced, don't buy from them!! I tried returning some actions figures after realising they weren't the real ones and they denied all claims of selling fake figurines. Shameful.

Walked in, saw a Gunpla model being sold for £100 above its RRP, walked out

visited here a few days ago and I'm certainly not coming back. I've never been so appalled by a store to feel the need to make a review, but it was absolutely horrid.

The prices firstly are nothing short of extortionate. Ironic, considering there are about 1000 anime stores in central london, even with a forbidden Planet right next door with the same figures for about £50 cheaper.

That aside, I feel for the staff. I walked past the area a few times and saw the same 3 workers consistently throughout the day, possibly not even getting a break. The owner? Nowhere to be seen. At least based off of uniform (which is horrendous by the way), I couldn't see an owner or even anyone with remote authority on standby.

the only reason I'm giving it 2 stars instead of 1 is because one of the staff members was so incredibly kind. I realised the place was a scam long before and already planned not to buy anything, but one of the girls was lovely. She seemed a bit jittery, but did help me find most of the things I was searching for. Which honestly was impressive, considering she was the only worker who I saw constantly on the floor. The other 2 people I saw were either busy doing jack standing by the till or aimlessly moving around boxes pretending to be busy. I truly feel bad for her and the rest of the staff, as it seems like they're trained to essentially harass customers until they leave. I don't mind being asked occasionally, but it's really annoying when in the span of like, 15 minutes? 3 workers have asked if I'm okay, if I'm looking for anything in particular, or what animes I've been watching recently. Yes, I'm okay. Let me look around. Why do you keep prodding when I'm clearly walking away?

Extortionate prices, oddly trained staff, AI art being used for the shopping bags it seems? Absolutely disgusting. Any shop that prides itself on being for the creatives should be ashamed at the mere idea of even using generative art instead of commissioning a real artist. With all those price increases, could you not afford to spend at least a little on getting a real designer? The shop was aesthetically pleasing, but seeing that at the last moment as I was leaving completely crushed the experience and was what triggered me enough to have to write such a lengthy review.

Save your time and money. You can get half the figures for 200 pound less online, without the lame experience.

I absolutely refuse to shop here now, every single time I walk in I get swarmed by the staff.
"You looking for anything in particular?" Constantly, I feel bad for the staff honestly because its not their fault. The manager of this company needs to realise that by training your staff this way, you actively lose sales.

I detest being treated this way when I just want to take my time and browse without interruptions. Like imagine if you were in a library and every five seconds some old lady came up to you and asked what books you want, it'd make your experience awful.

Please put your staff first and treat them like human beings, don't force this stupid rhetoric that they need to harass their customers and make loads of sales, its scaring people off.
Also your bags being AI created is really insulting to the industry you claim to be a part of. Animation, figures and artistry is your bread and butter, at least hire an artist. It's embarrassing.

Don't even get me started on the uniforms.
Leave your staff with some dignity.

I won't even complain at the prices, frankly I expect it to be inflated in central London, my advice is to work on selling more secondhand figures so that your customers can afford to buy at least secondhand stuff.

OH and they insult people over bad reviews and call them trolls, very immature and bad for business. I don't give them very long.

This company is clearly taking advantage of people who don't know the market for these figurines.

They are seriously ripping off every visitor in store.
They deserve to close down and have a fair Anime company sell products. Everything was 5x or more their true value

We don't like being scammed on the streets let alone in a store.

They really really overprice figures and merch in general lmao… I went in there a while ago looking for a figure of Mami tomoe from Madoka Magica and she was like,,, 100+ in there, considering she was a
Literal prize figure, found her for 15 online later that day😭 I’d really avoid going here, I also collect ensemble stars which they have merch of but it’s literally always the same units and like £10 for one badge which is crazy,,, (you can easily find multiple for the same price on mercariJp),, even if they do stock “rarer” figures, you can easily find most of these for under 20 with a proxy service for mercariJp, also the ai art is very very weird,, it kinda proves that with their overpricing no one is really buying enough for them to hire actual artists imo

ripoff !! everything is so overpriced and rediculous. next door, you can find things for half the price! ugly ai art instead of real packaging. this is insane for a store that claims to appreciate anime and japanese artwork. staff are kind but clearly instructed to pester shoppers. kinda a shame to see in central london, especially in such a touristy place, you’re scamming people and it’s kind of cheap seeming overall

Excellent experience! One item was out of stock but an alternative was offered straight away for a great deal! Thank you!

Insane prices, price gauging on all products , staff follow you around the store which makes you feel like a thief, customer service is poor. Manager is a rude anime snob. Better off going to Forbideen planet right next door to Animetal 💜

Didn't receive anything that I ordered. Paid a lot for it too. No tracking info no nothing.

I bought an item but never got a confirmation email on my purchase. Moreover when I try and email for support all I get is a server error. I have no idea what happened to my order and just hope it arrives

This is my 4th time ordering online aside from physically visiting the store, outstanding collection, prices are fair and the owner is probably the most knowledgeable person I have ever talked to about anime, would absolutely recommend.

I haven’t received the figure I ordered, which was now 20 days ago. I haven’t received a refund from another figure I had bought from the website, and customer service didn’t really get me anywhere.

I placed a order, money was paid, no confirmation for anything since. After some days I checked my Bank statement to find out that theo money was returned to my bank account the next day. No feedback received, it looks like irresponsibility!

Trash reselling company, you can find almost any figure they are selling on sites such as AliExpress for 99% cheaper £50 for a HxH figure that costs £3 on AliExpress they bulk buy and resell to people who don’t know any better also delete comments off their social media’s about it cheap Chinese garbage

Awsome range of figures very helpful and friendly will deffo return

I wanted to purchase something that was in the store that my daughter had seen.very helpful staff organised for me to buy online and posted it the same afternoon. Great service .

Great store and great staff. I must have walked around 4 times and kept finding cool figures. All the staff were very friendly and helpful too