LINE Friends Store in Times Square

By: burgundy bug

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Brown plush in LINE Friends, New York City, NY

Source: Line Store Feat. MomoKumo & XtaSeay | Penelope Peru Photography P3

Brown, Cony, Moon, James, Sally, and Leonard – or a bear, bunny, two cartoon dudes, a duck, and a frog, for those who aren’t familiar – engulf your vision from the moment you glance towards the store front.

Needless to say, the LINE Friends store in Times Square, NY, is a self-proclaimed otaku’s dream come true.

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Burgundy Bug, MomoKumo, & XtaSeay at the LINE Friends store in New York City, NY

Source: Line Store Feat. MomoKumo & XtaSeay | Penelope Peru Photography P³

As you may have read or seen already, MomoKumo, XtaSeay, and I went to New York City on Saturday morning.

Before parting ways with the city on Sunday night, we made sure to visit the LINE Friends store not just once – but twice.

We double dipped for pictures with the infamous plush of Brown who is approximately 10 to 12 ft tall and waits to be posed with by the entrance.

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Burgundy Bug and MomoKumo with Brown

Source: Line Store Feat. MomoKumo & XtaSeay | Penelope Peru Photography P³

The LINE Friends store is located on 1515 Broadway, New York City, NY. They first opened the doors of their NYC location on July 2017, according to Savon H. a sales associate who has been working their for a year.

LINE Friends debut in NYC came just six years after their introduction to the world as stickers in a messaging app in 2011.

“We’re located in Times Square, so the amount of customers we get per day varies a lot,” Savon said. “I’d say we get about 500 to 600 customers on a moderately average day, though.”

In the last eight years, LINE Friends have become a widely coveted character brand across the globe.

On the official website, they tout selling over 5,000 LINE Friends-related products in addition to various apps and games.

The LINE Friends have been such a smashing success, they even have their own hotel and theme park in Bangkok, Thailand.

Bug’s Two Cents

I fell head over heels for the LINE Friends characters from the moment I downloaded the LINE Camera app in 2014, which is still available on iOS and Android to this day.

I can’t tell you – nor do I necessarily want to admit – how many hours I poured into calculating the placement of each sticker on all of my pictures throughout my adolescence.

Sometimes I’d be so torn between stickers and themes, I’d save multiple versions of the photo with different stickers!

Unfortunately, LINE Friends wasn’t very present here in the states. There were no boutiques I could visit or stores that even carried their merchandise.

If you had walked into Hot Topic in 2014 and asked if there were any LINE Friends merchandise, you probably would’ve been looked at as if you had two heads.

Now, Hot Topic proudly carries merchandise from the BT21 LINE Friends series.

Originally, I had accepted the hand life had dealt the LINE Friends obsession of my teenage-self. I did end up treating myself to a pillow of Brown’s head from Amazon, still hoping that maybe one day LINE Friends would have a place here in the states.

Well, in 2017, that day came. Since then, I had been dying for an excuse to visit NYC, if only to step into LINE Friends for a moment.

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LINE Friends in New York City, NY

Source: Line Store Feat. MomoKumo & XtaSeay | Penelope Peru Photography P³

MomoKumo, XtaSeay, and I got some great gifts (I’m a sucker for stationery, a lot of which happened to be buy one get one. Score!) and some even greater pictures with Brown.

You bet they’re going straight into my scrapbook.

All in all, I highly recommend popping into the LINE Friends store next time you find yourself in the heart of Manhattan. It gets a solid 5 out of 5 stickers from me.

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Neon BT21 sign in LINE Friends, New York City, NY

Source: Line Store Feat. MomoKumo & XtaSeay | Penelope Peru Photography P³

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