Written by guest writer and friend of the site Grant, aka Ironicus. You can check out his Let’s Plays over on the Chip & Ironicus YouTube channel, find his podcasts WSKRS, Six Feats Under, and more on your podcatcher of choice, and you can find him on Bluesky as @mynameisgrant.bsky.social.
Gundam Base, Bandai’s premiere retail space for Gunpla and Gundam-related merchandise, opened its first North American location on Friday the 12th in the Fashion Outlets of Chicago, a shopping mall in Rosemont, IL. I visited on its second day of operation.
American fans have been hoping for a Gundam Base location for as long as I’ve known such a place existed. The overseas locations are a tourist destination; somewhere between a store and a pilgrimage. The Bases look huge with their signature full-size statues of the Unicorn, the Freedom, and the Nu Gundam. In a press release, Bandai touts 35 global locations. If the ones with their own landmarks can be counted on one hand, the standard is probably much closer to Gundam Base Chicago.
Why is it in Chicago at all? Historically, US anime fandom is rooted in the immigrant communities and late night tv programming of the west coast port cities and NYC. On the other hand, Chicago is a major transit hub. Fashion Outlets of Chicago is less than a mile from O’Hare, the United States’ most connected airport and the world’s 4th busiest, ideally suited for importing cargo. But the merchandise would be coming on ships over the Pacific, making the west coast a more logical choice even so. New York is the most global-facing and culturally important American city; Bandai’s own push for events in and around New York Comic Con two months ago makes it clear they appreciate that fact. Maybe they don’t want to compete against their own recently-opened Bandai Namco Cross Store in Brooklyn. Perhaps the reason is Chicago’s central location on the continent. Start in the middle; a geographic compromise. For all I know they have numbers showing Chicagoland is unusually hungry for store exclusives.
It is much clearer why the Chicago location is actually a Rosemont location. Rosemont is a suburb tucked into Chicago’s borders, wedged between O’Hare and the farthest north neighborhoods. The village’s character is entirely defined by the airport. Therefore: airport hotels, rail, and highway access. From there comes conference facilities, an unusual density of steakhouses, a theater, an arena, a baseball stadium, and high-volume retail. It is a city built around holding masses of people… temporarily. The Fashion Outlets opened in 2013, billing itself as “the perfect layover destination,” and dozens of shuttles run between the terminal and the mall daily. It is just a few blocks from the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center; great news for any Gunpla builders attending Anime Central, Anime Midwest, Fan Expo Chicago, or plenty of other shows (Midwest Fur Fest was held a week before the grand opening, but there’s always 2026). A State Street, Navy Pier, or Magnificent Mile location would have had its own cultural impact – been indelibly “Chicago” in a way Rosemont very literally isn’t. But they don’t have the space, or the lease rate, and certainly not the parking that I’m sure Bandai was looking for.
So we arrived, my dear wife and I, to see what this store is like on its first weekend. We got there a handful of minutes after the mall opened and went inside to the line at the store’s entrance. That is when we were told that the plainly visible line is not how to get in. We came through the 2nd floor entrance, so we didn’t see the station inside the parking garage’s first floor for getting timed-entry wristbands. We got our wristbands and they told us to come back at noon.
Fashion Outlets of Chicago is an aptly-named place. They have space for over 140 tenants and nearly all of them are clothes, accessories, shoes, or perfume. It is shocking how many perfume stores are competing against one another and still afloat. This is not a mall with a crystals-dragons-and-incense store. There is no bookshop. Variety is what you need when the goal is to pass time, and the Fashion Outlets does not have it. I will say the new flavor the Lindt store was handing out as free samples is pretty darn good.
But Bandai provides. Just inside the entrance with the wristband station was an area set aside for the Gundam Base Pop-Up World Tour. This is the same branding Bandai used for their series of 3-day pop-up shops selling Gundam Base exclusives across America, one city at a time. What they had on offer was nothing for sale, since there’s no sense competing with their own permanent store a hundred yards away, but does have a build workshop, a display of some high-end kits, and a 6-foot GQuuuuuuX to pose with. Sit down and an attendant brings you an Entry Grade (EG) RX-78-2 Gundam of your very own to snap together, free of charge. This is a fantastic idea. A very visible event, in the middle of the entryway, showing people what the hobby is and how it works in the simplest terms, but next to a glass case with the Perfect Grade Unleashed (PGU) Nu Gundam and other examples of just how much breadth gunpla can have. They will be running this event for a full month, until January 11th. This live demonstration will be in the path of everyone coming to the Fashion Outlets of Chicago over half of the holiday shopping season, and the entire post-holiday returns season.
By the way, have you seen the PGU Nu in person? It’s massive! That’s not a model, that’s a roommate.
Most of the people sitting around us were in the same boat, waiting their turn and looking to fill time. But across the table were a father and son. Dad was a builder, and this workshop was the kid’s first kit, learning how to read the instructions, how to find parts on the runner, feeling when the fit is just right (and when it’s not quite right). It was a good moment to see out in the world before they got in line to see Santa. For at least a while, in Rosemont, Illinois, gunpla was a bigger draw than Santa Claus.
It should be emphasized, the mall put a lot of support behind Gunpla Base Chicago’s opening. There was signage everywhere. Half the food court tabletops have a full-size poster decals applied, banners hang from the ceilings, I’m not sure the digital wayfinding signs rotated ads for any other stores that day. There was a print article from WGN. The local ABC affiliate filmed the ribbon-cutting on the 12th with the Rosemont mayor giving a speech. The workshop, the coverage, it all points to Bandai seeing an opportunity to push a hobby into the mainstream, and Fashion Outlets doing what they can to keep their new tenant pulling shoppers inside. First person to take a selfie with their Providence Gundam inside the Le Creuset Outlet Store wins.
We returned to the parking garage a few minutes before noon, as the wristbands dictated, and got in line. This is where people would be held and released inside in batches, so the Gundam Base’s line didn’t block access to Rally House and Steve Madden. Around 50 people in our batch were in front of us already, and more came in behind. The man in front of me showed me a picture he saw on Instagram of the same holding line twice as long the day before. As a reminder, parking garages only pretend to be indoor spaces. They are fully open to the outside, and on December 13th, 2025 that meant 12-degree air. At least we were sheltered from the wind, which made it feel like -2 out in the street.
Something must have happened during our window, and I can only guess because I saw it as something that didn’t happen. People were not being sent inside. For around 40 minutes we stood there, still. Did the store staff all take the same lunch? Was there another news crew popping by? Were the 11am people the least decisive shoppers in the entire midwest? After the 4th offer from one staff member or another, I accepted a Gundam headband in the thought some corporate-branded whimsy might help pass the time. It occurred to me that I was waiting in line for themed shopping; Disney World if they cut out the actual ride.
Eventually, and only after that guy ahead of me revealed he was bad at handling frustration and kind of a jerk as he stormed off, the line began to move again. The indoor line was along the wide glass front of the store, in the gaze of the 6-foot Wing Zero EW statue, an acknowledgement of US fandom’s Toonami roots. I wish I had more pictures to share with you. I wish I had a more complete memory of the points of interest. But I had been waiting two hours indoors, in order to wait another hour in the cold, and I felt a responsibility to both my own time and that of everyone in the groups behind me to do some shopping and to do it quick.
First thing inside is a wall of High Grade (HG) hero suits from every main series, with a QR code on their shelves that will send you to a trailer for the anime they featured in. Again, building a presence, taking very little to be assumed. Not every series had a code, so Victory and X fans like me have to do the evangelism ourselves. G Gundam also lacked one, so what happened to the Toonami respect? OPs, EDs, and insert songs are playing constantly. We walked in to the second OP from Build Fighters before The Focus set in and I stopped trying to identify the soundtrack.
The store is laid out simply. Four main aisles stretch back between long chest-high shelves. The shelves are taller if you count the display boxes on each, showing professionally built examples of the kits below them. I’ve been building kits for around 5 years now and thought I was pretty decent at it, and at posing them. Not true, apparently. I am still a little baby. If the people responsible for these displays hold a class on panel lining I am sitting in the front row and taking notes. There are two cross-aisles as well as a path across the back of the store. It’s functional and keeps everything (including the rest of your group) visible. Other landmarks in the 3,000 square feet include a screen in the back showing a constant stream of action scenes across shows, a large display of the Gundam Card Game tucked between checkout and the 6-foot RX-78-2 in Gundam Base blue, a modest bank of gashapon machines, and an area that will eventually be seating for events, but was currently holding tables full of overstock for the newest exclusives. It’s also entirely Gundam. No Pokepla here, or HG Macross kits, or any of the 30 Minute lines. The store is what it says on the sign.
Exclusives are the main thrust of the stock. There were certainly standard gunpla releases available, but they were generally of the newest stuff (GQuuuuux, Witch from Mercury), perennial favorites (Wing and Cosmic Era suits), or have an exclusive air (the MG Ver Ka line). On the other hand, every clear or coated or alternate color Gundam Base exclusive you’ve seen over the last five years was shelved in abundance. Before the store opened I wondered what effect it would have on the local stores that already sell gunpla, and this aspect makes me think it’s not as much as they might fear.
For instance, my dear wife was struck with the Char Aznable brain virus ten minutes into watching GQuuuuuuX: The Beginning. I hoped to find a Master Grade (MG) Char’s Zaku II 2.0 for a gift, a real staple of the gunpla line. No such luck. I’m not sure they had any MGs from 0079, except for all the Gundam Base Exclusive variants of the RX-78-2. Twenty minutes’ drive away is the Schaumburg Hobby Town and I’d bet anything they have the MG Zaku II. The Kinokuniya that’s even nearer to Rosemont might, but if not we’d still have more fun browsing the books and stationery, and enjoying the food court and bakery at the Mitsuwa Marketplace it shares a building with, compared to browsing the Hollister and Sbarro in the Fashion Outlets. Gundam Base Chicago will absorb people looking for a non-specific cool and special gunpla kit, but I expect even Chicagoans who have a certain kit in mind will stick with their current local or online order store of choice.
The shopping experience, once it began, was great. Helpful and happy staff supported a crowd who was just grateful to finally be there. The lighting design was purposeful and evocative. Nothing seemed to be out of stock, which was surprising after a day and a half of stampeding. Bandai was prepared. We both expanded our backlogs and enjoyed looking over the one section of keychains and character items and such. If you’ve been hunting for the plush Haro or Zaku heads, this is the place to go. I do hope they expand their tool section. If this is to be a store for any level of engagement with Gundam and gunpla, including a complete stranger, the nippers need some visibility. For the opening celebration we were given a choice of Gundam Wing 30th Anniversary or Barbatos in Times Square posters, and also an exclusive card for the Gundam Card Game. The one thing they had run out of was the free luggage tag with purchase. As someone who does not play TCGs but does have luggage, I am open to trade.
I’m glad we went. We had a good time. I will certainly be back, all the sooner once the promised events and workshops are scheduled. But if you’re planning to visit, maybe hold off until the new year. Give it time to calm down. For all the anticipation I felt over the last month, it is just a store. A retail location. It’s a store that is aimed at penetration and expansion for a brand and hobby that’s had me hooked for six years, though; and that feels good. It feels like there’s a tool I can use to help welcome people in, like my friends did for me back then. It feels like the owners of that brand recognized and rewarded a city that I love (and a suburb I recognize for its logistical advantages). The city returned the favor as I saw so many people with the same paper headband and inflatable beam sabers walking the halls that morning. And maybe, just maybe, one day the traffic circle at the parking structure’s entrance could feature a 65-foot tall Zeta Gundam.
