When I embarked on my anime figure-collecting journey, I was at a loss for where to start. Navigating trustworthy sites to purchase anime figures within the US was a daunting task. Realizing that many newcomers likely share my initial concerns, I’ve compiled a comprehensive guide to purchasing anime figures.
If you are looking to buy anime statues in addition to anime figures, we also wrote a dedicated post on our favorite sites to buy anime statues from, and if you are into manga as well be sure to check out our favorite manga sites and stores!
To give you an idea as to what I’m into, I mostly collect resin statues, scale figures, Nendoroids, and WCFs as of late. I’ve collected different things over the years though, so I’ve bought items from a variety of sites.
Before I get started with the sites, I want to first mention that places like eBay and Amazon are riddled with fake figures. Unless you are familiar with how to spot bootlegs and what kind of warning signs to look for, I would stay away from those sites unless you are buying from a reputable seller, the company that made the figure, or Amazon itself.
With that said, read up on the online stores I have had a good experience buying anime figures from along with the positives and negatives that come with each regarding their selection, customer service, and shipping/preordering policies!
Best Places to Buy Anime Figures in the US
Crunchyroll
- Premium Plus Member Benefits
- Competitive Pricing
- Wide Product Selection
- Great Shipping
- Higher Free Shipping Threshold
- Charged Immediately for Pre-orders
- Pre-orders only cancelable via email
- Extra savings requires a paid membership
Crunchyroll is a good place to buy from, particularly if you hold a Premium Plus Membership with them already. The perks it has include free domestic shipping on all orders, exclusive coupons, and more. In addition, if you aren’t already familiar, you gain access to their streaming service.
If you aren’t part of their Premium Plus Membership, you can get free US shipping if you spend 100+ dollars, which is a higher shipping threshold than most. A lot of other places, however, don’t offer a free shipping threshold when it comes to anime figures, so this is somewhat of a positive as well.
As far as their preorders go, they do charge you immediately for the product. If you want to cancel your order, you do have to contact support via email; However, you can easily cancel, which can be difficult, if not impossible, to do on other sites. That being said, other sites allow you to cancel with the click of a button whereas Crunchyroll makes you email their support to do so.
One positive is that, from my experience, they have some of the lowest prices available. They are constantly running sales and you can stay up to date on them easily if you sign up for their email list. Their selection is also pretty vast with everything from PVC scale figures to Nendoroids, along with a variety of other anime-related products, merch, and manga. The only thing I will say is that they have preorder cut-off dates for the figures on their site, so you have to decide on your orders quicker than you would with other sites.
One possible negative to buying on Crunchyroll is that they always seem to ship later than other sites. If you want something sooner than later, they may not be the site you want to preorder from as their in-stock times seem to statistically lag behind others mentioned on this list.
Tokyo Otaku Mode
- Best membership and loyalty program
- Some figures can be shipped from their warehouse in the US
- Great selection of anime figures
- Good shipping
- Can’t cancel preorders
- Charged immediately for preorders
- Higher shipping costs depending on your location
Tokyo Otaku Mode is the site where I buy most of my anime figures. One of the biggest benefits to buying from them is that they have a TOM Premium membership that allows you to rack up something called TOM Points, which never expire and count essentially as money towards other purchases on their site, exclusive discounts, birthday coupons, and more. Not only that but you get a 10% shipping discount with the membership as well. In my opinion, they have the best membership program out of all the anime figure stores and sites on this list.
One thing to keep in mind when buying from Tokyo Otaku Mode is that they ship items from two different locations (1) Their warehouse in Japan and (2) Their North American warehouse. Their site states that you can see where your items are shipping from on their Shopping Cart page, so be sure to verify this before you check out to see what location your items are arriving from. This of course will influence how much shipping will cost.
If your items are coming from their Japan warehouse, depending on where you are located, the shipping may cost you more than it would when buying from a site that ships from the US. That being said, their anime figures are overall priced lower, especially if you have a TOM membership, so the savings you get may make up for the difference in the shipping cost. Oftentimes, their shipping cost has come out to be way lower than I expected, especially given that a lot of their items ship from Japan.
Also, they offer discount shipping on select items when you reach their USD 150 shipping threshold, but this is of course after all discounts and coupons are applied. You can check out their discount shipping offers on their website.
They also have a wide variety of items, including anime figures, art books, plushies, and more that you can’t get on other sites mentioned on this list. Not only that, but they tend to put items up for preorder quicker than other sites as well.
All in all, they are my first choice when it comes to buying anime figures and I’ve had a wonderful experience buying from them. They have an incredible selection, great shipping, and good prices, and their membership program has some of the best benefits I’ve seen to date.
HobbyLink Japan
- Don’t charge you until your order is ready to ship
- Offer bulk and customizable shipping options with their private warehouse
- Great customer service
- Good shipping
- Vast selection
- Higher shipping costs depending on your location
HobbyLink Japan allows you to store your items in their private warehouse until they are ready to ship. With this feature, you can bulk ship your anime figures or items for potential shipping savings, combine them into one package, or split orders into smaller shipments. This shipping customizability allows customers to choose how their items will be shipped and find ways to save on shipping, and it’s a feature of HobbyLink Japan’s site that I love as a collector.
In terms of customer support and response, HobbyLink Japan is one of the better sites on this list. They have friendly, quick-responding customer service, which is something else I appreciate about shopping from their site. They ship to a lot of different countries and regions worldwide also, but shipping rates vary. They have several different shipping options though for most locations, which allow you to choose the amount you’d like to pay for shipping as well as how quickly you’d like to receive your item. Shipping rates and selections are available at checkout for in-stock orders.
Another great thing is that HobbyLink Japan doesn’t charge you for items immediately unless they are currently available to ship. There are some exclusions to this rule (any exceptions are noted), but most items that are on preorder aren’t charged to your card until they are ready for shipment.
Selection-wise, they are one of the best as well. You can shop several different anime figures, in many different scales and from several different anime figure companies, on their site. They also have items that aren’t available for purchase at many retailers that are based in the US, and if you build Gundam model kits in addition to collecting anime figures, like I do, they have a great selection of Gunpla to shop too.
In regards to pricing, they are one of the best also. Of course, you have to keep in mind, that the cost of shipping depends on your region. But, on most occasions, they price their figures low enough that they cost me less money than they would have if I bought them from sites in the US, even with the added shipping cost. For these reasons and more, they are one of the best places to buy anime figures!
Entertainment Earth
- Select anime figures are free to ship in the US
- Have good packaging and shipping
- Nice selection of anime figures
- Have exclusives, like anime Funko Pops!
- Items don’t ship out as fast as other sites
- Orders are often delayed
Entertainment Earth not only has an incredible selection of anime figures to shop from, including Megahouse figures, Banpresto figures, Max Factory figures, and more, but a great selection of anime statues as well from studios like Prime 1 Studio. They are one of my favorite places to shop anime figures from on this list because they have free US shipping on in-stock orders over USD 49 and they package your items well.
Select anime figures are even free to ship in the United States, which is something that few, if any other sites, on this list offer. Just look for the “Free USA Shipping” marker when shopping on their site. They are always running deals and sales, so this is something to keep an eye out for.
With great shipping and a wide selection of anime figures to shop from, Entertainment Earth is one of the best places to buy anime figures, especially if you are located in the US.
Good Smile US
- Exclusive Pre-order Bonuses Available
- 50% Off Shipping (pre-orders only)
- Competitive Pricing
- Reliable Shipping
- Not Charged Immediately for Pre-orders
- Can easily cancel orders
- Limited variety of figures compared to other sites
- In-stock shipping can be pricey
Good Smile Company made a site dedicated to selling and shipping Nendoroids in the US. Since Good Smile makes figures, like Nendoroids and figmas, I find that they are the best place to purchase these.
Sometimes if you preorder figures on their site, you get something called a preorder bonus. For instance, if you preorder Tatsuya Shiba from The Irregular at Magic High School: Visitor Arc‘s Nendoroid, you get a special round base. It’s usually a small addition, but this is a bonus when buying from them directly.
Also, if you sign up for a free account with them, you get 50% off shipping on all preorders. If you buy in-stock figures, I’ve found their shipping, which usually comes in around $10 to be pricey, but since their prices are lower than most, you usually pay around the same as you would on a specialty shop’s site without shipping added. With that said, if you buy from Good Smile, it’s always best to preorder if you can.
Sometimes you’ll also catch Good Smile exclusive figures on their site, like Nendoroid Izuku Midoriya: Costume γ or Nendoroid Mako Mankanshoku: Fight Club-Spec Two-Star Goku Uniform Version. When conventions happen, they’ll release special figures like these that you can purchase directly on their site.
I’ve purchased many figures, mainly Nendoroids, from Good Smile Company US, and I’ve had no issues with their shipping and customer service so far.
Other Sites to Buy Anime Figures From
You can also buy directly from the company in some instances like seen above with Good Smile US.
Also important to note is that nationally-based stores, like BoxLunch and Hot Topic also sell anime figures. I’ve even seen Target selling items, like My Hero Academia Nendoroids and Banpresto figures.
Their selection can sometimes be more limited to what’s popular at the time, like Dragon Ball, One Piece, My Hero Academia, etc, but they do have a selection you can shop from.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, those recommendations give you a good place to start if you are just getting started with collecting or are in search of trustworthy sites to buy anime figures from in the United States!
If you buy manga as well, be sure to check out the best manga bookstores and sites to buy from. And if you are looking to buy anime statues as well, check out our Guide to Buying Anime Statues.
