[Participating in the Nexon PEAK Post Challenge]

In this post, I wanted to talk about

some of the many pieces of MapleStory merchandise that brought so much fun not only online, but offline too.

(This includes a few nostalgic items that are hard to find now as well.)

🪙 MapleStory Ttakji (Rubber / Paper)

This is the MapleStory ttakji that carried so much of childhood fun for me.

It may have been just as familiar as the game itself.

You could pick it up at a stationery shop for around 200 won,

and back then, just as you needed sneakers you could run out and play in,

it also felt like you had to have a piece or two of ttakji tucked into your pocket.

Any clean, flat spot would do, and it still brings back memories of those days

when a few friends would gather around and play ttakji together.

Even though I wasn’t all that used to computer games as a child,

they naturally introduced me to MapleStory’s own charming and distinctive style,

and there was also a real pleasure in collecting them one by one.

Especially when I spotted a design I really wanted,

I sometimes think they even taught me persistence, because I would stick with it and keep challenging until I finally won it.

📕 MapleStory Guidebook

This was merch that went beyond simply enjoying the game.

It helped you learn a little more efficiently and take in a wider range of information—

the MapleStory guidebook.

It was full of useful information you couldn’t really learn from the game itself,

along with all kinds of tips that helped with character growth, so it was a big help,

and it also gave me that oddly satisfying feeling of reading a book.

Back then, learning through printed books felt more familiar than searching for information online,

so I still remember how fun it was to borrow these books from friends and read through them.

Now, after so much time has passed and patches have changed the game, there are clear differences from the current in-game information,

but because they still preserve those older versions of MapleStory, they almost feel like a small history book,

and because I found something fun and special in the idea of sharing useful information back then,

I can’t help thinking that may be part of why I now run a blog filled with Maple encyclopedic entries and various tips.

So many guidebooks have been published over the years

that they still remain the kind of books that stir up the urge to collect them,

which makes it all the more regrettable that I only own one.

I really should have saved my allowance and bought more guidebooks!

🖌 MapleStory Art Book

This is another book-related item, but with a slightly different appeal.

It’s the official MapleStory art book!

MapleStory’s maps, NPCs, monsters, skills, and more—

all sorts of appealing designs are woven into its pages,

and one of its real charms is that you can catch a glimpse of the thought and 고민 the designers poured into them.

You get to see what kinds of methods and ideas shaped the final result,

what the candidate illustrations looked like before the final selections were made, and so on,

so this too has that special fun of letting you peek at things you could never learn from the game alone.

For anyone who likes looking at skill effects or soaking in the atmosphere of the maps,

I think this must have felt like an especially memorable piece of merch.

🪆 MapleStory Plush Dolls

These are plush merch items that let you meet the monsters

you could only ever hit with a weapon in-game(?) as soft, cozy dolls.

They’re also relatively recent items,

the kind you could even find at recent offline events like Lotte World and pop-up stores.

By letting you keep some of MapleStory’s unforgettable monsters as plush dolls,

they have the appealing quality of making collecting them feel genuinely satisfying.

You can even find larger characters like Stone Golem and Papulatus (AKA. Watchham),

so with a variety of somewhat less mainstream monster plushies being made as well,

there’s a lot of fun in being able to freely choose and own monsters you may have liked for a long time,

and they’re made with enough detail that they’re enjoyable just to look at.

I think they’re also the kind of merch that makes you want to collect every monster, if possible.

Please keep selling them for a long time.!

So that was my little talk about

these MapleStory merch items filled with so many memories and so much fun.

Beyond these, there are acrylic stands, magnet keyrings, keycaps, OST records, and more,

and while I didn’t go into detail on them here, there are simply so many charming merch items out there

that they never really let that collector’s desire run dry,

so which kind of merch feels especially special to you?