Sunggyu's new agency, Double H TNE, has opened up the first generation of Gyu's official fanclub! on November 29th at 4:20PM KST Gyu's official Twitter (@KSK_official) announced the first recruitment of his official fanclub "Sungkyu Special City Citizen" is from December 1st at 12PM KST through the end of day December 19th KST on Interpark (both the Korean site and global site). Gyu's Japanese Twitter account also announced information about the Japanese fanclub which can be found on sungkyu.jp.
I've actually naturally limited myself only to buying merch of artists currently under Woollim (it's not that I no longer support the artists, it's just a LOT to keep up with for each member to have their own solo merchandise, and I genuinely like the consistency of Woollim's products, though not their quality control...). But the "Sungkyu Special City" and being a "citizen" of his city was such a cute concept that I decided to join.
I purchased my membership on the global Interpark site, which is fairly straightforward. The membership fee was 35,000₩, the shipping and handling to the US was 38,500₩, and the service fee was 2,000₩, for a total of 75,500₩. The address you entered before paying is the designed delivery address for the fankit.
After paying for the membership and then clicking on your purchased "ticket", it will state that your ticket is "Unregistered". By registering, you will enter your V App number so that you can upgrade your Vlive account for exclusive content. Within viewing your ticket, you can also update your Recipient Name, which I did to match my passport exactly.
On December 30th at midnight KST, Gyu's official Twitter announced additional recruitment from the 30th at 12PM KST through end of day January 3rd KST. On December 30th at 12:10PM KST they also uploaded an image preview of the official fanclub kit.
On December 30th at 4:27PM KST they tweeted how to upgrade your Vlive account (along with pictures), and that the V App number input period on Interpark has been extended to end of day January 3rd KST, and that the upgrade request within V App has been extended to end of day January 31st KST. I requested my upgrade within the V App on December 30th at 4:35AM KST (because this was available prior to the official tweet), and I was notified on the V App of my membership grade change on January 2nd at 12:57AM KST. They tweeted on January 7th at 10:44PM KST that the first round of V App membership upgrades is completed and all additional recruits will be upgraded sequentially after January 10th.
On January 12th at 9:15PM KST, they tweeted that the delivery address revision period is until end of day January 13th KST. On January 21st at 7:26PM KST, they tweeted that the fanclub kit will be shipped sequentially starting on February 3rd KST. The Vlive post (posted 3 minutes earlier) included additional details with the call out to contact Interpark if there are any defects.
I received a DHL notification from Interpark on February 7th at 1:54PM KST, and my package arrived on February 9th local time^^
Packaging
The Interpark box is really cute, with characters decorating the sides of their sturdy cardboard box.
My fankit came inside 2 bubblewrap bags.
Here is a closer look at the packaging.
Welcome Letter and Membership Card
The welcome letter and membership card are on top of the outbox.
The outbox is wrapped in plastic and the back of the welcome letter has a little sticky tape in the center attached to the plastic wrap of the outbox.
The welcome letter is really cute with Gyu's printed handwritten message and signature as the major of Sung Kyu's Special City. This letter is made of matte blue card stock with dimensions 7.75" by 10.4375". I wanted to store this welcome letter inside the outbox, but it's just slightly bigger than the box, but fits inside the lid of the box. The membership card is wedged in the center of the welcome letter by 2 slits at the corners.
The membership card is really cute! It has "SUNG KYU'S SPECIAL CITY" in both Korean and English along with the city's logo. It also includes your full name, birth date, and Interpark confirmation number. On the right of that is Double H TNE's logo.
This feels like a credit card. The backside has callouts in Korean, along with a place to sign and the city's logo and Double H TNE's logo to the right of that.
Outbox
I was really surprised at just how high quality the outbox is! This outbox is really large and sturdy with no flaws. This is so different from Woollim's fanclub fankits that usually aren't packaged too well or don't contain much in contrast to its price.
The outbox has a matte finish and has dimensions 8" by 10.625" by 0.125".
Even the bottom of the outbox has a design~
And here are all the contents within the outbox with the lid removed.
Placed from top to bottom within the outbox (here left to right) are the desk calendar, wappen, passport, stamp sticker, diary, and photobook.
Here are how all the contents look.
The calendar came in a vacuum sealed wrap while the other products came in their own clear resealable bags.
WappenThe wappen is designed with "SUNG KYU'S SPECIAL CITY" in both Korean and English, along with the city's symbol in the center.
Here is the backside of the wappen packaging. The back of the wappen is a metal pin.
Looking more closely at the backside, the quality doesn't look that great with the white felt cut with many sides rather than a circle, and the hot glue all over the back instead of just where the metal pin is. But of course none of this really matters as no one will be looking at the back.
The wappen is about 2.375" in diameter and 0.125" thick excluding the metal pin backing. Here you can see in better detail the front of the wappen. This is essentially like an iron-on patch but with a pin.
This sticker sheet has a matte finish and contains 9 stickers in total, 3 from each photoshoot of this fankit. The sheet itself is about 4.375" by 6.5" while each sticker is about 0.9375" by 1.375".
PassportHere is the passport! It is really cute, matching the Sung Kyu's Special City theme.
This passport has a matte finish and is bounded by 2 staples at the spine. It contains 28 pages, excluding the covers. The dimensions are about 3.5" by 4.9375" by 0.1"
Here is the backside of the passport.
The inside of the front cover shows Gyu's information (including his Passport No. SK19890428; I love it when they add details like this relating to the member instead of something generic or random). This first page also makes it like a legit passport with info in both Korean and English and asking for the "Signature of bearer".
The remaining 27 pages are blank pages for stamps and visas.
The inside of the back cover is in Korean and English, and is for you to fill out your own info. It even states "In case of emergency, notify the nearest Sung Kyu's Special City (citizen) or the individual named below" which makes this fanclub feel so cozy (though the nearest citizen of Sung Kyu's Special City is quite far away from me...).
Diary
The diary is about 4.9375" by 7.125" by 0.1875" and has a soft cover with a matte finish. The covers have a simple design.
Here is the back cover of the diary, matching the bottom of the outbox and backside of the photobook.
There are 3 photos of Gyu to start of the diary.
Here are the other 2 photos included in this diary, all from the same photoshoot.
Next are 2 pages presenting the 2022 calendar, with the 6 Infinite members' birthdays circled.
The next 24 pages are 2-page spreads, one for each month. These monthly calendars contain holidays printed in Korean, including Korean holidays, Infinite members' birthdays, Inspirit's birthday, and anniversaries of Infinite's debut, Infinite's first win, Gyu's solo debut, his first win, his discharge, and "When It Snows" song release. I really like how inclusive this diary is to include Infinite's special dates, not just Gyu's!
The second half of the diary contains the actual "diary" portion where you can jot down notes. Each left page is an almost blank page while each right page is lined. All the pages in this diary are matte so it's easy to write on these pages (as opposed to Woollim's photo diaries from 2019).
Desk Calendar
The desk calendar came in a clear plastic wrap. There are a total of 14 physical matte pages, or 28 pages including both sides.
The backside is made of thick cardboard, creating a sturdy base for the calendar while it's standing.
When standing, the calendar is roughly 5" by 7" by 2.5".
Despite shipments starting in February, this calendar begins on January 2022 and extends until January 2023, for a total of 13 months. Each month contains 2 pages, and both pages have the same layout for each month. The first side has a photo with the month's dates printed in one row at the bottom, with holidays and Sundays in red and members' birthdays circled. The first 4 months contain photos of Gyu in this red button down.
The other side has the month's calendar by week. On this side, all the holidays and special Infinite and Gyu dates (the same ones as in the diary) are printed here in Korean.
May through September contain photos of Gyu wearing this brown suit.
The remaining 4 months contain photos of Gyu wearing the colorful sweater.
At first the colorful sweater really threw me off guard, but these have definitely become my favorite set of photos from the fankit because of how boyish and adorable he looks!
The very last page of the calendar contains an entire overview of 2022.
Photobook and Business Card
And lastly is the photobook. It has a soft cover with a matte finish.
The photobook is about 7.125" by 9.875" by 0.25". The pages are overall a bit flimsy compared to Woollim's photobooks (both MD and from fankits).
Again, the backside matches the bottom of the outbox and backside of the diary.
There are 80 pages in this photobook (including intentionally left blank pages at the beginning and end). There are up to 2 photos per page. The first section of Gyu in this red button down spans 27 pages.
These photoshoots are all really simple, but he doesn't need anything extravagant as this showcases him well~ His maturity is captured well here.
Included in this fankit is a business card, which was slipped inside the photobook.
Here is the frontside of the business card. The bottom includes the city's logo and city's name in both Korean and English.
The backside has the mayor's info mostly in Korean and even includes Gyu's Instagram. The details of the address even use Gyu's birthdate for the lot number (the old style address). This card has a matte finish.
Continuing on with the photobook, there are 11 2-page spreads throughout the book. Most of them are rather silly to me because one page is usually practically blank, essentially making it a wasted page that they could've just added an additional photo instead...I was a bit offended by just how many of these 2-page spread there were for one person since it's hard to have this formatting for one person without awkwarding cutting them off in the spine, but after rationally thinking about it, I guess this is better than having fewer pages removing these almost blank pages?
The next 26 pages are of Gyu in his brown suit.
Gyu looks so mature here~
All the photos are of Gyu's face except for this one of the left which is aesthetic.
Majority of the photos are closeups of Gyu though there are a few full body shots.
The remaining 24 pages are of Gyu in this colorful sweater.
All the photoshoots include Gyu holding flowers.
This is probably the most diverse page layout.
Overall, I'm really happy with the quality and contents of this fankit. The items are diverse with a mix of usable items (such as the desk calendar and diary) and pretty items to look at (like the wappen and passport). I really do love the concept of Sung Kyu's Special City and members being "citizens" and my favorite items are definitely the items branded with this concept. I wonder how they'll continue this concept in the future too!
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