Kari Valo, father of former HIM frontman Ville Valo, has closed his famous sex shop in Helsinki

At the turn of the year 2017/2018, HIM, the Finnish gothic rock band around frontman Ville Valo (VV), disbanded after their final show on 31 December 2017 in their hometown of Helsinki. Now, exactly eight years later, on 31 December 2025, the sex shop owned by Ville Valo‘s father, Kari Valo, has also become part of history. Located in the Kallio district of Helsinki, “Aikuisten Lelukauppa” [Finnish for: “Adult Toy Store”] was considered a pilgrimage site for HIM fans from around the world. Following the principle of supply and demand, Kari Valo sold not only the usual range of a sex shop but also HIM merchandise, and handed out autograph cards from his son’s band as well as Helsinki city maps to visitors from outside the capital of Finland. “Aikuisten Lelukauppa” opened its doors in 1988 and was mentioned in several HIM interviews in which Ville Valo said he had worked there before his breakthrough with the band. Now 78-year-old Kari Valo has retired and closed “The world’s most famous Aikuisten Lelukauppa” after almost 40 years in business. With the shop’s social media profiles on Facebook and Instagram no longer active, anyone wishing to take one last look at the website can do so here.