I was in New York last week with a fair amount of down time. So rather than get some culture or sight see or do anything even remotely cool, I mostly just popped into various stores and didn't buy stuff.
One of the first places I went to was the Times Square Toys R Us, which I'd never been to before. I'm not sure there is such a thing as a great Toys R Us, but if so, this was it. It has a three-story Ferris wheel, lots of displays like an animatronic Jurassic Park T-Rex (I'm not sure why anyone's still making Jurassic Park toys, but whatever), and life-size statues of Superman and Spider-Man doing superheroish stuff.
Then I saw this guy:
You can't tell from the back, but this man had the full Santa look from the neck up, with white hair and a beard. He was also, as best I could tell, totally unaffiliated with the store. So it was just Santa in street clothes. Walking alone through a toy store at night. In October. It was a little creepy.
Also, when I went to use the restroom, there were two guys in there. Not using the facilities. Not waiting on someone else who was using the facilities. Not even talking to each other, although they clearly knew one another. Just hanging out.
Just out of curiosity, do children occasionally go missing in that store, never to be seen again? It wouldn't surprise me.
Because, God knows, there's nothing else to do in New York other than go to toy stores, I also went to FAO Schwarz. Last time I was there was several years ago, the day after Thanksgiving. That day, the whole place was filled with Christmas shoppers and there was a palpable holiday buzz. This time, the store was mostly empty and not nearly as fun, but there was still plenty of stuff to see.
The best was a new addition since the last time I was there: A make-your-own-Muppet area.
I want to say it was $100 for a Muppet. I'm not going to lie. I was a little tempted.
But not nearly as tempted as I was to get this! This is awesome. I wish Full Tilt had an option that allowed you to play with Batman cards. It would make losing at online poker so much more tolerable. It sucks to discover your flush has been beaten by a full house, but if that full house consisted of Ra's al Ghuls over Two-Faces? Not so much.
Jesus Christ, who knew they still made Smurfs?!?! For some reason, this discovery made me really, really happy.
Evidently, Gargamel and Azrael are no longer allowed to be evil, Smurf-eating bad guys, though. Note the party hats and happy expressions. And weep for the pussies today's kids will turn out to be because they didn't have proper toys.
Next, we move onto the NBC Experience Store. The clearance section consisted almost entirely of Heroes crap, which I guess they seriously over-ordered when the show was still popular. Can't NBC just send this stuff over to poor countries or something, like the NFL does when they make Super Bowl Champion shirts for both teams in advance, and then get rid of the ones for the losers? Then again, I guess just because kids live in poverty doesn't mean they should have Peter Petrelli action figures forced on them.
Also in the clearance section were Jim Cramer shirts, Jay Leno Show merchandise, and surprisingly, even a couple of Conan O'Brien items. I figured NBC would have burned those months ago.
But more impressively, they had these:
Dillon Panthers windbreakers! I actually got to the point where I was about to try one on, before I remembered that only about ten people in America actually watch Friday Night Lights and would get the reference.
There were also replica Panthers jerseys with the names of the characters on the back, but geez, I can't even conceive of how nerdy someone would have to be to wear one of those in public.
New York isn't known as a fashion mecca for nothing.
Finally, the geek tour ended at the legendary Jim Hanley's Universe, a comic book store I haven't been to in well over a decade. When I first visited it, I was amazed that a comic book store could afford to be located right next to the Empire State Building. These days, I'm even more amazed a comic book store can afford to be located right next to the Empire State Building.
It's a great store and well worth visiting, but there's a depressing sameness to comic book stores these days, and I ended up not being able to find anything to buy. Obviously, I've been spoiled by great local stores like Big Planet and Big Monkey, and might feel differently if I was visiting from some small town where the closest thing to a comic book store was the nearest Barnes & Noble. But it seems like every new comic book store I've been to over the past few years isn't all that different from any other comic book store. As the industry begins to shift over to digital comics, I think store identity is going to become more and more important.
Anyway, that was my trip. Maybe next time, I'll actually visit a museum or something. Or hell, maybe I'll just wander around in search of a woman wearing a Hello, Titty shirt, because I'm fairly certain that woman would be my soul mate.
Also in the clearance section were Jim Cramer shirts, Jay Leno Show merchandise, and surprisingly, even a couple of Conan O'Brien items. I figured NBC would have burned those months ago.
But more impressively, they had these:
Dillon Panthers windbreakers! I actually got to the point where I was about to try one on, before I remembered that only about ten people in America actually watch Friday Night Lights and would get the reference.
There were also replica Panthers jerseys with the names of the characters on the back, but geez, I can't even conceive of how nerdy someone would have to be to wear one of those in public.
New York isn't known as a fashion mecca for nothing.
Finally, the geek tour ended at the legendary Jim Hanley's Universe, a comic book store I haven't been to in well over a decade. When I first visited it, I was amazed that a comic book store could afford to be located right next to the Empire State Building. These days, I'm even more amazed a comic book store can afford to be located right next to the Empire State Building.
It's a great store and well worth visiting, but there's a depressing sameness to comic book stores these days, and I ended up not being able to find anything to buy. Obviously, I've been spoiled by great local stores like Big Planet and Big Monkey, and might feel differently if I was visiting from some small town where the closest thing to a comic book store was the nearest Barnes & Noble. But it seems like every new comic book store I've been to over the past few years isn't all that different from any other comic book store. As the industry begins to shift over to digital comics, I think store identity is going to become more and more important.
Anyway, that was my trip. Maybe next time, I'll actually visit a museum or something. Or hell, maybe I'll just wander around in search of a woman wearing a Hello, Titty shirt, because I'm fairly certain that woman would be my soul mate.
2 comments:
I had similar feelings about Jim Hanley's. I'd heard so much about it, and finally got to check it out around NYCC 2007. Seeing as how there's only 1 comic shop in Montgomery County that sells back issues (Barbarian Books), it was nice to see such a back issue selection. That said, the ambiance did nothing for me. You're right in that The Bigs (Monkey & Planet) brought a new feeling to comic retailing, which makes a store like JHU look a bit like a dinosaur. If nothing else, it reminded me of my early days of collecting at Geppi's Comic World. Jim Hanley's is a nice throwback store, but I'm almost surprised it's still viable in today's climate. As far as NYC comic shopping goes, I'm a much bigger fan of what they're doing over at Midtown Comics.
i am ashamed to admit that i know this, but i'm fairly sure they make smurf toys now to promote the smurf movie that's coming out in the summer of 2011.
because i swear, it has been in the group of trailers for every freaking movie i've seen.
and uh, also i like hank azaria.
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