Out Of The Package

Yesterday I took a half day from work and spent the day with my daughter, Madison, and her best friend. They've grown tired of the local shopping mall here in Plainfield, as it's both an outdoor mall and a little too "preppy" for their taste. Note: my daughter is pretty much my Mini Me, which is to say she is also a geek. So, we headed to Greenwood Park Mall on the southside of Indy. They have a few more geeky shopping choices, and this is where the girls wanted to go. ThinkGeek and FYE were a couple of the shops we don't have nearby, as well as the usual Hot Topic and Barnes and Noble.

After starting in the food court for some lunch, we headed to ThinkGeek. Always a fun visit, if not a little overpriced. Madison picked up a canvas of Jester Harley Quinn, to add to her growing Harley collection. I didn't get anything, myself, although I saw a few things that I may go back for. Like the replica of Arya Stark's sword, Needle. And the Game of Thrones dragon egg salt and pepper shakers. And the replica of Aquaman's Trident, from the Justice League movie. Or the Mjolnir meat tenderizer.

Next, we stopped in the FYE. Now, this was my first visit to FYE. This felt like another ThinkGeek or Hot Topic type store. And a little overpriced, as well. Didn't see anything we really wanted here, so we moved on.

We did stop in some non-geeky clothing and shoe stores, but they're somewhat irrelevant to this story. So I won't bore you with those.

Hot Topic was probably Madison's main destination. She was in search of a dress for an upcoming wedding, and already had one in mind. She found the dress in the store, but was somewhat disappointed in the design. It was open back, something she isn't keen on. But she did find another dress she liked, based on one of her favorite shows, Over the Garden Wall. She also picked up a couple of Studio Ghibli t-shirts, one of them featuring Calcifer from Howl's Moving Castle, the other featuring the soot sprites seen in My Neighbor Totoro. Her friend grabbed the Con Exclusive Valkyrie (from Thor: Ragnarok) Funko POP vinyl that she was hoping to find. Sorry, I didn't get a picture of that one. I walked away with a Con Exclusive Flocked Ghüs (from the comic Saga) Funko POP vinyl and an Aquaman Funko Dorbz (on clearance!). Ghüs is the first POP from the Saga line that I've been able to pick up, and he is one of the two exclusive POPs from this convention season that I'm actually hunting for. The other being a Hellboy POP. The Aquaman Dorbz makes a nice addition to my ever growing Aquaman Shrine.

The final stop was at Barnes and Noble. This stop was mainly for the BFF, as she is a HUGE history and book nerd. And I mean that in the best way possible! And she left with a handful of books. For Madison and I, it was mostly just browsing. Until I spotted an Orko Funko POP, which I snatched as a gift for my wife, Tina. She loves the weird little characters like Orko, Yoda, Gizmo, Alf, etc. That's her geek side, and I love her for it.

In all, it was a pretty fun day.

As I mentioned, I'm really only searching for two of the Convention Exclusive Funko POPs this year. Obviously, I now have Ghüs. The Entertainment Earth exclusive Hellboy is next on the list. And in case any of you were wondering, I am open to donations, gifts, or bribes. And my birthday is coming up. Although, I'm not sure what you'd be bribing me for...