The Missus and I had already scheduled a trip to to catch the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival (a.k.a. “Drinking Around the World”) and the three-hour Wild Africa Trek at Animal Kingdom when we heard that the opening of the very first bricks-and-mortar ThinkGeek store would be opening in nearby Orlando that same weekend. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity, so we made a little detour on the way home to check it out.
Click the image to get the Google Maps directions from the Magic Kingdom to the ThinkGeek Store.
The ThinkGeek Store is in Orlando’s Florida Mall, right next door to the JCPenny anchor store. After she got my picture in front of the Promised Land, I took this one of Anitra:
The store had its grand opening on Thursday night, and we showed up Sunday evening, expecting the place to have been picked clean…
Opening night at the ThinkGeek Store (photo from Orlando’s MyNews 13).
…but there was geeky stuff aplenty when we showed up.
We also had to get shots of ourselves with Rocket Raccoon (his official name in the comics; he’s just “Rocket” in the movies)…
Visitors to the store will be greeted by a lot of metal. First, by the Terminator:
…and then by the Iron Man Mark 43 armor from The Avengers: Age of Ultron.
This little decorative piece can be yours for the low, low price of $10,000!
Here’s what the store looks like once you get past the displays at the front:
…and here’s the view from the back, looking towards the entrance.
The cashier is located in the center of the store:
Here’s Anitra checking out all the geeky goodness:
There’s a wall of stuff just for the Star Wars fans:
…with a fair bit of stuff in a closed display case:
…and a whole lotta cheaper stuff that you can get your nerdy little mitts on immediately:
I’m told that they’re not lunchboxes, they’re collectors’ cases:
I love the mugs featuring characters and themes from the upcoming movie. I’d have gotten the BB-8 one if I didn’t already have too many mugs:
No bar is complete without one of these:
I love this self-stirring mug. Why stir your mug with a spoon like a chump when you can use THE FORCE?
There’s all manner of decorative Star Wars goodies from the immediately recognizable:
…to those that might be obscure to the casual movie-watcher (that’s not just a Wampa head, but an entire rug):
And of course, there are plenty of posters:
They have a pile of the new BB-8 droids by Sphero. It sells for $150:
Or, if you’d rather spend that $150 on something else, how about new bad guy Kylo Ren’s lightsaber?
I used to work at Microsoft, so I know what it feels like to have the Dark Side flow through me:
The back right wall is dedicated to videogame trinkets and memorabilia:
I’ve played many of the Call of Duty games, but had no idea that there were toys — er, action figures — for the franchise:
My nephews would be all over the Minecraft section of the store:
The back wall is dedicated to t-shirts and hats:
The hat’s cute, but I get the feeling that if I wore this while passing too close to a school zone, I’d find myself in the back of a police car in very short order:
Cosplay meets roleplay meets mental images you’ll never cleanse in the lingerie section:
Who knew there was this much geek underwear?
For the man who likes both lounging and Mortal Kombat, I give you the Scorpion bathrobe:
Ironic Hallowee’n costume, or cry for help?It’s your call with these adult-size Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles footy pajamas:
You can pamper your feet at home with these adorable unicorn slippers…
…or if you’re more of a Walking Dead fan, these zombie slippers:
For all you sexy bronies (a contradiction in terms, I think), here are the DJ Pone-3 glow-in-the-dark boxers:
There’s lots of stuff for the TV show fans as well…
…including a whole shelf devoted to Adventure Time:
The middle left wall is devoted to posters and paintings:
…and the back left wall is taken up by a lot — and I mean a lot — of Pop! Vinyl figures:
The front right wall is for the comics fans:
No fan shop is complete without figurines:
Lots and lots and lots of figurines:
And don’t worry, card games and traders, you haven’t been left out:
There’s a shelf for belts, suspenders, lanyards, and even guitar straps. Where was the Captain America guitar strap when I was an active keytar player?
Geeks carry lots of stuff, and stuff calls for bags. Luckily, the ThinkGeek store has plenty of them!
ThinkGeek’s own Bag of Holding looks like it’ll hold most laptops and tablets, or gaming accessories.The fuzzy front is designed to accommodate all sorts of velcro badges:
Marvel fans will appreciate the Captain America and Rocket Raccoon knapsacks:
Are you old school? How about this Nintendo Game Boy-themed pack?
Are you really old school? Then this Star Trek-themed one’s for you:
Are you new school? Then you want a Minecraft creeper bag:
And for you styling ladies, this 8-bit purse might be just what you’re looking for:
There’s a shelf for your bronies:
The Missus informs me that becoming a brony is grounds for divorce:
Sci-fi and Asian food practically go hand-in-hand, hence these Darth Vader lightsaber chopsticks:
If Star Trek is more your thing, how about this U.S.S. enterprise sushi set, with the saucer section acting as the soy sauce dish?
Of course there are replica props! Here’s a great phaser from Star Trek: The Original Series:
…and for the Whovians, a sonic screwdriver, with integrated sound generator and lights:
I want this bad boy: a “Han Solo frozen in carbonite” fridge!
Again, for the Trek fans, a Borg cube fridge:
For the Assassin’s Creed fans, the “stabby gauntlet” !
Here’s Anitra and store guy Kenneth demonstrating why the “stabby gauntlet” should be used only for killing and not for giving out high-fives:
There’s lots of quick-gifty stuff on the shelves near the front:
This one’s one of my favorite impulse buy items:
Saturday was Batman day, and the ThinkGeek Store has Batman paraphernalia aplenty, from the batarang…
…to the Batman tie…
…to the leather utility belt. Whether you’re a Batman fan or wanted to live in Rob Liefield’s World of Pouches, if you have three hundred bucks burning a hole in your pocket, this one’s for you!
Here’s another one of my favorite impulse buy items:
And of course, there are stickers:
Let’s hope the ThinkGeek Store does exactly this:
For me, the ThinkGeek store is perfectly situated: close enough that I can get there by driving, but not so close that I’d be there all the time:
Click the image to get the Google Maps directions from my neck of the woods to the ThinkGeek Store.
If the photos above aren’t enough, here’s a video that the people at Attractions Magazine shot of the store last week:
And in case you needed proof, here’s the press release from the office of New…
The saying is doubly true for anyone who works under Florida Governor Ron DeSantis: “No…
This recent article in the New York Times [it’s a gift link, you’ll be able…
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Speaking of Orlando, you two are aware of the annual Orlando Nerd Fest, right?
http://orlandonerdfest.com/
One caveat: Sphero had nothing to do with creating BB-8 other than making the toy version and selling a big pile of PR BS that they had something to do with the model used in the movies. BB-8 (the one in the movies) was solely the creation of the creature shop for the movie. Sphero just happened to partner up with Disney, got a sneak peak, and realized how they could take their ball-bot and turn it into a reasonable BB-8 toy in time for the Xmas shopping season.
Thanks for the heads-up, Jim! The correction has been made.