The Destination:
For myself I found a full set of Rataouille Figures. They were still un-opened, and the packaging we in pretty good condition. The detail on the human figures are actually very dead on, and this is also complemented by a beautiful paint job on them. The rat figures on the other hand, while cool, they are still kind of hard to look at, but still very fun to have. While we were hunting my husband found himself a loose figure from the same makers as the street shark figures, and he also found a Comic Con Hell Boy exclusive figure for a friend of ours. All in all a great find for a low amount. We left happy.
We enjoyed the experience so much we decided we wanted to not just explore unseen corners of our usual stops, but we also wanted to explores new areas, and find new things that we have never heard about or have simply heard off. That’s when this exploration to Orlando was started.
First Stop (Day 1):Our first stop was supposed to be a meet and greet at a comic book shop that was recommended by the friend we were going to meet. Sadly our friend could not make it and that shop was probably the saddest comic book shop we have ever seen. Luckily there two other shops nearby that were amazing.
First awesome discovery was the “Boom-Art” store. This store was located next to the very lame comic book store. When you first walk by the store, you don’t think much of the shop except that it looks like some sort of crazy art decor store. The store has wide panel windows, home made paintings, trinkets and furniture that have been re painted with just amazing illustrations that gave it a Pop Art look. When you go inside you meet a gentleman name is Glenn and his wife Sandy. At the time Miss Sandy wasn’t there but Glenn was just tons of fun to meet. Immediately he greets you, makes you feel like you are home, and makes you realize that the shop is actually a gallery. Glenn use to work in films for many many years and have work and himself been seen in many great and fun movies like The Wiz. The main focus of the shop revolves around recycling old furniture, cleaning it up, giving an awesome paint job, and then giving it a wonderful finish. If you truly love fun Pop Art, this is totally the place to stop and pick up a few things like we did.
Here’s their info:
Boom-Art
Glenn Rogers and Sandy Rogers
1821 N. Orange Ave. Orlando, Fl 32804
Studio:407-281-0246
Gallery:407-895-0280
www.rainfall.com/boom-art
www.store-ebay.com/boomart
The second discovery was right across the street form the Boom-Art store at the “Rock N Roll Heaven” store. If you love music, this is the store for you. It was easily around 3000 sq ft full of CD’s, DVD’s, Records, Posters, and some toys for sale. For the first time it is recommended to stop by with no other plans for the evening so you can truly look through their inventory. The upper half of the walls are lined with posters, lunch boxes, lp’s, 12”, 45’s, toys, and pictures that are part of the owner's personal collection. This is truly an amazing store.
Here’s their info:
Rock N Roll Heaven
1814 N. Orange Ave. Orlando Fl 32804
407-896-1952
www.rock-n-rollheaven.com
Second Stop (Day 1):
With our friend bailing out on us, were were free to do what ever we wanted. So this took us to the a very well known Holy Grail of Comic Books, Toys and anything Science Fiction known as “Acme SuperStore”. We have only heard of this store from other collectors and we were excited to see what it was all about. They say you never forget your first time, and for us our first time here was truly a NERDGASM. The store has been in business for for around 30 years and it shows. It’s 7000 sq/ft of air condition paradise full of comic books , toys, and collectibles.
This is a comic book store done right. It feature a toy section full of both old and new toys a mind in box and loose figures. The loose figures were set up in display cases that were set up in sets. Among some of their displays you had vintage Star Wars, Vintage GI Joe, Vintage Master of the Universe, Gargoyle figures, Showing Warrior vinyl robots, Gundam Models, Earthworm Gym, Power Rangers, Beast Wars, to mention a few.
Their comic book section is divided accordingly. They have new release, long boxes, graphic novels, books, and even an extra room dedicated to discount books. By the comic books there’s wall of maquettes neatly displayed and dust free. The Walls were set up with great full figures of spiderman, Batman, Silver Surfer, and Hulk to give it a great look. The store staff is very friendly and are willing to help you out in every way they can. All in all they get an A++ in customer service. This is a store you need to have an even to explore, and come with fist full of cash.
Keep in mind If you are in a situation where you need to use a wheelchair to get around, the store does not currently have a wheelchair parking, or ramp, but it does have very wide aisle so you can navigate very easily through the store. If you are coming on a normal day this will not pose a problem, however if you come on in a crazy even like Free Comic Book day I hope you have a second person to help you.
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| Keep in mind my husband is in this picture and he's 6'3". if the helps give you scale. |
Here’s the Info:
Acme Superstore
905 E.St. Rd. 434 #100 Longwood, Fl. 32750
Open 7 days a week
407-331-0433
After such an amazing day we decided to start settling down for the day and pick up looking for gems the next day.
Stop 1 (Day 2):
For the second day we went out to Flea World located in Sanford. For me this was a very big deal since I grew up in Orlando for the majority of my teens and my early 20’s. Back then the Sanford flea market was known as one of the coolest, busiest, and largest flea market in the state of Florida. This flea market use to featured over 2000 shops including a very large Air Conditioned section, a small theme park in the back, a performance circus show that came and went, an elephant that gave rides, and you could find almost anything you wanted. It was awesome revisiting a fun part of my childhood after almost a decade. So you can imagine how excited my husband was to also be there and check out a cool spot in Orlando other than the mainstream theme parks.
The Flea Market was as I remembered but sadly we immediately notice the effects of the bad economy had on the place. It use to take almost a whole day to really explore and enjoy the Flea Market, now half of the stores are gone. A quarter of the shops that are still there are now $1 Chinese stores selling cheap crap, the other stores mainly sold the same crap: Food, cheap clothing, speakers, jewelry, pets, music, videos, and car speakers. Luckily there were still a few spots left that made the trip worthwhile.
First place we found was the “Game Castle Video Games & Collectibles”, located in Row D. The shop is mainly a video game shop but they do have a small section for toys. Some of the stuff that were buried within the small section were an old Darkwing Duck carded figure, and Pirates of the Drakwaters figures to mention a few. They seem to have been part of someones collection. The guys name is Justin and they had some cool spread over 3 booths.
Their contact info:
Game Castle Video Games & Collectibbles
Row D Booths 49-53
407-617-952
The second place we found was “Galaxy Toys & Collectibles”. The booth is located in a corner and they have a lot of stuff to look through. They had a great sections of toys for Godzilla, Thundercats, Silverhawks, and Showing Warriors. You should really take the time to look closely since there’s stuff everywhere. Their contact info:
Galaxy Toys & Collectibles
Row C Booth 78-80 and in Row F Both 67.
407-745-7238 or 407-967-6666
Third Stop is at “More Fun Stuff”. This booth is run by a guy named Charles. Is a very small booth but he has a lot of the recent stuff that some of you guys might be looking for. DC, Marvel, Wrestling, Hanna Barbera, Hot Wheels, and Barbie are among the collectibles on this booth.
Their Contact info:
More Fun Stuff
Row C Booth 5
321-436-2465
The last stop was the Creme de la Creme of all the booth, this was at the “50 Million Toys Booth”. The booth spreads over 11 booths and they feature a ton of stuff including Wrestling, old vintage toys, nerdy t-shirts, Star Wars, Spawn, Ninja Turtles, to name a few. The crew there were mad cool and were willing to work a deal with you the more your shop. They give you one of one attention, and give you the option to really dig around. All in all this is going into the Gem list for us. They even set up the booth to be wheelchair accessible in the extra zones since they have disabled clients.
Their Contact info:
50 Million Toys
Row B Booths #39-50
407-324-5050
www.50milliontoys.com
Stop #2 (Day 2)
There was a second stop back at the Acme Superstore but it was incredibly buys. They were doing their Free Comic Book day promotion, they had an R 2 D 2, plus they had artist there, face painting, a taco bus and even the blood drive bus out there. The place was insane and it was packed when we drove by in the morning and it was still very busy when stop by later in the evening. The lines wrapped around the shop just to check out. At this point with my husbands injuries we decided to stop by another day, so we got a chance to talk to our new friends there and started heading home.
All in all the trip was just amazing, and we ended finding some awesome stuff between all of these shops at a great price. We are looking forward to our next trip and this time we will come with more emo to shop. :D
There was a second stop back at the Acme Superstore but it was incredibly buys. They were doing their Free Comic Book day promotion, they had an R 2 D 2, plus they had artist there, face painting, a taco bus and even the blood drive bus out there. The place was insane and it was packed when we drove by in the morning and it was still very busy when stop by later in the evening. The lines wrapped around the shop just to check out. At this point with my husbands injuries we decided to stop by another day, so we got a chance to talk to our new friends there and started heading home.
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| The Line Wrapping around the store. |
All in all the trip was just amazing, and we ended finding some awesome stuff between all of these shops at a great price. We are looking forward to our next trip and this time we will come with more emo to shop. :D
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| Our Findings :D |
