pop! yourself

when the bean's gymboree buddy mentioned that he'd never been to the funko store in hollywood before (despite having a sizable collection of the pop vinyl figures), i told him to pick a day and i'd take them on a field trip out there.  we invited the bean's BFF and the old lady to join us, and we headed out on an adventure.

i thought we'd picked a pretty random day and time, but when we arrived there was a line to get in.  it wasn't too long though, and we were heading inside in no time.

the first thing we saw when we set foot inside the building was this giant groot, from "guardians of the galaxy."

and although she rolled her eyes when i handed her my phone, the old lady took this for me.

the old lady also had not been there before, and pretty soon the kids split off from us as we all started wandering around to look at everything.  although i've been there before, it's still really fun to walk around and check it all out.

along with a ton of loungefly backpacks from all kinds of different fandoms, there were these adorable little stuffies of disney attractions.  here's space mountain and the tower of terror:

the old lady had to hold me back from picking this up.

i knew that the kids wanted to create their own figures at the pop! people kiosks, so i'd told them to put their names on the waitlist as soon as we got inside.  the wait averages an hour on any given day, which is a pretty good amount of time to walk through the 40,000 square foot building.  and our timing was pretty good, because we were all done looking at everything just as they were called up for their turn.  you can choose everything from hair to clothing to accessories and even put things in the little hands, and they personalize the box with whatever you want to put on it.

the bean had chosen to simply put her name on hers.

i think everyone had a great time, and they chattered together happily the whole way home through rush hour traffic and everything.  after all, friends make anything fun, amirite?

won't you take me to...funkotown

we got to spend the last weekday of the bean's christmas break with some of our favorite friends.  we'd dropped off their christmas presents a few days earlier, and they'd invited us to join them to check out the new funko hollywood store.  it was on our list of places we wanted to see, and it's always more fun to go with friends, isn't it?

when we arrived, it was fairly early and so there weren't too many people in the store yet.

oh - if you don't already know, funko is the company that does those cute little vinyl figurines of all sorts of characters, pop culture figures, celebrities, tv and movie characters, you name it.  i knew they had a store up in washington, which i hear is pretty fantastic since it's the company's headquarters.  and so when they opened this one here in hollywood i knew we'd have to go check it out because you know how much we love novelty stuff like that.  there's no charge for admission, there are photo ops galore and of course, lots of fun things to buy.

the company's mascot is freddy funko, and he's the first photo op you see when you walk in.

there's a desk just past that where a smiling employee welcomes you to the store and hands you a map to make your way through the store's various themed rooms and lists prices for the merchandise on the back.  just beyond that is where the fun starts - and the first characters we found were from "black panther."  wakanda forever!

i was already experiencing some form of sensory overload and found myself just following the bean as she wandered around.  there was a whole room devoted to the guardians of the galaxy, with groot at the entrance.

the bean was happy to pose next to giant hagrid from harry potter.

and found these guys inside:

the disney room was super cute.

 do i make a good villain, or what?  no, don't answer that.

 the kids happily piled into the jurassic park jeep.

 and there was a whole section devoted to the characters from "frozen," including marshmallow the ice monster.

 the DC comics were represented too, complete with the members of the hall of justice.

of course, there were video game characters.

and a couple of other familiar faces.

i know nothing about "doctor who," but that's okay.

the star wars fandom was also pretty well represented, with a pretty good sized area devoted to them.

 more stuff i don't really know much about.

 freddy funko made another appearance here:

the figures in this roped-off area are exclusive to the funko hollywood store.

 and i was surprised at how small the sports section was.

 the "saturday morning" room was my favorite, i gotta say.  lots of fun, nostalgic stuff in here for this 70s/80s kid.

 the "toy story" display was a little out of place and seemed to be an afterthought, but it was super cute nonetheless.

here you could make your own funko pop.  pick a head and a body and add as many accessories as you can attach to the figure for $15.

the bean had, of course, found the small section of BT2 figures.  she'd brought some of her christmas money and was more than happy to part with some of it to add to her collection:

on our way back to the front to check out i caught a glimpse of captain america:

as you check out, you're offered the opportunity to buy $5 tokens for the row of vending machines at the exit that dispense little mystery figures.  of course, we bought a few.

i know the old lady and her special friend would get a kick out of this place, and so we'll definitely be heading back at some point together.  the store is a permanent fixture, so i'm hoping that maybe they'll add more stuff or have some rotating displays.  although it'll be the first time for them, so either way it'll be a good time when we do make our way back.