24 сен 2010 16:47:50
On Monday, I was checking my Facebook account when I saw a message from a member of the anime club I used to attend before it was disbanded in 2004 due to lack of members attending the meetings. The message was for a casting call for a publicity stunt for a new show on AMC (a basic cable movie channel for those who live outside of the United States) about zombies. The main thing that's important about the message when it comes to this post wasn't the casting call itself, but rather the location of the event, a comic book shop by the name of . Noticing that the place is in Waldorf, which is a few miles from where I lived, I went online to check for it's location, and noticed that it was near the Chinese buffet restaurant that my family likes to go to every once in a while. Being curious about the shop after seeing the casting call message, I decided to check out the store the next day during my weekly mall trip to see what the place is like.
To begin with, I ended up making a mistake of where the store was supposed to be. Heading there, I was somewhat confused with the map to the place and thought The House of Pop Culture was in the same shopping plaza as the Chinese restaurant. However, it turned out that it was in the plaza that was across the street. Making the confusion even harder was that the sign for the place didn't read The House of Pop Culture (as I was expecting), but rather just plain "Comics", making me think that it was a different shop than The House of Pop Culture until I saw the store's logo on the window. Once that confusion was over, I eventually went inside the shop, and things definitely got better from here.
To begin with, The House of Pop Culture kinda felt a little larger to me than the usual comic book store that I sometimes stop at on my way to Otakon each year (as my usual roommate usually does a comic book run before heading up to Baltimore). However, the thing that won me over was the anime figures that the store was selling. After seeing a couple of top shelves containing anime figures, I then found out that the store had a lot more anime figures (and regular comic book figures) near the back corner of the store. The figures that the store had to offer were about a few years old (as in they were released in 2005 and 2006). That was fine by me, since it gives me a chance to check out some figures that came out before I really started to collect them in fall of 2008. Also, after checking some prices online, these figures were actually cheaper there than if I ordered them from either Hobby Link Japan or Hobby Search, hence resulting in a bargain figure wise (which is good, given how my bank account is already begging for mercy due to the shear amount of video games released this month).
Since this was my first trip to the store, I didn't want to leave without buying anything. Hence, I ended up buying a couple of figures during my trip there. My first purchase is of Halloween-chan, a sexy demon girl who is a personification of the holiday of Halloween. Given how Halloween is a little more than a month away, this purchase is a good start to this year's spooky festivities.
As for the second one, I picked up the frilled bikini version of Tamaki Kousaka from To Heart 2. While I'm not into To Heart 2 yet, after picking this figure up, I'm probably now tempted to pick up the upcoming figures that depict the girls from that title in RPG attire.
I don't know how often I'll be stopping at this place (after all, money is tight for me the next few weeks, as I need to save some cash for video games, Blu-Ray movies, and Anime USA). However, I'm hoping that I'll stop at this place at least once a month so that way I can see what anime figures they got in.
To begin with, I ended up making a mistake of where the store was supposed to be. Heading there, I was somewhat confused with the map to the place and thought The House of Pop Culture was in the same shopping plaza as the Chinese restaurant. However, it turned out that it was in the plaza that was across the street. Making the confusion even harder was that the sign for the place didn't read The House of Pop Culture (as I was expecting), but rather just plain "Comics", making me think that it was a different shop than The House of Pop Culture until I saw the store's logo on the window. Once that confusion was over, I eventually went inside the shop, and things definitely got better from here.
To begin with, The House of Pop Culture kinda felt a little larger to me than the usual comic book store that I sometimes stop at on my way to Otakon each year (as my usual roommate usually does a comic book run before heading up to Baltimore). However, the thing that won me over was the anime figures that the store was selling. After seeing a couple of top shelves containing anime figures, I then found out that the store had a lot more anime figures (and regular comic book figures) near the back corner of the store. The figures that the store had to offer were about a few years old (as in they were released in 2005 and 2006). That was fine by me, since it gives me a chance to check out some figures that came out before I really started to collect them in fall of 2008. Also, after checking some prices online, these figures were actually cheaper there than if I ordered them from either Hobby Link Japan or Hobby Search, hence resulting in a bargain figure wise (which is good, given how my bank account is already begging for mercy due to the shear amount of video games released this month).
Since this was my first trip to the store, I didn't want to leave without buying anything. Hence, I ended up buying a couple of figures during my trip there. My first purchase is of Halloween-chan, a sexy demon girl who is a personification of the holiday of Halloween. Given how Halloween is a little more than a month away, this purchase is a good start to this year's spooky festivities.
As for the second one, I picked up the frilled bikini version of Tamaki Kousaka from To Heart 2. While I'm not into To Heart 2 yet, after picking this figure up, I'm probably now tempted to pick up the upcoming figures that depict the girls from that title in RPG attire.
I don't know how often I'll be stopping at this place (after all, money is tight for me the next few weeks, as I need to save some cash for video games, Blu-Ray movies, and Anime USA). However, I'm hoping that I'll stop at this place at least once a month so that way I can see what anime figures they got in.
