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Cool/Geeky/Nifty stores in Toronto, Montreal or NYC
The_Glad_Hatter
One Sly FoxUnderneath a Groovy HatRegistered User regular
One Sly FoxUnderneath a Groovy HatRegistered User regular
My previous post got me some great ideas on touristy things to do in Toronto, Montreal and NYC, but right now i'm looking for some great original geeky stores. I always love things like museum stores that always have stuf you just haven't seen in any other store.
Basically i'm looking for thinkgeek.com or threadless.com -the store.
clever nice shirts, original/ funny gadgets, kid's stuff that grown-ups can really appreciate.. My googling isn't coming up with a whole lot.. (googling for anything with "shop" or "store" in it really seems to ruin many results).
Any other shops that might appeal to young people into geekyness/ science/ art and boardgames are more than welcome...
Basically i'm looking for thinkgeek.com or threadless.com -the store.
clever nice shirts, original/ funny gadgets, kid's stuff that grown-ups can really appreciate.. My googling isn't coming up with a whole lot.. (googling for anything with "shop" or "store" in it really seems to ruin many results).
Any other shops that might appeal to young people into geekyness/ science/ art and boardgames are more than welcome...
The_Glad_Hatter on
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Well, in NYC there's:
-Forbidden Planet on 13th and broadway: pretty great comic book/action figure store, with boardgames on the second floor. Love it there!
-Reminiscence at 50 W 23rd St (between 5th Ave & Avenue Of The Americas):Smallish store with fun toys and gadgets, also lots of costume and vintage clothing, books, and cute things. It's like...a nerdy thrift store. It's awesome.
I'll think of some more soon!
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I will second this list and add another NYC location: Video Games New York. It's basically a tiny cramped store, but they certainly fulfill the criteria of "you won't see this anywhere else." Every time I go there I contemplate buying some of the weird Japanese imports they get or buying an Atari Jaguar. They're on 6th St really close to that weird intersection where Bowery splits off in to Cooper and 3rd Ave.
I think I know that place. Just be aware, that place is really damned expensive.
It's worth a quick stop in just to see the sheer variety of stuff they have, though. I very nearly damned the torpedos and bought the three CD-i Zeldas.
EDIT: Also, there's the Compleat Strategist in NYC.
Check out my art! Buy some prints!
We have a number of cool geeky stores, though they're spread out far away from each other downtown.
Queen St. West:
Queen St. West is Toronto's boho neighbourhood. It's starting to gentrify, but still has a fair bit of its old flavour.
Silver Snail Comics: 367 Queen Street West
Very fun to browse through, generally rude/uninterested employees, but whatevs.
Baka Phoenix: 697 Queen Street West
A great little sci-fi/fantasy book store. If the right employees are present, they're very knowledgable and can make excellent book suggestions based on your reading preferences.
Yonge/Dundas Area:
Pretty much the heart of downtown, near the Eaton Centre.
Hairy Tarantula Games & Comics: 354 Yonge Street
The go-to store for the basement-dwelling crowd. Not easy to find; it's upstairs and is easy to miss if you're not looking for it. Especially fun for looking at board games, though the whole store is covered in a light misting of dust and can smell a bit funky. Let's call it "atmospheric". There's another card game/PnP shop nearby on Yonge, I think it's called 410 Games.
Chinatown/Kensington Market/Spadina Area:
Chinatown and Kensington Market are fun places to just walk around in, and are right next to each other.
Anime Xtreme: 315 Spadina Avenue
All the manga you'd ever want to see, as well as a ton of stuff you'd find in manga/game-related vending machines in Japan. Generally bright and friendly, has a bunch of cool figs in the windows.
A & C Video Games: 706 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, ON M5S 2J2
This store is the best in Toronto for your retro gaming needs. They have a ton of obscure games, imports, and old games. They're also very friendly and will chat with you at great length about your gaming interests.
As for touristy stuff (just glanced at the other thread), here's my 2 cents:
If you want the whole touristy enchilada for cheap, take a look at the Toronto Citypass:
http://www.citypass.com/toronto
I got this for my parents when they came to visit, and it's a great deal, considering the cost of going to all those places individually. This is the only way you can really justify going up the CN Tower, as well. Otherwise they charge like $25 or something ridiculous. Keep in mind that the Zoo and Science Centre are quite a ways from the city centre, so if you're staying downtown you'll have to plan carefully to get to them.
You can skip the St. Lawrence market, really. It ain't all that. Consider checking out the Distillery District instead, especially with your interest in art. Or if you're chocolate lovers, SOMA in the Distillery cannot be missed.
Are most of these videogame stores? We're more boardgamers than videogamers (no gamingpc since i got my mac, and the last console i owned was a nes...) (we love logic games, fun cardgames and eurogames)
and i'm defenately adding some of the comicbook stores to my list, thanks!
Anyone got any threadless-shirt-store-like suggestions perhaps?
[Pedantic]401 Games[/Pedantic]
More seriously, what SwashbucklerXX said. Covers most of the shops I've been to in the downtown core.
If you venture into the Eaton Centre, there's a store near the northern foodcourt, I think it's called Mindgames, which has a smattering of geeky'ish stuff. 3D starwars puzzles, D&D books, models, boardgames, neat sciency things, etc. Not quite a 'real gaming store', but a fun place to browse all the same.
The only video game store on my list is A & C games. For board games, looks like the fine folks at boardgamegeeks.com recommend 401 Games over Hairy Tarantula pricewise (I looked it up because I was curious, too, only ever saw card games in their window, so didn't know they had board games too.
http://www.kidrobot.com/
They have shirts like this:
And toys like this: