Menlo Park Mall Adventure

Menlo Park Mall! Does this count as an "adventure"? I'm going to count it. All of these pics are from a lazy Saturday trip up to a big mall near us.

We knew there was a new Jollibee that we've not been to yet, and when we turned into the parking lot, it was a Chick-Fil-A style multi-car-lane, drive thru-only nightmare. The inside was not open, so waiting was our only option. At one point we didn't move for a full 20 minutes! Only now do I see the sign in the upper left here about low-staffing and sorry for the delay, posted on an official-looking permanent sign. Yikes. I'll still say that it was good food, but bring your patience if you dare.

I forgot to get a "we're at Menlo Park Mall" picture, but the best store here is the one called True Believers which is a pop culture collectibles store with merchandise that's old, rare, or hard to find kind of stuff. Seeing the Tiger King, I'll share a random trivia bit; did you know The Brady Bunch had a pet Tiger? For two years! The dog's name was Tiger.

Here's what I'm talkin' 'bout! Rare Star Wars figures from the video game The Force Unleashed. Right along with their mega price tags. The Force Unleashed was one of the last things done before Disney bought up the Star Wars franchise and none of this is considered "official" anymore.

Don't you just love the silly villains from Power Rangers? This guy always shows up with his Game Face on.

Of course every pop culture store has to have the giant wall of POP! Figures. Zoom in if you want to browse for any rare ones, if you want. We were on-course to have a wall like this, but we've really slowed down on our own collection and only get ones we really-really-really want now.

Pretty sure I've posted a pic of Maximillian before. He's the bad guy robot from The Black Hole. The art style of that movie was pretty cool. This reminds me that I want to re-watch that movie with a fresh modern look at it, since all I remember was the cool robots and over-under space pistols.

Babylon 5 figures are kinda "meh", but they include those super awesome tiny ships from the show. Babylon 5 had neat designs on the ships and aliens and stuff.

I guess Elizabeth Swan did wear a bath robe for a scene, but did they really need to make a figure of that? This is what you call a "conversation piece" because whoever sees it will need a lengthy talk about why you needed to buy it.

Set phasers to "Stunning!" Notice how they politely put Barbie on the side of the package Kirk is not looking towards, to avoid any interpretations of his expression if he would have been looking at her. Is that still fair? Maybe Kirk is looking at Ken in an odd way, too?

Autographed POP! Figures in a claw machine? I hope that claw doesn't crush them! While this might seem tempting, I have very low confidence that the claw could ever actually pick one of those up.

I pity the fool! A-Team figures! The show iteslf seemed like as if somebody was playing with action figures. With all the guns shooting but nobody actually getting hurt.

Clawdeen from Princess of Power. She looks like she should be a good guy, but this is the villain Catra's friend. And yes I'm going to point out that only male lions have manes, but this is an alien world we're talking about here, and this thing is pink, so clearly not a real lion.

No surprise that these unopened G.I. Joe figures are still here, with those outrageous prices. I mean, they're "worth it", but still... that's a lot!

Those blind-box figures! Get the exact one you want. Soooooo much better that buying hundreds of dollars worth of boxes.

If Smurfs are supposed to be hiding in the forest, then why are they blue? Those bright white outfits aren't doing them any favors, either.

It's a little odd to see the "graded" Pokemon cards. With those silly little holders and numbers on them. But... there they are.

Anybody want to pay for some tiny artworks? Those are not just cardboard pieces. Depending on when you look at this picture, those prices could seem way too high or way too low.

Fraggle Rock has some of the same vibes as The Smurfs. Little creatures hiding. And they both have fun-to-say names.

Boot-Lego! That's the term for fake and knock-off Lego things. Some people love it, some people rage over the impurity.

Random non-Transformer um... transforming robot. Is it less impressive that it turns into a random spaceship? Like, it's already a robot, does it really need to transform in order to fly through space? Couldn't it just do that as a robot?

I saw these half-blue and half-gold dice and immediately thought about what was going on in Ukraine. Sorry with the bummer pic, but it kind bummed me out in the store, and I guess that's worth sharing, too.

Let's bounce back from the "Debbie Downer" picture with this new store full of crazy plush things to cheer us up. This Unicorn must be named Lone Star because there's only one Unicorn who would dare give me the raspberry!

Little plush keychains of over-fed Woodstock and Snoopy. No more biscuits, we're going for a walk!

This is a strange contrast. It's an adorable Martini Glass and Wine Bottle. Clearly these are not meant for kids, but here they are in this store full of adorable other plushies.

Remember the scene from Monster's Inc, where they were on the cover of the magazine but the sticker covered Mike's face? This is the Chip 'n' Dale version of that! Chip is all like "YAY! I'm on the cover of this card game!"

Menlo Park Mall has a Rainforest Cafe, which I'm glad to see is still hanging in there with the crazy pandemic stuff in recent years. Who doesn't like walking under an aquarium fish tank?

While walking through the gift shop, we had a moment like in that Thor: Ragnarok movie. "HEY! I know that guy from work!" And we had a good internal laugh at the moment.

I can't quite think of a funny comment for this Wonder Tiger picture, but I'm still going to post it anyway. A fun Minty fact: I often take more pictures than I need. Maybe I'll think of something fun to say about it later, or maybe I won't.

This just sounded too cruel! Doesn't that just go against any sort of nice instincts you have? Throw it in a microwave and warm it up! It'll be fine. Just don't put the cat in there with it.

Who else still quotes the "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" bit from Lord of The Rings? I found another cool movie reference cat puzzle.

AH, What?! As a Mets fan, this title of this book is just plain hurtful. But then again, I have to question if I'm really that big of a fan. Maybe if I was a bigger fan who followed them very closely, this title would make sense? Do I really want to think my team is "The Best Worst"?

Okay Calico Critters, If you are going to do Giraffes, commit to it! Those necks are not long enough! During production, how many people saw these and missed the chance to bring that up? Anybody ever see a real giraffe? Those necks are LONG!

You have to roll the dice to attack in Battletech, why not roll the dice to get your 'Mech? 2's to miss! That's a game term referring to the standard 2 six sided dice used, and no matter how easy the shot is, both dice rolling a 1, or a combined "2", will be a miss. 

While checking Google Maps to find out where the Jollibee was, we noticed a Walmart near the mall, that we had not yet gone to. Always cool to check out if they have any rare or clearance stuff, right? Nothing remarkable about the stuff, but this Scarry Ride at the entrance was fun to see. The ride itself is not frightening, but it IS Scarry. That's the artist Richard Scarry who writes those kid's books.