Rish's Dream Come True

Sometimes, what you imagine isn't all that similar to reality. Having high expectations for something can often lead to a huge let down. Back in the day when I was doing my Big Anklevich on Toys videos regularly, I did a recurring segment called "Cheap Toy Hunting." I would show off the toys that I'd managed to get for a really good price. Most frequently they came from Ross. If you've ever been to Ross, you know that it's mostly a huge dystopian landscape. It has a small toy section that usually looks like a hurricane has recently passed through, and, for an adult toy collector like me, there's very little of the merchandise they are offering for sale that might appeal. In fact, on most days, there's nothing that might appeal.

Despite that description, I did sometimes find things worth getting, enough so that Gino Moretto, who lives in New Zealand commented on one of my videos that he wished that they had this mythical Ross place where he lived so that he could find some of these deals I was boasting about. It made me chuckle, because it just wasn't as nice as he imagined.

When I moved out to Texas, I got access to a bunch of new stores that didn't exist where I used to live. Chief among those stores was Five Below. This was a discount store where everything was marked to $5 or less, that's what the name was about. Rish was watching on YouTube, and saw a video where someone said that Five Below had the Marvel Legends Guardians of the Galaxy figures on sale for $5 a piece.

"Do you have a Five Below near you?" he asked me over the phone.

I had no idea. I'd yet to notice one, but maybe... I looked it up on Google, and turned out that there were a lot of Five Belows, including one just across the street from where I worked. I wouldn't mind having a set of Guardians of the Galaxy to display on my shelves. I should have probably run over there that very day, but. I didn't. Instead, the next time it was convenient for me, I went over. I think they still had one Rocket Raccoon, but beyond that, they just had the Ex Nihilo figure and the Adam Warlock figure that weren't from the movie.

I didn't even buy Rocket, because I didn't want one memeber of the Guardians without all the others. It had already been picked clean. I hoped that they might get another set in, and went back several more times, as well as finding a few other Five Belows that were in locations that were convenient for me and checking them out, but I never saw another Marvel Legends figure in a Five Below again.

All the same, Rish Outfield built up this vision in his mind of Five Below as this mythical place where there were amazing deals available at all times. He always asked me about what I found there, and my answer was almost invariably nothing. Rish took a vacation to Los Angeles,  and while he was there, he made sure to visit Five Below. He was surprised to find that they had nothing worth getting, despite the fact that I'd been telling him that I'd found nothing at the store for months on end.

Then, they finally started opening up Five Belows right where Rish lived. He went out to them a few times, wondering if he might find a special deal because it was the Grand Opening or something, but there were none. It was the same old BS. He finally now saw Five Below as I saw it. It wasn't a mythical place, but just any other store.

It's only gotten worse as inflation has forced the prices on everything upward. They're probably going to have to change the name of the place at some point. Ten Below...or smarter yet, Twenty Below, because inflation ain't stopping, no matter what chucklehead we put into the white house. From Five Below to Twenty Below, though? Does that mean Global Warming isn't real? Ha ha!

There's one more mythical store out there for Rish. This store called Ollie's, which is a big discount retailer on the East Coast, is frequently talked about on the toy collecting sites that Rish goes to. The posters there would extol the amazing deals they found there.  Rish would tell me about them, and sometimes I'd see them as well, and wish that I could go there.

Then, one day, I saw an ad for the grand opening of Ollie's in a city...relatively close to me. It could have been worse. Houston is a big area, and it can take an hour and a half to get from one place to another even though you're driving eighty miles an hour on the freeway most of the time. This one, though, was only about 45 minutes away...sadly, it was nowhere near anything else, so if I went there, it was solely for Ollie's.

I went out to the grand opening. I even did a Big Anklevich on Toys video about it.

It was very busy, and I was a little unimpressed by their stock of toys. I didn't buy anything, and I didn't go back for quite a while, but eventually, somebody found something at an Ollie's somewhere that I hoped I would find at mine too, and I went looking again. I found a few good things over the few years that the store has been there. So, I don't hate the place like I have grown to hate Five Below, but it was such a horrifying slog to drive all the way out there, and so disappointing if I didn't find anything, that I almost never went.

Rish continued to tell me about things that people supposedly found there, and I think he still sees it as a mythical place, like he once thought of Five Below. I suspect that Ollie's would probably live up to his imaginings a lot better than Five Below ever could.

Well, the other day, I saw a commercial on TV that caught my eye. Something about an Ollie's Grand opening in Houston. Where was it going to be? I looked it up online, and found this:

Six grand openings. and when I took this picture, it was the Wednesday before they were to happen. Well, most of those locations weren't near me, but a couple of them were, so I figured I'd have to stop in and see what they were like.

Friday, the day after the grand opening in an attempt to avoid the crowds a little, I went out to one of the Ollie's that is near a Ross that I usually go to frequently. I took this picture, because I thought it kind of showed Rish's dream stripmall.

A Ross with an Ollie's right next door. Wow!

They still had someone at a table just inside the door handing out cookies to people who came to shop...I didn't partake, but I suppose others thought it was nice. They had a lot of toys, particularly Marvel Legends, though they were all figures that I was uninterested in. They had the Dungeons & Dragons Owlbears there too. I considered getting one, but I didn't need that. It would just go in a storage tub and stay there. They did have a Star Wars guy that I grabbed and carried around with me while I looked. It was the Vintage Collection Incinerator Trooper who also comes with a little Grogu that can use the force to turn away the flames.

I figured I would get it, but then I saw the line, which was very long due to the whole brand-new-store thing, and I changed my mind and put it back. It'll probably still be there later. They had an awful lot of them.

I suppose I couldn't have bought it anyway, because I made a pledge not to buy any more stuff for Ankletown Station until I had at least one building created. I still haven't done that, so I'm glad I put it back...though I'd completely forgotten about that particular pledge.

Okay, I don't know why I wrote this entire huge post about this crap. I guess, the point was to say that mythical stores don't ever live up to their hype, and now that I can go to Ollie's all the time, I'm sure it will fall further and further down in my estimation with each visit. Then again, maybe I'll see all the good stuff before everybody else plunders it, and I can be the guy who makes the videos about his finds. Who knows?