Hallå, Stockholm

Me, my mom and brother took a short trip over to Sweden. It was fun. We were really lucky with the weather, the sun was shining the whole day we spent in Sweden, while in Helsinki it was dull and gray. I specifically wanted to visit the Disney Store in Stockholm and a few comic book shops. I thought the Disney store was a little disappointing, or maybe I had too high expectations. I was hoping to find Star Wars Tsum Tsums, but to my horror, there was barely anything SW in the shop. I had to take a train to reach the Mall of Scandinavia where the store is, and all I have to say about the effing train station is that it was a complete nightmare. My visit to the Science Fiction Bokhandeln didn't go so well either, they didn't have the things in stock I specifically came there to buy, so I left without buying anything. Although I was very close to buying two Blu-rays, but I changed my mind at the last second and saved my money. Which was good, because when I got to Comic's Heaven I almost found too much to buy! Considering I would have to carry them for the rest of the day. I also dropped in real quick in a shop called Rockzone, they mostly sold clothing, bags & accessories either themed with music bands or other pop culture series. Their action figure selection was pretty good too. I wish I'd had more time to look through them, but I was already in a bit of a hurry. It would be fun spending a few days in Stockholm and visit these shops again without having to worry about the clock. Overall, it was a really nice visit to Sweden again after so many years, hopefully it won't take 10 years before I get the chance to go there again.

Our transportation

Those strawberry drinks were delicious!! *_* & view from our cabin.

Faceless Predator in Rockzone and Alien in SciFi Bokhandeln

My haul from Sweden included the following (in random order):

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to the Disney Store was to get this Disney Animator's Collection Cinderella doll. I thank my lucky stars they had it in stock because otherwise the store's selection was pretty bad in my opinion. I wanted to buy the mini doll of Cinderella as well, but they only sold Boo (Monsters Inc), Tinker Bell and Rapunzel, which was disappointing. Their selection of Tsum Tsums was laughably small (especially Star Wars...). In my eyes, most of their inventory consisted of clothes & costumes for children, school supplies and mugs. I imagined they would have had more "collectible" stuff for sale like figures, plushies and whatnot.

Since the doll is quite big I had to buy a bag to carry it in, the cashier let me choose between a Pirates of the Caribbean one and this Tangled one I ended up choosing. The cartoon Jack Sparrow on the tPoC bag looked really weird and I didn't like it. I liked the purple color on this one and thought it would look less weird to have a "girly" bag for the doll (I have never seen Tangled the movie btw!). The cashier was unusually chatty too, (in Finland, usually I never need to say anything more than the obligatory greeting and thank you) she actually asked who I'm buying the doll for and if I wanted it gift wrapped!? XD For a second I actually considered lying that I'm getting the doll for my nieces, but then I thought what the hell, and quietly admitted I'm buying this for myself. But oh no, she didn't let it go, then she asked me "Oh, you like princesses?  :) ". I was tempted to answer her "Not really", but instead I told her the truth which was "I was thinking about customizing it...". Thank God there was not follow-up question to that and then finally, I was free to leave. Of course she asked her questions in the nicest way possible, it's just me and my social anxieties that make me feel uncomfortable whenever I get asked any question in person.

 A little bit to read from Comic's Heaven! I've never felt so incomplete leaving a shop! Obviously, I would have liked to buy the graphic novel for the original trilogy, and the issues #1,#2 and #3 for the new Darth Maul comic (sold out!), but the movie trilogy books were so big and heavy I didn't want to carry two of them around the whole day, and why did I choose the prequels? Duh! Because Maul is in it! Probably for like 5 panels or something, but that's good enough for me! About the Jeffrey Brown books, I didn't realize until later that there are three books in the series and I just bought book two and book three. I simply had to place an order for book one when we got back home. I didn't expect it to happen, but the total weight of these actually snapped the handles of my bag I was carrying them in. It was a real pleasure to carry these in my arms all the way to the Disney store where I got my new bag to put them in.

The coasters were also from Comic's Heaven, they had a big selection of different series, but of course I only really looked at the SW ones. Maul was an obvious choice, but I had a hard time picking between "May the Force be with you" -Kenobi or this Jabba the Hutt one. Jabba won. I've been wanting this 2-pack for a while now and I'm so happy I found it in the Toys R Us after my visit to the Disney store in Mall of Scandinavia. Now I wish I had looked more carefully at the quality of the paint job on the figures when I chose which box to buy. My Maul's face paint is just sloppy and I think the 7th Sister is just too pale (they all are), you can barely even see those tiny dots on her face.

I found the Sackboy Kratos at Rockzone. I don't really like Little Big Planet, but I like God of War, and that was reason enough to buy this little abomination. Luckily, that little red spot that looks like a factory defect is actually on the package and not on the figure. I bought the others from the gift shop on the cruise ship. Finn was on sale with -30% off, so I saw no reason not to buy him! I like Rowlet and Litten more than Popplio, but it still annoys me that I'd have to buy a separate package to get Popplio (and get yet another Pikachu) if I want to complete this starter trio. Why can't they come in the same package!? 

***

Lastly, not related to anything above, but I'll mention it anyway. I won the raffle over at http://pastellipuoli.blogspot.fi/ Thanks for the super cute prize if you ever read this! ;3