5 Fandom Friday: My Favorite Funko Pop! Figures

February 6, 2015 Nina Penalosa10 Comments

A friend of mine once asked how many Funko Pop! vinyl figures I own, and I had to stop and think about it for a good 2 minutes. I lost track of all the figures I own, but I know it’s well over 20! With so many choices, how am I supposed to narrow down my top 5 favorite for this week’s 5 Fandom Friday?! I tried my best to not list all my Disney ones to make the list more diverse, but alas. A good majority of my collection are Disney characters (because I’m the biggest Disnerd, duh!).

1. Baymax

My Baymax figure is the biggest figure I own! My friend Jen got him for me for Christmas (he was originally supposed to be my birthday present) and she was super anxious to give it to me because she knew I would most likely buy it for myself. And I nearly did buy him! I put him on hold at Barnes & Noble, and then she had to keep telling me NOT to buy him. It took me a minute to figure out why. Haha!

2. Snow White

Snow White is my favorite princess, and one of the first Disney Pops I ever purchased (my very first Pop! figure would be Batman). I went pretty crazy when they came out the first Disney series — I got Maleficent, Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and Sulley along with Snow White. But Snow’s the fairest Pop! of them all! I found a set with 3 mini Disney princess figures that had a lil’ Snow White, so now I have two. 😀

3. Mary Poppins

I fangirl’d sooo hard when I saw a preview of the Mary Poppins figure a few years ago. I mean, look at her! She’s practically perfect in every way. 😉 Whoever designed her just completely nailed every little detail from her hat to her umbrella. Perfection!

4. Robb Stark & Grey Wind

Okay, this is technically two, but I’m counting them as one because I feel that I can’t have one without the other. I got Robb at SDCC, and was on a mad hunt to find his dire wolf, Grey Wind. I didn’t know that Grey Wind was a 7-11 exclusive though (I could’ve sworn I saw him at Barnes & Noble when I still worked there), so he proved to be quite a challenge to acquire for a price below $50. I eventually found him at Stockton-Con, and he is the most priciest Pop! vinyl I own (I haggled and got him for $30). I DID IT FOR YOU, ROBB.

5. Loki

I’m sooo happy that Funko came out with another Loki figure with the pointy helmet! I wasn’t really crazy about the one sans helmet, and the first Loki figure they came out with is way too ‘spensive online, and his helmet wasn’t even gold. This one is just fantastic!

What are some of your favorite Pop! vinyls? Have you lost count of your collection like me? Lemme know in the comments!

cheers

To find out the origins of 5 Fandom Friday, go here. And check out The Nerdy Girlie and SuperSpaceChick to catch up with the latest prompts!

5 Fandom Friday: My Favorite Things About Winter

January 9, 2015 Nina Penalosa4 Comments

I was born and raised in the central valley of California, and still live in the Golden State. As many people know, Californians don’t have a “real” winter season. But I do want to note that when I lived in Daly City, it was like living in a perpetual foggy haze all year round! No sun. Very fog. Such depress. Wow.

Anywho, in other parts of California we do experience “cold” weather during winter that allows us to bundle up. Sometimes there are mornings where you may find the windows of your car covered in thin sheets of ice, and scrapping them off can be a bitch. But having snow all over your car? Driving in snow? NO THANK YOU. How do you people who experience real winter weather do it? HOW?!

We’re extremely spoiled over here, especially the Californians in SoCal!

This is basically how I felt when I was at Disneyland during the evening:

But it was stupid hot in the afternoon! Oh, California. You’re so strange.

Alright, now that I’ve established the lack of actual “real” winter weather I experience in my spot of the ‘verse, here are my 5 favorite things about the winter season:

1. Tea all day, everyday

I love myself a good cuppa. I’ll drink it even if the weather is deemed “too hot” to drink tea, but during winter it’s perfectly fine to have cups and cups of it! Lately I’ve been drinking this really yummy white pomegranate tea by a brand called Revolution. I found it at Ross for $3. Score!

2. It’s actually cold

Fall is my favorite season, but California has a hard time getting with the program. It was still stupid hot in October. I mean, 80 degree weather in October? What is that? HORRIBLE. AWFUL. UNACCEPTABLE. That’s what it is! So when winter comes, it’s absolutely lovely.

3. Bundling up in winter accessories

I prefer cold weather, and by that I mean I love overcast skies with a gentle breeze where the days are between 50-60 degrees and the nights are in the mid 40s. It’s my favorite! I’m still able to wear my tights with dresses (because eff pants), and layer on a jacket over a cardigan or sweater. Plus beanies and scarves are fun and sometimes necessary to wear. When I’m having a bad hair day, I love the fact that I can throw a cute knitted hat on and go to work. It makes life so much easier!

Winter also allows me to wear my everyday Robb Stark (Game of Thrones) cosplay (pictured above), complete with faux fur paw scarf. It has pockets lined with fleece too. 😀

4. Boots, boots, boots

This seems more like something that would be on a “My Favorite Things About Fall” list, but I LOVE boots. I’ll even try and wear my cowboy boots during the spring (bearable) and summer (terrible), but with winter it just gets colder and more appropriate to wear boots! Plus I got these G.H. Bass boots on sale at their outlet store in Livermore on New Year’s Eve and they’re made for wide calves. If you have wide calves like me, you know the struggle is real when it comes to shopping for boots.

5. Sales all over the place!

Every store seems to have a sale because of the end of the holiday season and the New Year. I’m a self-proclaimed shopaholic, so of course this is on my list. Haha! 😛

How’s winter where you are? Are you spoiled with a California winter like me, or are you freezing your tail off in the snow? Lemme know in the comments!

geek style · le fancy geek boutique · shoppin'

Le Fancy Geek Boutique Holiday Weekend Sale!

November 26, 2014 Nina PenalosaLeave a comment

If ditching Thanksgiving dinner early or waking up at the butt crack of dawn on Friday morning isn’t your thing, there are plenty of great deals happening online… like on Le Fancy Geek Boutique!

From Friday November 28 – Monday December 1, you can save 15% off your order, and that’s including some of the necklaces that have already been marked down to $12 (originally $15)!

New Disney, Game of Thrones, Sherlock, and Parks & Recreation designs will be debuting on Saturday in honor of Small Business Saturday! If you follow me on Instagram you may have already seen what some of the new designs look like. If you don’t (that’s cool, no worries) here’s a looksie at the new Game of Thrones necklaces:

Fun fact: I’m wearing a Robb Stark necklace as I type this. ♥

Just use code HOLIDAY14 during checkout.

Cheers,
Nina

out & about

Survive the Realm: Game of Thrones Exhibit

August 3, 2014 Nina Penalosa1 Comment

Hey my little ponies! I’m not dead, I swear. I’ve just been recuperating from last week’s geeky festivities at Comic-Con. It’s been a little over a week since I was down in San Diego and I still feel grossly exhausted. I only went to the actual convention for 2 days (Saturday/Sunday), but I got there on Thursday and there were plenty of things to do off-site! One thing included the Game of Thrones exhibit at the Omni Hotel. Oh, by the way, I’m horribly obsessed with that show right now. SO. OBSESSED. I started it a couple weeks ago and I’m currently on the 4th season, meaning I marathoned the sh!t out of seasons 1-3. * insert screaming face emoji *

Anyhow, everyday the line capped around 2ish, so on Sunday morning I got there at 7:30 am because I DID NOT want to miss it (the line wrapped around the building by 9:30, yikes)! And it was totally worth the three and a half hour wait. The exhibit was full of original costumes (take a look a the insane details on the costumes pictured below. The embroidery is immaculate and gorgeous!) and interactive experiences such as making a gif set next to Drogon (I’m not posting mine because I froze and ended up smiling because I had no clue what to do), going into a cage with headphones and occulus goggles like you’re going up the Wall; a fireball came hurling at me at the very top and I “died.” Valar Morghulis, I suppose (that means “all men must die” in High Valyrian). It was kind of scary and I ended up gripping the side of the cage and I could totally feel my arm digging into the bars. Haha! But there was one girl who was totally freaking out — her shrill screams of terror filled the room as she made her “descent” (quotes because it’s not really happening, y’know?) down the Wall. Oh, and of course the last part was having a photo op on the Iron Throne! I wore my Khaleesi shirt and my sister bought a set of dragon egg keychains from the Factory Entertainment booth so I held one of them in my picture 🙂 Everyone also got a baby blue Khaleesi shirt with her three dragons on it. Huzzah for freebies!

One more thing that the exhibit offered were free tattoos courtesy of HBO to the first 25 people in line who wanted them each day. Like, REAL legit permanent tattoos. House Stark is my favorite (I think they’re everyone’s favorite, right?), so if I had the opportunity to get one the tattoos I probably would’ve picked a dire wolf (#7 on the picture above) or maybe the one that says “Valar Morghulis” (#1). I like the Baratheon sigil the most (a stag with a crown around its neck — like Bambi!) and their house saying is pretty badass (“Ours is the fury”), but I’m just not crazy about anyone that belongs in that house.

There’s a Game of Thrones exhibit that’s been traveling across the globe for awhile that has way more props and costumes than the exhibit I went to. The last stop will be in Vancouver from August 8 – September 1, so if you love GOT and happen to be in Vancouver between those times you should definitely go.

Cheers,
Nina

PS: Here’s yours truly sitting on the Iron Throne!