You know, after an initial poor reaction, this town is starting to grow on me. There is a lot on offer here and in the surrounding area. There are interesting things everywhere you look. I think that Aberdeen is due for a resurgence.
As you drive downtown, there are interesting (sometimes bizarre) sculptures at many intersections. There is a nice distillery and a brew pub. It is a quiet little town surrounded by some of the most spectacular scenery you ever wanted to see. You are a moderate drive from Seattle or Portland. Yet, there is a quaint small town feel because it is a quaint small town. It appears that much of the damage and many of the condemned homes arose from some flooding at the very beginning of the year which resulted in 2-3 feet of water in many residences. It was that hundred year flood. Too bad.
On our search, we revealed on of the hidden gems of Aberdeen.
Hidden might be a bit of an overstatement. They go out of their way to make sure you will notice them when you drive by. There are really subtle things.
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| Subtle. |
And then there is this little detail I didn't notice until the second visit.
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| The force is strong in this one. |
Being the unapologetic nerds that we are, we had to stop. Oh yeah, and having the kids ask to go every thirty seconds for three days probably helped too. Good grief. Tell young children there is a store nearby selling all manner of space creatures and toys and you never hear the end of it.
So, we went and checked it out. First off is a nice greeting.
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| Hmmm, always thought Vader was taller. |
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| She always did go for the bad boys. |
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| Some really neat details. |
And that is just outside. Step inside and you are met with...well, it's hard to describe. Plethora, smorgasbord, cacaphony, no one word seems to do it justice. I think I'll let the pictures talk a bit.
It turns out that they had some flood damage as well. Anything that was on the floor was ruined. So, our lucky day, everything in the place was half price so he could try to make up for the losses. Mr. Sucher and Sons were both present and accounted for. They really seemed to enjoy their jobs. I can only imagine why. They spent time rearranging things and setting up little dioramas around the store. I didn't have the heart to tell them they were only playing with toys and they didn't have the heart to mention their job was to play with Star Wars toys all day. And man, do they have a lot of toys.
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| Tell the kids the toys are half off and watch them get serious. |
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| Even more than half off. Oh Frabjous Joy! |
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| For the more discriminating collector. |
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| OK, that's cool |
The things in the store range from the simple and inexpensive all the way up to ginormous toys with equal price tags. These guys have been collecting this stuff for a long time and their knowledge of the memorabilia is encyclopedic.
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| Hugemongous Millenium Falcon? Check. |
My favorite thing in the store?
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| Get inside a Taun Taun without all the goopy mess. |
When I say they have everything, I mean everything.
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| Star Wars foodstuffs. Check. And pictures of Sucher with luminaries that have visited the store. |
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| A difficult life playing with toys all day. |
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| Some parts of the store have a decidedly adult feel. |
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| Just a doll. Nobody left a kid. |
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| Hard to resist the dark side. |
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| May be some resentment about Disney buying the franchise |
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| Paging Dr. Yoda |
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| And all I had was Republic credits. |
It is a pretty big store. And I suppose that if you are a collector, you get some out of theme items from time to time. So there were some other things around too. For instance, tucked away in the back in a dimly lit space near the bathroom you could find...
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| Poor Star Trek. |
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| Oh myyyy. |
And there is more.
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| It's the Stay Puft Marshmallow man. |
Of course, being Aberdeen, you couldn't neglect the native son.
But mostly they focus on their specialty. And with good reason. They even have a section for some of the more famous homages.
This is a really neat place and apparently devotees from all over the world make intermittent pilgrimages to visit. If you are ever in town and even a casual fan of the franchise, you should drop in and visit. If The Force is truly strong in you, book a ticket and get here. You will love it.
