A Very Geeky Christmas...Wishlist

Christmas is right around the corner! I hope you’ve gotten around completing your Christmas list (which honestly, you should really be done with already)! I know that every year, finding gifts for nerdy friends/children/nieces and nephews/officemates/lovers is a major concern (just pretend this is true)! But fret not. I may be able to help. Here’s my geeky wish list this Christmas that’ll hopefully give you an idea of what YOU’LL give! (For my ideas last year, click HERE!)

• Funko POPs!

The options for Funko POPs are endless!

You just have to know the title of anything (as in ANYTHING) they watch/fancy and you can give them a Funko POP collectible toy this Christmas. Does she love Frozen’s Elsa or Breaking Bad’s Heisenberg? Is he a Dragon Ball or Dr. Who fan? Does he want Batman from the comics or from the movie or from the video game? Funko POP’s variety and range in fandom is incomparable!

Kramer: Toy Warden at UPTC

One of the more extensive and easily accessible POP shops is Filbars. Kramer: Toy Warden is a good place too. But really you can find them almost anywhere in the toys section of GH’s Shoppesville. Be warned though, Funko POPs are not for addictive personalities. Your gift might just serve as their gateway drug POP, and a dozen POP purchases henceforth will be on your hands!

• Lightsabers!

After 'The Force Awakens', everyone's gonna want these.

Who doesn’t want a lightsaber?!?! They’re the single coolest fictional weapon this side of the galaxy! You can find them at most toy stores, but for sure there are some at Toy Kingdom or Toys R Us. With or without the lights and sounds, any lightsaber is a fun gift for any Star Wars fan, young OR old! And even if he/she isn’t a fan, you can bet they WILL be after this month’s inevitable sci-fi hit The Force Awakens!

• Board Games

Board Games are massively fun! Just ask anyone who's been to a board game bar!

If you’re buying for a group, like siblings or officemates, you can consider getting them a board game. Board game restaurants are a hit nowadays because BOARD GAMES ARE CRAZY FUN! But I’m not talking about getting them the mainstream board games like chess or monopoly (although those are fun too, but they probably already have it anyway); I’m talking about DESIGNER games.

There's a designer game about pretty much anything under the sun!

Rocksteady and EAsports are to video games what designers are to board games. Designer games are made by board game artists; making them unique, intricate and continually innovative. There’s a gazillion games on the market with themes ranging from physics, to bank robberies, to train construction, pandemics, monster fighting…I could go on, but you get the picture. DiXit, King Of Tokyo, Splendor, Pandemic/Forbidden Island and Formula D are great titles for beginner gamers, but if you want to try them out yourself first, then head on over to your nearest board game restaurant!

For a good selection of designer board games, check out your local mall’s Neutral Grounds, or online stores like Gaming Library and Ludogames.ph.

• Shiiiiiirts…

Style, wit, and relevance, that's what you'd be giving your loved one.

But with a twist! Don’t get them shirts with show titles or superhero logos on the front; too generic! You have to dig deeper than that. Breaking Bad fans would love to get a Los Pollos Hermanos crew shirt, Agents of SHIELD fans could get a SHIELD uniform shirt, Shokugeki No Soma fans can get Soma’s cooking uniform – find out their favorite show and ask vendors which of their shirts is relevant to the show or do your own research. Check out Empire Clothing, Geekerie Shirts, and Philly’s Kawaii Corner for a large selection of TV/Movie/Anime/Comics inspired shirts, OR designand have it made yourself at Transfer It! Like I said before, nerds are a prideful lot. Nothing would make a nerd happier than to be able to wear their fandom loud and proud! And trust me, nothing says I love you like making an effort to get to know a nerd’s fandom.

• “Practical Fan Merch”

How adorable are these bags, amiright?

There are a lot of nifty little fan-pleasing usable things out there you can give as gifts. There are custom bags from Snapsacks. They come in a variety of designs and vibrant colors. Get your nerdy friend one of these adorable bags for school...or work. (Depending on his threshold for embarrassment / pride in his fandom)

Nerd stuff for your head!

If you’re shopping for more than one nerd, you could maybe give them character caps from Otaku’s Den or eye masks from Micari’s Anime Shoppe. Caps are a safe bet, everybody uses ‘em, but as for the eye masks, well, it might be more useful for people like me who are mega sensitive to light or who need to sleep during the day, but they’re still pretty neat to have either way!

They may go "errr...." at first, know that deep down they're really loving it.

And finally, for the pervs anime fans, get them a mousepad. No, it’s not your normal mousepad but I am honestly too embarrassed to describe it, so just check out the photo above.:) You can find those at Micari’s as well.

• Old School Consoles

IF ANYONE GAVE ME ANY OF THESE, I WILL LOVE THEM FOREVER AND EVER.

If there was one item on this list that would really make me lose all my sh*t, it would be these classic gaming consoles. If someone were to give me a FAMILY COMPUTER, I WILL SERIOUSLY LOVE YOU FOREVER AND EVER. I mean, c’mon! My earliest and fondest memories were playing Family Computer! Not to mention that being one of the very few people left on the planet to still have one of these will blow any man-child’s mind!

Family Computer, Game Cube, Nintendo64, or even the original PlayStation, they don’t even produce these anymore! But you’re lucky I found a place where you could get ‘em – Little Heroes Toys and Collectibles. They have very limited stocks, so make sure to call them up quick!

Street Fighter II, Mario Brothers, Duck Hunt, Tank City...so many memories!!

Sure you can play the 8-bit games on your mobile phones nowadays but still! There’s nothing like holding a controller in your hands and duking it out with a friend old-school stylez!

***

Aside from Filbars, Toy Kingdom, Toys R Us, Neutral Grounds and Kramer, which have prominent mall presence already, all of the other vendors I mentioned can be found on Facebook. I’m sorry my list is a bit late, but I hope it’ll still be of use to some of you…particularly for people still looking for something to get ME! *insert exaggerated wink wink here* MAHAHA!

I kid. It’s not about the receiving, it’s about the giving! Merry Christmas to all! And to all a good day!

*First seen on The Philippine Online Chronicles!