The area had lots of different shops, restaurants are awesome, food is affordable. Whole wide of…read moreselection, when choosing food Employees are top notch service is great.

Used to come here every now and then for anime figures, but haven't been back since I stopped…read morecollecting. I started coming again now that I got into model kit building and painting and I have a totally new appreciation for this place. Due to the small size of the store, the selection is not comprehensive, but I always find very cool things every time I come in. I usually shop for gunpla, military model kits, game miniatures, and hobby supplies like paints and glues. I'm fine with paying a bit more to support a local store, but I'm always pleasantly shocked that prices here are either roughly the same as online or cheaper! I don't keep up with anime figure prices anymore so I can't tell you if the prices on those are as competitive. I can only vouch for the model kits/miniatures/supplies. The biggest downside is the place is super cramped, but in a way it's also somewhat of a plus because I can look around at the various stacked boxes and find lots of treasures. Plus the person behind the counter (think he's the owner?) is very nice and patient.

I've been coming to Classic Materials for years! When they were in Tanforan Mall and now Stonestown…read moreGalleria. This store is tucked in the mall on the 2nd floor not too far from the Food Court and Target. They have a great selection of Sports Memorabilia, Funko Pops, Hot Wheels, collector cards, toys and more. I specifically like going there for their collectors items. I even remember meeting Klay Thompson and other Golden State Warriors current and past players when they used to be at Tanforan Mall. The team working at this store is great, especially DJ who is very helpful and knowledgeable of the products he sells The store gets fairly busy, however, DJ is always attentive to his customers and makes it a point to help the customers find what they want/need. The store is very clean and organized. The prices there are reasonable and I never leave the store without making a purchase! Never found myself dissatisfied with any of their items! Highly recommended! My kids love going here too! 5 stars!

Resealed packs. I…read morebought a White Flare (JP) and Team Rocket (JP) booster box and found that two cards belonged to the Terastal Festival collection I don't have video proof of opening these boxes. These were the first boxes I've ever bought and opened them with some friends, but when I put them in a scanner neither original collection showed up. Thought it was an error, did some googling on these cards and the serial numbers - Terastal. If they respond, they'll call me out for lying - I have no reason to do so. In my lifetime I've now opened four boxes and two were resealed, apparently

There is a variety of cool collectibles and action figures here. There are a lot of funko pops and…read moreblind boxes. Value was pretty good but depends on what you're looking for. Customer service was good, the guy behind the counter didn't hover while we looked at the toys. Nice spot to visit if you enjoy Comic Cons and collectibles.

I initially wanted to come here and talk about how I got overcharged by $300 at their booth at…read moreBubufest. But then I went down a whole rabbit hole of why you shouldn't do business with these guys. They are very shady business men. The owner, Nelson, is a reseller who uses bots to get items (Pokemon TCG, Pop Mart, etc) and resell for a profit. He opens the boxes and claims all the best value figures and cards, then sells the common ones to unsuspecting shop customers. Then when he has too many common figures and cards, he offloads them in the form of "conventions". It's the best scam: charge people an entrance fee and still overcharge people for common boxes that are worth much less online. This is why his cons are every 3 months. This is the best way to offload common figures while still making money off of ticket sales and up charges. You will not find any secrets or valuable cards at Fugitive Toys. The boxes and packs have all been resealed with the rare stuff already taken. If you want to resell your funkos, they will offer $1 or two, then turn around and resell for 6x the profit. Nelson is notorious for kicking out people from his conventions. Multiple people have come forward with talking about racial profiling and Nelson using poor excuses to kick people out of his conventions. See one story below. People have also complained that vending there is not worth doing there. Sales are slow and the vending prices to secure a spot are $300 to $700. That's a lot higher than more established conventions. Hype Con and Fugitive Toys are both also very disorganized when it comes to their schedule as well. At cons, their doors never open on time. At fugitive toys, they will close on random days without warning or note. Don't support any Hype Con hosted events, and definitely don't do business with Fugitive Toys. They're scam artists, and they need to be investigated.

My homies always talk about this place, so I decided to drop by on a whim. Sheila has an amazing…read moreselection of Yugioh product in-stock. I couldn't believe it. Loved the vibe, regardless of how small the shop may be. I bought some loose booster packs of Rarity Collection V, Monster Mayhem, and the Legendary Modern Decks 2026 for a fair price. Customer service is on-point too. Sheila's super friendly, and she told me she's been around for 20 years! Friendliness and rapport goes a looooooong way. I'll be back for more RA05.

Would not shop here again, owner sells dead boxes. What a waste of money, scamming kidsread more

at first, i was a bit confused since i mistook this store for a walk-in shop and didn't know about…read morethe pickup deal. i didn't have an exact product in mind, but i settled on pokemon cards before the person in front of me was done. the man (or possibly owner?) was really helpful and engaged a lot with customers to make sure he knew what they wanted or what they were inquiring. im just a hobbyist card collector, so i didn't know what specific series of cards i was looking for, and he just suggested the cheapest ones, which were what i was going for. initially i was nervous and didn't know if there was a pack limit, but he clarified its just so people don't buy out the entire stock (which is very good for business, since it happens all too often at retail spaces!) even if you don't have an order or know the exact product to the precise detail you want, staff is very helpful in giving you options :) a nice place that id stop by every week if i were local!!

Where do I even start? Husband and I were trying to get…read moresome cards. Never heard of this store so we decided to check it out. It's online order only and you can't go inside. The employee seemed offended that we didn't know the process and told us they did pickup only. Not once did he inform us on the actual website. Secondly the employee from the back came out to "answer" our questions, which he also was offended we were inquiring about a set that came out 6 weeks ago. He informed us we were "6 weeks late". He then proceeded to tell us incorrect information about the sets. Which feels was done on purpose. Pricing? These are scalpers, unauthorized resellers. These are the kind of people that weigh/scan packs and open all the hits. They were showing us set boxes with the shrink wrap missing, but were selling it to us at scalper pricing. (Meaning they weren't doing that thing were target rips open the shrink wrap so only collectors buy)

IYKYK! You can find cards In Stock here! Can't find it at the local stores at all? Last I checked,…read moreall of the stocks were gone from the big chains. Look no further, and hop over the hill to this seaside comic and card shop! I have been here many times over the decades, and they do not disappoint. They even have a manga section! The guy there was cool too as we chatted - Payton, I think. I can edit this to correct it. We were talking about comparisons of different editions of D&D, the latest MTG crossover, the awesome, open gaming space they have to offer, and comics. Great guy, great shop!

This one's tough because I don't want to leave a bad review for a place I've been to once, but I'll…read moregive you all the details of my visit. Upon walking in the door, I peeked to my right and saw a magazine rack selling Fangoria. Right on. Also, saw the fella' behind the register and immediately went up to him to ask where the new comics were, as it was a Wednesday. He kind of points to his right and says "It's where the sign for new comics are." I couldn't see it. There were racks in front of where I was standing and that section. I asked so I wouldn't have to wander through the game tables and other merchandise. I was looking for new comics. Thought it was a little rude, but it didn't really bother me. So I get to the new comics section. It's completely unorganized. Or maybe it was organized, but by someone with an OCD disorder that only makes sense to them. Is it that hard to have DC, Marvel, Boom, IDW etc separated nicely to look through the issues by company? It was madness. Also, the comic racks were a bit ramshackle. A lot of the books were bent, worn, and some even looked folded in half when I was looking. I wouldn't buy a six dollar comic for any reason in that kind of condition, considering they were supposed to be "brand new". I continued to look through the stuffed, unorganized shelves to find something to buy as what I was looking for was nowhere to be found. That's fine and I'll get into that in a moment, but I wasn't just/only looking for the "hot" comics right then. Image is always coming out with new number ones that look interesting, and I couldn't find anything. Seriously, I wanted to spend some money, so I'm trying to find absolutely anything. Didn't happen. So, I go back up to the register and just ask about the titles I'm looking for. Every title I ask about I get a two word answer, "Sold Out". Now, this is fair, I was there late and the fellow told me that his patrons are usually coming in around noon and buying the new books up then. Bummer for me. Seems if your stock gets eaten up that quick, you'd order a few more copies of said titles, but I don't know how to run a comic shop. Who knows? Okay, better things. It isn't really my bag, but it seemed like they had a lot of boxes of back issues. I doubt that place is going to let you grab a key issue for cheap, but it's probably worth checking out if you're trying to complete a run. So, that seemed decent. They had a shelf of trades, nothing caught my eye because I either have already read or own the ones I would be interested in, but I suppose it would be worth a look. They were all fairly older, and it didn't seem like they were discounted at all. I did not exactly peruse them to see if that was the case, just seemed that way. That's okay, though because it's far better to support an LCS than just snagging them online. I saw that they had some gaming tables, and some folks were doing just that. It's always a nice addition to a store. I didn't even head in that section, so I have no insight on cool boardgames, RPGs, or card game selection. Could be great. The sign on the outside says "Anime Imports", instead of "CoastsideComics", so maybe that's what they do and comics are just a backseat now. I don't have the option to get there early, so I could have started a pull list and waited a couple of months for that to start getting going. I'm buying about fifteen-eighteen titles a month, but I couldn't get over how they treat their shelved comics, so I decided not to. Conclusion: This is not a store for me. Not organized. About a quarter of the books look like they've been read over and over and kept in someone's back pocket. No way to pop in and get something new after one pm. Register guy was okay, but not very helpful with the slightest touch of...I dunno, it wasn't completely rude, just kind of unwelcoming to an obviously new to this store customer. I tried desperately to find something to buy, and I'm a comic guy! I would have bought anything that looked remotely interesting. Just didn't have anything. I guess that's it.

If you like anime blind boxes, figures, Gundam, and plushies this place will be heaven! The store…read moreis on the smaller side but still stuffed to the brim with so much merchandise. They had a lot of popular series such as: Hunter x Hunter, Sakamoto Days, Dan Dan Dan, Haikyu, Blue Lock etc. I got two Sakamoto Days blind boxes and they were $11-$13 each which I expected. They have a lot of tsum tsums and small figures in the blind boxes. Also +1000 stars for having Ace Attorney displayed on their return policy! I suspect I will be dropping a lot of money over the months at this store. I really like cute blind boxes and they had a lot of them that I would have been happy with getting any of the choices on the box!

I'm here to give a shout out to Akiba HQ for bringing an interesting store to downtown San Mateo…read morethat isnt another boba tea shop or noodle restaurant. They've been open since the summer, but I don't I notice them getting much foot traffic, probably due to lack of visibility, parking, or publicity. Tucked along 3rd Ave & Railroad Ave, fans of Japanese anime, gundam, manga, die cast, models, and figurines will find their heavenly spot. This store is jam packed with lots of toys & collectibles & cute display figures, ranging from robots, to monsters to buxom Japanese girls reminiscent of the Akihabara prefecture in downtown Tokyo. They have pre-made figurines, build & paint yourself models, plushies, cards, charms, candies, and keychains. They also sell the necessary quality paints, brushes, and tools to build & perfect your own models. The layout of the store is nice, with one side holding most of the kits available, alongside with nice displays of accessories, toys, model building supplies, a counter, and candy & souvenirs. The other side of the store is like a Japanese anime/manga museum & display! It is one continuous LONG showcase that is well lit, clean, and organized, if some of the most amazing figurines thst you can build (and/or buy). Lots of eye candy here thst I cannot even describe in words, so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. This store is fun, whether you are into collecting, building, or, just like me, browsing, learning, and gawking. Some reminded me of my childhood watching action cartoons & reading comic books. Others just wowed me with their attention to detail, design, and colors. It is indeed like a candy store here, but the candy is Japanese figurines. I plan to go back soon to buy some kits to see if I can recall & relive my childhood and build up some nice models. Downtown San Mateo is having some sort of retail resurgence for stores other than food or drink, and Akiba HQ, alongside with Nakoko, Clawsome, and Fanloli are leading the charge. With the departure of Talbots and B Street Books, it's nice to have another type of retail store here to browse, shop, and relive memories (or make new ones) in between dinner, movies, and bar hopping. Akiba HQ also has locations in Hayward & Davis, but we are lucky to get one here in San Mateo! Now, you don't have to go to Japantown or Tokyo to get your figurine fix, it's literally right here all in one, tiny, jam-packed store!

the staff is amazing, the collection of paint, minis and books is great. I recommend the store. I…read moreplay D&D with my son and friends and I can get advise and materials no problem. if you are new or advanced you can find a store for you here. Great job !!

I called in to place preorders on a couple of MTG x FF decks on Feb 19th and whoever picked up the…read morecall said they would write down my name and orders for when they set up the pre-order list up. Everything cool, right? Well, it turns out, no. I came in today since I was in the area to double check if I was on the list and was not. They completely forgot to add me in and the list was so long, it was highly unlikely I would get the decks I pre-ordered. They told me it would be best to go to another shop to order and was not at all apologetic about the mishap. In fact, there were no apologies made. I really wanted to support a local card shop but the lack of accountability and the poor customer service makes it very difficult to do so. I won't be back.