The Energon Pub

Hi Everybody,

I'm based in Australia, and so while I've been a member here for a long time I do tend to spend most of my time on the OTCA pages.

I have a request for some advice.
I'll be travelling to San Francisco early October, later this year for a wedding. It's about an hour or so south of the international airport.
I'm looking for advice on places to shop for Transformers. Are there any stores I should be aware of other than Walmart and Target that are likely to carry any product?

I'm thinking I might spend an extra day or two after the wedding, maybe do a tour of Giants Stadium if it's available at the time. Sadly it's during the playoffs and something tells me they're not getting up this year. It's also the week before Fleet Week so not much to see in regards to that.
I have been to San Fran twice before so I've done Alcatraz, the cable cars and Pier 39 amongst other primary touristy stuff.
Are there any good brewery's that are a must see? I will also be looking for some baseball gear(I play here in Australia but the Gear is so expensive here)Any recommendations for a couple good stores to check out would be appreciated.

I may also elect to spend a day or two in LA on my way home depending on flights etc, check out the car museum with the Movie Vehicles in it and do some more shopping. I am passing on things like Disney until we can bring our Twins back in a few years when they will be big enough to appreciate it.

Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

thanks in advance
Dallas (UltraMarginal)

Walmart and Target are good for current figures, and their clearance for older stock.

What would be a good idea is to search for comic book stores, as they may have toys too if they're collector oriented (just be warned you'll be paying a bit of a markup).

If you're playing catch-up, you'll want to look at liquidator stores like Marshalls, Big Lots!, Meijer, TJ Maxx, Ross, and Ollie's. This comes with the caveat that stock isn't necessarily consistent and in the case of Ross it's one or two on the shelf at the most so things go fast (plus there's the folks that open stuff without buying... ).

Dollar Stores like Dollar General and Family Dollar are a gamble as they get some odd stock. The latter was the only store to get the PotP Novastar wave, sold at full price. Including Dollar Tree, they're better for sniffing out knockoffs if you're in that sorta thing.