For your LA stay,
Frank and Sons is a must and pretty much the place to go to for toys and collectables. It's like a mini toy show and they open every Wednesday and Saturday. They have anything from comic books to Neca to Hot Toys to Mc D's Happy meal toys. ( I kid you not.) Cool thing is, like all trade shows, there's no sales tax. And if you look hard enough there are gems to be found there at the right price. A fair warning to those visiting for the first time, the location is really tricky, and I'm positive no GPS known to man can take you to the exact location. So make sure you have the written address with you and try not to get lost. There's so much stuff there, you can plan 2 to 4 hours or more just to visit all the booths and stores there. Here's there website for more info:
https://www.frankandsonshow.net/
There's also a place called
Extreme Toys in the Montebello Town Center (inside a typical shopping mall). They sell mostly 1:12 action figures with a few different things here and there. They aren't that much different than your typical action figure toy shop (except maybe for the 1:1 Ironman on their store front), but what I really like about them is that they have a few rare imports, and some of their prices actually beats the best online stores out there. They have a pretty nice collection of "Nightmare before Christmas" figures as well as a few rare ones being sold at normal non-marked up price. They're about 20 mins away from Frank and Sons.
There's nothing big like "Frank and Sons" in San Francisco, but there's "
Hero's Club: Art of Toys" on Clement street. (I live right across 2 minute walk from them). They sell almost exclusively Hot Toys, with some Sideshow stuff and gashapon figures here and there. But their prices are way marked up, so don't expect any more than basically window shopping. But it's cool because these guys have one of the largest collection of high end stuff on display out of all the stores I've visited, so it's definitely a good place to stop by.
There's a place called "
Cards and Comics Central" down on Gaery. They have a mix of comics, statues, 1:12 figures, Hot Toys, cards, etc. About 1-2 minute drive from Hero's Club.
Then there's
Kid Robot if you're into Urban Vinyl figures, probably the most famous Urban Vinyl toy store and it's physical location is in SF. They're on Haight Street, which you probably should visit anyway for shopping and to experience sort of that San Fran 60s hippie culture thing, so make sure to stop by those guys. Here's their website:
https://www.kidrobot.com/
Also on another note, I'm not sure how difficult it is to set up a tour with
Pixar, but supposedly you can call them in advance and set up a time, and they'll let you in their studio and have someone show you around. It's a pretty cool experience and you get to see some of their latest stuff. Their studio is located in SF.
There's more, especially in LA. There's usually at least one toy shop at every major shopping area like Melrose in LA, Haight in SF, etc..
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