Are a geek? A collector? Fan of sports? Enjoy reading? A fan of board games? Looking for that unique costume? Then the boutique l’Imaginaire at Laurier Quebec is for you!
The story behind l’Imaginaire started back in 1986 when M. Benoit Doyon acquired Comptoir Timbres et Monnaies (Stamps and Money services) at Place Laurier. Fast forward to 1995, l’Imaginaire is born as the second boutique to compliment the first one. L’Imaginaire vocation was mainly for role playing games, comic books, figurines and different themed items from the medieval era.
Today, this unique boutique has over 8000 square feet of surface to better serve their clients. Many types of merchandise can be found in both French and English language.
Anime and Mangas
A little bit of Japan is what any fan of anime could want! Anime could be loosely translated as the Japanese version of what we know to be cartoons on TV. Awesome storylines, styles of drawings, music scores, once you have started you can’t resist watching the entire thing! Classics like Princess Mononoke and My Neighbor Totoro remain still popular despite being over 20 years old. They now sell DVDS, Movies and Boxsets of your favourite series at affordable prices.
What is a Manga? For those new to the genre, a manga is a book, novel, graphic novel, that are from Japan. Very popular and often are what is printed before someone decides to turn it into an anime for their fanbase. Some of the best classics nowadays are Naruto, One Piece, Fruits Basket, Attack on Titan (which was a smash hit 3 years ago and people cannot wait for the Anime to catch up to the manga version!)
Extra: The snacks Pocky, a very popular treat in Japan can now be enjoyed right here in Quebec. Plushies, wallpapers, wallscrolls, keychains, card decks of your popular anime series also can be found here.
For the geeks
There’s a little bit of everything when it comes to geeks. Mangas, Anime, Star Wars fans, Stargate fans, Lord of the Rings fans, comic book collectors, you get the idea. This place is heaven because there is ALWAYS something to buy, to add to your collection, that you want to buy even though it’s not that important.
Items such as posters, wallscrolls, wallets, calendars, all themed after your favourite shows, tv series, anime series, plushies, keychains, bags, heck even towels. Like I said PARADISE!
For the collectors
Fans of sports can find all kinds of merchandise such as shirts, models, collector cards and coins, you know the usual stuff. A big plus for a real collector is most likely the signed autograph of known athletes like figurines and posters.
For comic books fans, you know, the ones that collect every issue of popular series that have been around for ages! Just to name a few: Batman, Justice League, Spawn, Spiderman, Wonder Woman, Daredevil, Avengers, X-Men, Wolverine and a ton more. Well this place has a ton of them and you can even possibly get your hands on the number #1 issue of the series, but beware these are collector’s items, well preserved in plastic bags (especially the old issues) and so the prices go hand in hand.
Tip : I myself am a fan of the Spawn series, so I purchased the #1 issue of the Spawn Comic Books series for 25$ back in 1998, still preserved and carefully packed in its plastic bag with a cardboard sleeve. Yup, this place is paradise 😉
Role Playing Games in the field (Live Action role Playing)
Dungeons and Dragons have been around for a long time and probably the most known among the Role Playing type kind of table games. Fans often stick to the original or try the other types of RPG game because the system is different, such as is the case with Pathfinder, Anima, there is even a Star Wars and Conan The Barbarian system now. All depends on what you are looking to become (vampire, barbarian, thief, ogre, assassin, trooper, dragon, etc) Lots of variety to choose from and for those that are fans of RPG game, tons of dices in all shapes, sizes and colors.
Board games, classic games & puzzles
We can’t have a unique store without having some classics such as Yahtzee, Dominos, chess game, Solitary, Clue, Monopoly (themed versions available: Mario Bros, Marvel, Star Wars, there’s even a Deadpool on now!), you think of one and they are sure to have it!
More of a puzzle kind of person? No worries they have 3D puzzles, wood puzzles, classic 500 pieces to 5000 pieces. There’s also and always some Lego, who doesn’t love legos!
In the past years, board games have come quite a long way! Now there is something for everybody, no matter what style your gameplay. A few popular and fan favourites are Zombicide (which includes its many expansion sets), Munchkins (includes many themed expansion sets such as Marvel, Steam Punk, Deadpool, Conan The Barbarian, Zombies, Apocalypse, etc.) and Catan.
There are so many more categories and items to discover in this boutique, you can always visit their online store. What’s cool is that with you get free shipping with orders that are 49$ and more, anywhere in Canada. You can visit their website.