Comments on: The AxMan Surplus Store: Fridley, MN

By: BillB

BillB — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:18:42 +0000

Axeman kept the tradition of Crazy Louie’s item descriptions. Sorry Crystal store, but you are not junky enough yet. If you don’t feel like a rat could jump out of a bin of electronic parts an bite your face, you aren’t Axeman yet.

OCB? How did we get from Axeman to OCB?
Since someone brought it up- our favorite game is TTW (Top That Weight)
Simple rules: You observe an obese person and be the first to say “entry”. Then the next person has to ‘top that weight” with another “entry”.
The Minnesota State Fair is a great place for this game- while OCB is referred to as ‘shooting fish in a barrel’ due to the immense quantity of ‘entries’.
Feel free to modify the game with classifcations of “Junior Class”, “Super Heavyweight” , etc as needed to extend the enjoyment of this game.

By: jayson

jayson — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:29:41 +0000

i remember the place in st paul. it use to be a baby blue building very strange! ax man stores are kinda spooky kinda shit you would find in a serial killers garage hahha

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 03:18:15 +0000

Isn’t the Axman character wearing an executioner’s mask?

By: Drizztdj

Drizztdj — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:16:44 +0000

I heart the OCB in Crystal and those Sunday morning lines down to Shinders.

Definitely taking the family down to Axman for a visit.

By: Dave & Kate

Dave & Kate — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:19:41 +0000

This post is seriously hilarious.

I used to rip on my aunt for shopping there, but now I can’t NOT go.

By: Disco Studd

Disco Studd — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:25:50 +0000

What gets me about OCB is every time I go there (once every 3 years or so) I always see the same family there. Mom & Dad, both over 400 lbs, and 10 year old Junior at 2 bills himself pulling up to the buffet just like pigs pulling up to their trough. I’m always either seated right next to them, or I’m constantly bumping into them at the buffet.

BTW, the sister-in-law claims the food there is made from scratch. I’ll leave that up for debate…

By: dumpystripmalls

dumpystripmalls — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:27:38 +0000

Ha ha – yeah, though I poke fun at the OCB a lot, I secretly like the place. I guess it’s a guilty pleasure of mine. I have lots of fond memories going to the OCB when I was a kid. We went to the Crystal OCB & I remember on Friday and Saturday nights, there’d be a line out the door, extending down the hall to Shinders!

By: Disco Studd

Disco Studd — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:06:05 +0000

Did I mention before that this site hits me waaaay too close to home? I shit you not, my wife’s sister is the manager of the OCB in Holly Center!

Is it really just a small world after all, or do I seriously need to get a life? Probably both.

And to the Old Scowl: “THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU F*%^ A STRANGER IN THE @$$, LARRY!” I wonder if there’s an Ax-Man over by the In-N-Out Burger? LOL…

By: The Old Scowl

The Old Scowl — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 07:00:57 +0000

I must add that for the weirdness factor one of the Axeman stores (likely St. Paul’s) had an old school iron lung in the back that served as a sort of terrarium for a species of creature whose name is forgotten but appearance is more than coincidentally similar to the Smurfs characters, which a sign described of in detail. This is the type of Iron Lung that would only be seen in the movie ‘The Big Lebowski’, which the character Arthur Digby Sellers was in when the Dude and Walter Sobchek visited Mr. Sellers and his miscreant son regarding the Dude’s stolen car and a supposed briefcase of ransom money. Perhaps the Coen brothers received their inspiration for that from that Axeman store. I initially thought that it was in Crazy Louie’s but was corrected.

By: The Old Scowl

The Old Scowl — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 01:32:06 +0000

NEWS FLASH! Axman Surplus has a 4th location!
Yes! To all the north and west metro suburban consumers there is a new retail store in lovely Crystal, Minnesota, just a couple of miles down the road (west on Bass Lake Road) from Brookdale Center! It is right next to the Half Price Books and pretty close to another Fantasy Gifts store as well (must be a symbiotic relationship between the two).
Axman Surplus is, no doubt in my mind, THE alpha and omega for the MacGuyvers of this world. This is where flying rocket Ipod brain synthesizer ID curing recreational implant inventors will find the necessary parts to bring this nation out of its economic woes.
Another wonderful surplus store of the past was Crazy Louie’s in St. Paul on University Avenue, east of the AxeMan location. Crazy Louie’s was AxeMan on Equine Steroids and 95% percent pure Bolivian marching powder. The signs were there too, but Louie had displays and merchandise that boggled the mind. A Rolls Royce and a Bentley tucked in back, giant classroom mockups of machine guns (the Army mind you, not PS 285), and other items that have faded from my memory. A Willy Wonka chocolate factory for dweebs and pre-computer engineering geeks.