We had an amazing weekend at the Ice N Spice, and wanted to thank everyone for coming out. We had so many new and familiar faces stopping by to see the Spiderman ice sculpture carved by the world renowned Danny Kissel himself! We also participated in the Co-co Crawl witch allowed us to hand out Free Hot Co-Co to over 150 people in one day! Thank you to everyone who came out and the local media for covering this event so that everyone found out about this fantastic festival!  Bellow are some highlights  from WFMZ's coverage of the event. 

WEST READING, Pa. - World-renowned ice sculptor Danny Kissel is back in West Reading and he's using his icy-senses while crafting a Spider-Man ice sculpture.
"This weather's perfect for ice carving," said Kissel.
The Borough's Ice 'N Spice Festival is back for its 5th year on Penn Avenue. Lining the Avenue will be a record 36 ice sculptures, many of them carved by Kissel.

"We have a total of 15,600 pounds of ice," said Mark Woodward, one of the festival's organizers
The icy event accentuates the many businesses and restaurants in the Borough, some of which will be offering discounts and other specials.
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W. READING, Pa. - The snow and ice made for a festive weekend at a festival in Berks County.
The Ice N Spice' Festival was in West Reading and showcased ice sculptures and food and drinks from local businesses.
"Great time to come out, laugh, have fun with friends and family," said festival attendee, Kim Ebeling of Hamburg.

This was the 5th year for the Ice 'N Spice Festival.
Richard Frederick of Flying Hills was excited for the festival to return. "They have a few festivals on the streets but this is one of my favorites."
People gathered in West Reading all weekend to enjoy the winter event, despite the low temps. 

"When you're laughing and stuff, you stay warm. Laughing and with friends, its a good time," said Cindy Rohrbach of Olley. 
Danny Kissel of Kissel Studios led a talented group of local sculptors at the event. Over 30 ice designs were seen lining up and down Penn Avenue.
Festival goers also enjoyed some spicy and local offerings. 
Businesses nearby offered hot spicy drinks, spicy bites to eat, and spicy specials on different merchandise in their stores.
"Business is booming. Business is good, I can't complain," said Adam Kenderdine, Benchwarmers Coffee and Donuts.
"It's good. Bringing a lot of people to the Avenue," continued Kenderdine. 
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Symbiote Collectibles was in the Reading Eagle again this Thanksgiving! We were so happy to get to run a new design this year showcasing some of our featured products! The featured products were Pokemon cards, classic video games, and action figures. We were featured in the shop small section in Berks and Beyond. Clip this add and save 10% off! we attached a printable version of this coupon below for your convince. 

Print and Save!!!

69 News stopped by the shop to film a story on William Shatner going to space, well we got to talking about the collectibles industry. 69 News ran both stories! 69 News aired these stories October 14th and 15th.  Thank you so much to 69 News for for reaching out to us to help with these stories it very appropriated. 

Inside Symbiote Collectibles on Penn Avenue in West Reading, items dating back to early days of "Star Trek" sit for sale on the shelves.
"I can't believe he's going into space at 90, let alone that he's already landed and successfully did it," said Max Hirneisen, the store's owner. "I mean, a 90-year-old, to be leaving this planet is pretty impressive." 
Leading up to Wednesday's launch, the store said it saw a high demand for Captain Kirk collectibles, and it anticipates that demand will last.  "It definitely seems like the market is going to take a little bit of a bump right now, just because he's big in the news and so popular again for a little bit," Hirneisen said, "so it will probably bump up for a little bit."
Captain Kirk reached the final frontier in real life.

Symbiote Collectibles has been making its way back into the comic convention scene. We have already went to our first show, that being Zolo Con! Zolo Con is an amazing toy show in Bucks County that takes place in the Fuse. The fuse is a old NASA facility were they use to do the G-Force testing, but more importantly it was a super fun and successful show to kick off the convention season! The next show were be at will be RetroCon 2021!!! Retro con is a personal favorite of mine since it has a large verity of voice actors, video games, and so so many vendors!!! We are so excited to be able to make it back to the convention scene again.  
Check out more Convention information [Here] 

We at Symbiote Collectibles have begun hosting in person Magic events now that restrictions have been relaxed due to increased vaccinations and lower case numbers throughout the state. We have been so happy to get to get the community together again for some good old fashioned gaming! We at Symbiote Collectibles allow vaccinated players to play without a mask and ask that non-vaccinated players please wear a mask. We have been so happy to get to host pre-release, drafts, and commander events for Magic the Gathering. We also have free to play board games available for shop members on Saturdays.  We will also look into different gaming events and Pokemon when it makes sence to be able to offer these events as well.  Stay tuned for more information as we continue to add new and exciting events!!! 

The Pennsylvania Department of Health has updated its Mask Guidelines as of 5/14/2021, Pennsylvanians that are fully vaccinated may choose not to wear a mask while shopping inside. This change in guidelines is in line with both CDC and Pennsylvania's current best practices. We still encourage the use of masks and will have free masks available for all non-vaccinated people.



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Symbiote Collectibles Membership sign up only costs $3 and includes at ton of members only benefits! The biggest of theses is unlocking a new section of the shop only available to membership card holders.  This section is the new and improved play space, bulk cards, and DVD room! You will also get a professionally ​printed custom laminated membership card just for you. We also have members only deals and discounts! We will be opening this new section of the shop in mid May! Get your card today only at Symbiote Collectibles!!! ​

Announcement video introducing the pilot for my Sonic adventure 2 gaming channel! Symbiote Collectibles may encounter some scheduling conflicts and may be closed more as I focus on my new passion project of playing sonic Adventure 2 all day everyday. We will keep things fresh by mixing up our content with Tony Hawk Underground 2 tutorials.  This new chapter for the Symbiote Collectibles gaming channel will be the future of both the shop and retail as we know it!!! We may only have 800 subscribers now but I'm sure were hit a million in no time!!! If you read this far your a real trooper this is all clearly nonsense. Happy April Fools Day and stay silly my friends ;P 

We at Symbiote Collectibles closed our doors to the public for the first time one year ago due to  Covid-19, lucky we were able to open our doors again when the state moved into they yellow phase. We reposted our first video update since even though the message is already a year old I think it is important to occasionally look back so we can better our future. This past year had really been a journey with many ups and downs. We are finally approaching what may be the light at the end of this tunnel and may see some semblance of what we had pre pandemic. 

Despite being able to open our doors and continue to do business there are still many things that remain unlike before. When we first shut down we also had to cancel all upcoming in person events. When this first happened we expected this to last 2 weeks maybe a month at the most but unfortunately this has not been the case. Our play space remains closed but we have not just sat around and done nothing with the space we continued to renovate and are excited to announce we will be re-imaging our play space as additional retail space and a new and upgraded play area!!! There is still more work to be done but we will continue to work so that when the time is right we will be able to unveil a whole new area of the shop to explore!  
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Symbiote Collectibles has always and will continue to follow all state, local, and CDC guidelines. Max the owner of Symbiote Collectibles has also received his first shot for the Moderna vaccine and will receive the second dose early in April! This past year has been very strange to say the least but we are so fortunate that our wondaful community has managed to stay together even when things got turned upside-down. Thank you so much to everyone who supported us during these strange times we couldn't have done anything without all of you wonderful people.