Blockbuster Nostalgia Returns: Benicia Welcomes Free Movie Library at The Pocket Monkey Vintage

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April 2

The feeling of going out and picking up a random movie to watch at home is returning for the residents of Benicia with Blockbuster coming back in a new but small and free model.

The Traveling Museum in Benicia has unveiled its first Solano County Blockbuster stand at the front of The Pocket Monkey Vintage. This repurposed old newspaper stand – which was donated by the Benicia Herald – has been renovated to provide the public with access to DVDs and VHS tapes with a take-one-and-leave-one policy.

All completely free of charge.

The Traveling Museum team, Thomas Brungardt, and Tony Bernasconi have partnered up with FreeBlockbuster.org and The Pocket Monkey Vintage to create a movie library for anyone missing that nostalgic feeling of shifting through movies. FreeBlockbuster.org was started by Brian Morrison, a film and TV producer who was also a former Blockbuster employee. He refitted and painted an old LA Times newspaper dispenser to the colors of Blockbuster and put movies in it for anyone to have.

(Michael Montalvo/The Reporter) — The Traveling Museum in Benicia has unveiled its first Solano County Blockbuster stand at the front of The Pocket Monkey Vintage.(Michael Montalvo/The Reporter, Vacaville)

"We got started because we just had a bunch of stuff and instead of selling a bunch of stuff online we thought that it would be cool to kind of have a little outlet," said Bernasconi. "We've been thrifting for 20 years, and I used to go to the Goodwill in Santa Clara to get old weird T-shirts and now we do it professionally."

Brungardt and Bernasconi have been friends since high school and have always liked vintage items like movies or anything from their childhood that made them feel like a kid again. It took them only a week to paint and set up the blockbuster news rack.

"Our aim is 80s and 90s nostalgia, so our inventory is aimed more for people who are 25 to 45 who want to buy the stuff they had when they were a kid or even couldn't get because their parents didn't have any money at the time," said Brungardt

FreeBlockbuster.org currently has over 160 boxes around the nation with boxes in California located in Oakland, Santa Rosa, and San Rafael, however, one of their movie boxes in Louisville Kentucky was stolen just this past weekend.

Located on 1st St in Benicia, The Pocket Monkey Vintage is the home of The Traveling Museum, a store that offers used clothing and vintage collectibles like old VHS tapes in Benicia. The Traveling Museum can also come to you with the custom van that allows them to drive all over the Bay Area and Solano County.