Castle on South Congress to feature novelties, wax figures

The large white castle, located next to the Ms. P’s chicken food truck, is opening this month.

If you have been down South Congress recently, you have probably speculated what exactly the once grey, now white castle building is.

While the white castle, which has been under construction for the past few months, has nothing to do with Harold or Kumar, it may bring some excitement to any classic movie geeks out there.

The castle will house Sfanthor, a science fiction, fantasy and horror-themed store, as the name reveals, which houses comic books, clothing, jewelry, vintage toys and various other forms of memorabilia. Movie collectibles featured in the shop and the museum will feature Nosferatu, Dracula, Frankenstein, Bat Man, Star Trek, Star Wars and X-Men to name a few.

In addition to their souvenir shop, they will also have a wax museum, which is what the owners really want Sfanthor to be focused upon. The wax museum will be based on an array of sci-fi, fantasy and horror heroes, monsters and villains, old and new.

Steve and Veronica Busti, the same couple who brought us The Museum of The Weird on East 6th Street, are the owners of Sfanthor. They call themselves “the kings of sci-fi, fantasy and horror” and seem to really take pride in the uniqueness of what they have to offer. In an interview conducted with The Austin Chronicle, Steve Busti reveals his passion for sci-fi collectibles when he states that the majority of the items in the store previously belonged to him and some items come straight from his extensive comic book collection, which consists of vintage first issues.

The store celebrated their soft opening on March 1 where the owners announced what to expect from Sfanthor. As far as the exact date of Sfanthor’s grand opening, we will just have to wait and see as no definite date has been set in stone. However, the grand opening is aimed towards the beginning of April.

“We are almost done with the castle facade, just a few more details to go,” Busti said. The store will be open first, the wax museum will come later. Hopefully the store will be open by April 1. We will announce it here on the Sfanthor Facebook page first so stay tuned!”

For more information regarding Sfanthor, you can check out their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/sfanthor.