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Post by ritt on Oct 12, 2016 20:38:36 GMT -6
One time in the Mid-1990's I was on vacation with family in rural Missouri (Perhaps Osage Beach, I can't recall) and briefly visited a local establishment that was a combination comic book & CCG store, tattoo parlor (!), and knife shop (!!). There were endearingly crude murals on the walls of then-popular super-heroes like Ghost Rider 2099. I think the proprietors were just kids themselves (18-ish).
Wish I could've stayed longer, it seemed like it would have been a fun place to hang out.
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EdOWar
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Posts: 315
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Post by EdOWar on Oct 12, 2016 22:18:00 GMT -6
My local store is the War house in Long Beach, CA. It's a store that I've been patronizing for about twenty years now, but it's one of the true hobby originals that started in the mid-1970s. The store is listed in an ad for stores that carry products by The Armory in my Best of Dragon vol.1. The owner even formed the Balboa Game company which published Warlock (an early OD&D variant game) as well as a few supplements. I think they still have copies! I bought one about five or six years ago that cost me less than 10 bucks and I've seen copies go for quite a bit of money. So here's a shout out to the War House! Still going strong I guess. My most recent purchase there was Call of Cthulhu 7th edition. Another Southlander with a shout out for the War House! Whenever we fly back home to see family I take a few trips there. When I last went in 2013/14, they were still selling Warlock and shrink wrapped Judges Guild modules out of the back room. I didn't start going there until I could drive, though. Before that it was Brookhurst Hobbies in Garden Grove, a quick walk from my grandparents' house. They were the US distributor for Peter Pig, and it was there that I learned about historical wargaming in hex and miniature. Up until they did a massive inventory shift in the mid-2000s, they also kept a really nice collection of old RPG stock at great prices. I always drop by there whenever I go home, too. My first experience was at a shop called Rusty's RPGs and Cards (or was it Comics?), in Buena Park, CA. My mom took me to buy Star Wars after my friend showed me his copy, and I was mesmerized by what seemed like rows and rows of books with games in them. I only went a few times, but I remember there was always a table with people playing, and a wall by the door had handwritten wanted & classified ads for people's game groups pinned to it. I have no idea how long Rusty had been there, but I think he closed up shop about a year or two after I first went. One of these days I'll run into another Orange County person who remembers Rusty's RPGs, and I'll know I didn't dream it up and feel really vindicated. I also spent a lot of time loitering in the model kit aisle at Sav-On Drugs. I've been to Brookhurst Hobbies, too! Though I lived in Long Beach for years and never heard of the War House. Wonder how I missed it.
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Post by ishmann on Nov 4, 2016 22:04:33 GMT -6
For me it's Hobby Town in Lincoln Nebraska. I probably paid for the guys boat with all of my purchases.
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Post by kpeterson on Nov 13, 2016 9:04:29 GMT -6
Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs were the "hobby stores" of my early gaming days. My mother ordered my copies of BD&D, Star Frontiers, and Boot Hill through them.
Though, I do remember visiting a game store called "Triple Alliance" in the Bellevue, WA area when I was probably 11 or 12 (1982 or 1983). And being awed by the cases of miniatures, and all of the Rpgs I'd never heard of before. They went out of business a few years later - I recall that my the time I got my driver's license, they no longer existed.
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Post by doublejig2 on Aug 17, 2019 7:08:19 GMT -6
Black's Hardware in Springfield, IL (late 70's early 80s). It had a hobby section in the back with scale models and trains and an excellent selection of TSR materials, Judges Guild & other frp products, and miniatures.
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Dohojar
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 114
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Post by Dohojar on Aug 17, 2019 8:44:09 GMT -6
There is another favorite of mine. The Sentry Box in Calgary, Alberta. Both the old location and the new! Just an absolutely huge place with enough goodies to make your gamer's wee little brain explode with delight! Wow what a coincidence. That is exactly the same place I used to go to get all my D&D stuff. The old location was cramped and cluttered but it had a great atmosphere. The new store is huge and parking is better but part of me misses that old store on 33rd ave.
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Post by thegreyelf on Aug 17, 2019 8:51:53 GMT -6
Here in Pittsburgh I am super lucky--ALL of the four hobby shops from my early days of gaming are still in business! They are: Phantom of the Attic in Oakland: www.pota-oakland.com/games/Games Unlimited in Squirrel Hill: gamesunl.com/ Eide's Entertainment in the Strip District (downtown Pittsburgh): www.eides.com/Bill & Walt's (downtown Pittsburgh; they've moved several times): www.facebook.com/Bill-and-Walts-Hobby-Shop-200237342421/ Interesting note about PotA: it used to be a chain of stores, and there are still 3 Phantom of the Attic stores in the Pittsburgh area. However, eventually the owner of the chain sold out his stores, each to that store's individual manager. Part of the agreeement was that while they were no longer affiliated with one another, they all got to keep the name. So we now have three PotA stores (four, actually, because the Oakland one now maintains two storefronts--one for comics and one for games) that are 100% independently owned and operated, each with its own unique culture. The only two that are affiliated with one another, as I mentioned, are the Oakland stores. It's amazing that all four of these shops have continued in business uninterrupted for DECADES. Sure, they've changed somewhat--Eide's no longer has a gaming section but is a comics, music, film, and book pop culture emporium. Phantom has moved a block down the street. Games Unlimited now focuses strongly on family board games, but still has a small hobbyist section. I haven't been to Bill & Walts in nigh onto 20 years, but I know they moved from their original basement location to a new storefront a few blocks away. Man, the bus trips to downtown, Oakland, and Squirrel Hill when I was in high school with my buddies, coming back with the latest comics, AD&D books, and TMNT/Heroes' Unlimited books. Good times. Great times, in fact. Pittsburgh is actually something of a gamer's Mecca. Not only are these stores still in business, we have TONS of other gaming and comics stores in the region, including: Drawbridge Games in Castle Shannon (owned by a really good friend of mine): www.drawbridgegames.com/Game Master's in the North Hills (also owned by a friend): www.gamemasterspgh.com/Warhammer at Great Souther Shopping Center (a GW company store): www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Warhammer-Bridgeville?_requestid=10741096Legions on Perry Highway (strong focus on minis gaming): www.legionsgames.com/Geekadrome (very small comics and gaming store in Brookline): www.facebook.com/Geekadrome/New Dimension Comics in Homestead: ndcomics.com/Pittsburgh Comics and Games in Peters Township: pittsburghcomics.com/There's a ton more; those are just the ones off the top of my head.
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Post by sirjaguar on Aug 17, 2019 15:11:49 GMT -6
Ahhh, nostalgia! Seeing as this thread has already been raised from its tomb, i will chime in. In Dallas' Valley View Mall in '78 or '79 there was a D&D store called Just for You or Quest For You. I dont know which because the store letters were in a weird ambiguous font. The employees were in the SCA and often talking with their SCA friends who crowded the store talking about battles on the table and in the field. I was just a little kid, 11 or so, but i picked up on the intense camaraderie and longed for it. The people behind the counter told my parents that D&D was for college ages and up, far too complicated for children. That clinched it for me and within the year my friends and i were playing. Quest for You (i like that version of the name best) was my go-to gaming store for years till it closed in the early 80s.
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Post by Finarvyn on Aug 17, 2019 15:25:08 GMT -6
When I was in grad school in the mid-1980's, there was an awesome store in Bloomington IN called "25th Century Five and Dime," if my memory serves me correctly. It was in a basement so you had to go down these narrow concrete stairs to find the place, but inside was awesome. New and used books and games of all sorts of cool varieties. I spent a lot of time and money there. Someday I'd like to go back to see if the store is still there. -------------------------- EDIT: Sadly, they went out of business "in the late 20th century." www.bloomingpedia.org/wiki/25th_Century_Five_and_Dime
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Post by rsdean on Aug 18, 2019 6:05:43 GMT -6
I'm surprised that I didn't post in this one earlier. My D&D set came in 1976 from Rider's Hobby Shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which was a general purpose place also carrying railroads and RC planes etc. Shortly after that, we got Walt's Hobby Shop in Dearborn, MI, and that was my FLGS until I went off to college in Ann Arbor and Rider's was just around the corner (figuratively).
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Post by noffham on Aug 21, 2019 11:40:56 GMT -6
How did I miss this thread??
My earliest shops were both in Manhattan. Polks hobbies on 23rd street and the Compleat Strategist on 33rd.
I'd spend hours at both.
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Post by angantyr on Aug 21, 2019 13:40:02 GMT -6
I'm in SoCal now, and have been to Brookhurst Hobbies and Last Grenadier, though I had not heard of War House - I'll have to go soon. I have visited Complete Games and Hobbies in C. Springs a couple of times during TDY's to what was then Falcon AFB back in the day. Seem to recall picking up a couple of OOP "Land Beyond the Mountains" modules for TFT there.
However, I'm originally from Minnesota, and in Minneapolis we had Little Tin Soldier on Lake Ave. - awesome place (or "places" - for a little while, at least, they had a location in St. Paul off of Snelling Ave (? - I think) next to a used bookstore where I bought a bunch of Conan paperbacks (for some reason I remember that). Dinkytown also had a little game shop c. 1990 when I went to school at the U of MN - I won runner up in a mini painting contest there. In Duluth there is (still!) Carr's Hobbies, though their more focused these days on HO trains and model kits, but they did sell more games in the past. In their tiny original location I remember it being stacked floor to ceiling with model kits and games... C.B. Coin and Stamp at the corner of Superior St. and Lake Avenue is where I bought both my Holmes Boxed set and my AD&D MM, PH, and DMG - not to mention coins for my collection, as well.
I seem to recall a game shop up in the Iron Range somewhere - either Eveleth or Virginia, MN. I have no idea why we were up there; I only recall buying Dragon No. 52 there.
Question: does anyone here remember a game shop in Coeur d'Alene Idaho called "Hobbittown Hobbies" (or something like that)? We made a road trip back in '82 out west, and I remember stopping there. Seems to me it was below street level. And I bought Dragon #62 there, as well. That's all I remember...
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Post by doublejig2 on Aug 21, 2019 14:05:44 GMT -6
Also I made a trip to Judges Guild school house in 1981.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2019 14:06:01 GMT -6
On the risk of revealing my real name and all to even the most passing visitor from Germany - I was forged and molded in "Hermkes Romanboutique": www.facebook.com/Hermkes-Romanboutique-123689337673427/Without them, no fantasy beyond the books I read as a pre-teen. Without them, no MERP, no Midkemia, no Belgariad, no Fitz & Fool. No D&D. ...Haven't been there in a while. Need to return there, some time. With time.
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