So, anyone else see any game stores from their days of yore on the list?
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
The Ads of Dragon: Asgard Miniatures
This ad below, which appeared in issue #79 (November 1983), is actually the second page of a two-page advertisement for Asgard Miniatures, which were a line of minis sold by The Armory.
I included it because of the list of stores where Asgard Miniatures were sold. Looking over the Maryland entries, I see Strategy & Fantasy World, which later became The Compleat Strategist. That's the store where I bought many, many RPGs in my early days. I also see The Ship Shop, where I worked for a semester when I first started college -- my one and only experience on the retail end of the hobby.
So, anyone else see any game stores from their days of yore on the list?
So, anyone else see any game stores from their days of yore on the list?
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Oh, wow, yes, two stores that I LOVED in my younger years, neither of which still exist.
ReplyDeleteThanks for these retrospectives, they're great.
Riders, from the years I lived in Michigan. Anyone know if they're still around?
ReplyDeleteGood old Games 'n' Things in Larkspur, now long gone.
ReplyDeleteOn a happier note, the ancient (around since the 1940s, I thing) Aero Hobbies in Santa Monica. Still there, still going strong. I heard the current owner actually used to hang out there when he was a kid.
I've been to the Compleat Strategist in NYC, great store. Bought my copy of Mutant Future (new versioni) there.
ReplyDelete@Rob Crawford I just checked their web site, looks like there are still Riders in Flint, Ypsilanti and Grand Rapids. The one I used to go to, the one in East Lansing is closed. At one point I think there were well over half dozen of them. There was one where I live now Canton MI, but it closed 2-3 years ago. I think the one in Ann Arbor technically moved to Ypsilanti. Which one did you go to?
ReplyDeleteFour or Five of us used to drive from Jackson MI, to the one off the Trowbridge road exit, of US-127, like 1978-1982. There was a guy there with a waxed mustache that seemed to know every game ever made. We would go to Wendy’s afterward, and then argue about who had to drive home as everyone wanted to read their new stuff. More than anyone wanted to know.
Hey James, I was also in MD in the late-70s / early-80s RPG phase.. in Columbia. The best stores for gaming were the toy store in the Columbia Mall, and a hobby store in Laurel (I don't recall the names). They still exist and still sell limited gaming materials but nothing like the old days, or so it seems!
ReplyDelete"The Gaming House" in Pasadena is gone - I think it must have been gone long before I moved here in the mid-90's. I did a search for it online but couldn't find much.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, less than a mile East of the location listed in the ad there was another game shop called the "Game Zone" that turned into a Game Empire a few years ago, and is still there doing quite well.
And, yeah, Aero Hobbies is still around. I was just in there about four months ago. It's not as quirky as it used to be, but it's a whole lot cleaner and more organized.
Game Zone bought out The Gaming House From the owners who had purchase it from the founder "Andy". Games Empire is still going strong
DeleteGreat to hear from another Pasadena!
DeleteSadly Game Empire is no more in Pasadena (not sure if the San Diego one is still in operation). Chuck passed away unexpectedly back in 2020 (I think it might have been cancer). His wife, as I understand it, sold the business to some former customers, who renamed it Odyssey Games. Same location but different layout (they moved the cash register, for example).
And there's also another game store in Pasadena now, in Old Town. It's called Gameology and it's a "franchise" of a store in Upland. Some of the former Game Empire employees work there.
Twilight Books in Syracuse (which was also an excellent comic book store) is apparently gone. Outside of the occasional airport shuffle, I haven't been back to NY in a long time, and have no intention of ever setting foot there again, but still, somehow, that makes me a little sad.
ReplyDeleteI don't recognize the names of ANY of these Washington stores...they've probably gone the way of the dodo.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAsgard themselves have gone, having been partially absorbed by their Nottingham neighbours Games Workshop.
ReplyDeleteBut their figures have not. Having been done over by the tax man they sold all their moulds to pay the bills to...
Deletehttp://www.thevikingforge.net/
and no, I'm not part of them. Just been buying them since 1979....
I'll second motortree. Games N Things in Larkspur Landing (Calif). I also worked there for a time which was heaven for a gamer.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. Nothing listed from the time in my hometown, but Game-Alot in Santa Cruz, CA is listed, and that was a rival of a educational/parent-teacher store I worked at in the late 90s after college. I think they mostly cut into the board game stock we carried, probably because they had a better volume discount. Apparently it's still open.
ReplyDeleteOdyssey Oddities in Silverdale, WA was one of the first game stores I went to (in its downtown Bremerton location) in Bremerton. It was where I first learned about Striker. It went out of business a few months after this ad appeared.
ReplyDeleteI think one shop I used to go to is on the list. Oddly enough the one I used to buy the occasional Asgard miniature from isn't on the list.
ReplyDeleteI haven't been to The Compleat Strategist in Manhattan in a while; I'm due a visit.
ReplyDeleteAh, Bill & Walts Hobby shop on Smithfield St in Pittsburgh. I still see it pop up on lists like this, but man, I don't know anyone who goes there except for model train guys and the occasional RC guys. I all my gaming years, still have never been there.
ReplyDeleteThe original Compleat Strategist on 33rd street in New York City. :)
ReplyDeleteI see two: Last Grenadier in Burbank and Aero Hobbies ("Crossroads of the Universe") in Santa Monica, both still there. There's also Dragon's Den in Sacramento, where I was raised, but I don't know if that's still around.
ReplyDeleteWow! Oakleaf Stamps and Comics in Mason City, IA. I remember going there as a young guy with my brother, then years later riding my bike there to buy AD&D books. Oakleaf is still around, although it's in a different part of town and only sells a handful of gaming books these days. I'm pretty sure the place is called Oakleaf Comics and Collectables or something to that effect these days. Thanks, James, this brought back memories.
ReplyDeleteAm, the memories! This ad lists two of the three most influential stored of my youth: B&A Hobbies of Michigan City and Valparaiso Pet and Hobby of Valparaiso; both of Indiana.
ReplyDeleteI bought my first issue of Dragon Magazine at B&A; they were mostly focused on trains, but also at first the best local source for miniatures, as their original gaming focus was on wargames.
Valpo Pet & Hobby was where I ended up buying most of my Judges Guild products, as well as the more esoteric RPG products.
Absent from the list is Wings & Things, which IIRC, only opened shortly before this ad appeared, so probably wasn't on their publishing list yet. Being in my hometown of Chesterton, Wings & Things was my most frequented store; in fact, most of my summers were spent there throughout high school, and that's where I bought most of my TSR stuff (as well as Runequest, Powers & Perils, and Lords of Creation).
I ended up working there (though never "officially") on a credit/discount basis, more or less being the games buyer my last year in Chesterton, going to Chicago with the owner to buy games at the local distributors. Sadly, several years after I graduated high school, the owner got into financial trouble after investing too deeply in the RC Car craze, and was convicted of arson for burning down his shop and warehouse... his brother and co-owner re-founded the store, but it ended up closing about a decade ago.
As I haven't been back in the area in some years, I don't know the current status of the other shops. From a quick google search, it looks like Valpo Pet & Hobby is still open, at least the Hobby side, though it sounds like it's mostly "hobbies" nowadays, and not much in games. B&A, too, seems to be open, though likely focused again on trains.
Oh yeah! The Drowsy Dragon in Columbus was a mythical place for my first gaming group. I grew up a couple hours from Columbus, so I didn't get to actually visit the place until years later. But it kept showing up in our issues of Dragon.
ReplyDeleteWhen I finally got there it was a true old school store, in an old house, run by a nice couple. It was quirky and had a good sized consignment shelf. I got to visit it a few times before it closed.
Good memories.
Kelvingreen - I think Asgard was absorbed by Tabletop Games rather than Citadel Miniatures (as it was at the time, Games Workshop buying Citadel was a little later than the demise of Asgard I think). Alas, Tabletop is gone as well now, some TTG lines are sold by 15mm.co.uk but I have no idea where the 25mm stuff ended up.
ReplyDeleteYup, Men-At-Artms in Middle Island, Long Island, NY. Definitely a destination for my friends and I, given that even in the 1980's it could take us most of a Saturday afternoon to drive out there and back (of course with many stops at Taco Bell's, White Castle, 7-11, etc. for refills on snacks, drinks, etc. which added to the length of the trip!).
ReplyDeleteIt was the Island's source for all things GW and Citadel back in the day. D&D was everywhere, but only at Men-At-Arms could one procure the latest and greatest imports from across the pond. Of course, back then I had no idea of half the stuff I was looking at, and would zero in on the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay materials. Good times...
Although I don't get out there as often as I would like, I believe that it is still in business, although the owner had to give up most of his gaming space (the adjacent storefront) several years ago due rent increases.
Also, pondering the existence of two (2!) Compleat Strategists in NYC, and one in Montclair, NJ! That blew my mind.
While I wasn't as much of a 'hobbyist' as some of my friends, "The Command Post" in San Diego was *the* store to go to for minis, models, etc.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea if they are still around though.
I've still got my Asgard miniatures from the late 1970s including some that I bought from Bryan Ansell at the Model Engineer Exhibition in Wembley Conference Centre.
ReplyDeleteI doubt that I ever read this list, because two of those names jump out at me. I went often to the Drowsy Dragon in Columbus, but not University Miniatures on High St. Neither of those are still around, of course. The address in Gahanna, though, is a shock. That's the suburb I grew up in, and Andalus is in the same subdivision as my old house! Apparently, someone had a home business.
ReplyDeleteIf Bill & Walt's in Pittsburgh was in a basement in downtown, then I think I went there once with my model-railroading dad. That's all I remember of it.
To echo JB: I'm not familiar with any of those WA stores. Many are long-gone by now.
ReplyDeleteAnd, hell, "The Military Corner" was in Portland, OREGON, not Washington State. It looks like it may still be around, though the name has changed.
KP beat me to it about the "Portland, WA" entry. Too funny. As a native Portlander, I object to being moved across the river to the Apple State!
ReplyDeleteI shopped at Military Corner all the time back in the day, and in Oregon we also had a chain of stores called Endgames, which started in the college town of Eugene and spread to Portland and south to Medford. I don't recall when they started but I spent 6 years working in the Portland area stores (there were as many as four) from 1986 until 1992, and they'd been around in the metro area since at least 1980. So those would be considered "newcomers" amongst the grognards, huh? :)
Anthony,
ReplyDeleteAero Hobbies of Santa Monica is still around. However, the Last Grenadier shops all disappeared some years ago. The Burbank store was the last one to shut its doors.
@Tony - the Last Grenadier is still open. I just called them to confirm. They moved to North Hollywood and is but a small shell of its former self, but it was still there. I really wanted to take out my phone and snap a few pictures of the place because it's one of the last reminders of what a mess old game stores used to be - dark, floor to shelf ceilings, a huge banquet tables down the middle of the floor just full of stacks and stacks of mis-filed and unrelated products, all jumbled together, next to an area that's been cleared away to play miniatures wargames, next to a half-eaten Subway sandwich.
ReplyDeleteThe owner/manager was busy discussing the Battle of Waterloo with a customer and completely ignored me when I walked in. Both he and his "customer" were in the early 60s, I would imagine. About 2/3 of the store was filled with old military history books, many of which looked like they once belonged in a library.
But, my point is... it's still there.
Having started gaming in 1981 in a small town in eastern Ohio, the closest thing we had to a gaming store was the Coin & Hobby Shop in Wheeling, WV. I'm fairly certain they were never listed as a gaming store in any magazine at the time.
ReplyDeleteLike Tom, I had heard about the Drowsy Dragon in Columbus, but never got to visit it until I moved to Columbus in '90. It was a quaint house/store, and I was sad to see it close down a number of years ago.
Karate Badger, by "absorbed" I didn't mean a buyout, but rather that some of Asgard's talent -- and Bryan Ansell -- moved on to Citadel.
ReplyDelete@Drew - Though I live in Des Moines, I visited Oakleaf back in the day. I still have a book with a price sticker from them.
ReplyDeleteAnuvin/The Fantasy Gameshop in Des Moines wasn't listed in that particular ad, but they were always in the Armoury an Ral Partha ones (I still remember their phone number: 515-274-2521). Those kinds of ads were in almost every issue of early Dragon. They were very helpful if you were going on vacation somewhere and wanted to find a game shop.
Kevin's Hobby Shop in New Cumberland, PA! No longer there. :( My dad's shop (M. Foner's Games Only Emporium) had opened the year before, so I don't know why it wasn't on the list. It's definitely evidence of the popularity of the hobby that a town that small could support two stores.
ReplyDeleteI remember kids in high school talking about the Drowsy Dragon in Columbus, Ohio. Wonder if it's still there.
ReplyDeleteI used to visit my grandparents in Carmel and loved going to Game Gallery. My older brother introduced me to D&D and we would go stare at the dice, miniatures and other cool stuff they had. Game Gallery is gone now, since about 2000, but their sister store Games of Berkeley has been around since 1980 and is still going strong.
ReplyDeleteI see "The Toy Soldier" in Bath, Maine, listed. That was the first gaming shop I visited, in pre-D&D days, when wargaming was the big thing. Their sister store in Newburyport MA, where I worked as a teen, is not listed. Both are long gone now!
ReplyDeleteWow, Aero Hobbies was included in that ad around the time I stopped my several year run of being a kid playing there a lot. I made some blog posts a couple of years ago about my experiences as a young person there. It was a hangout for a lot of older (and by older I mean 25-70 yr olds) guys who were for the most part very negative. It was a sort of dark, unfriendly place to younger folks and kids (hmmm...a pre-internet Dragonsfoot type crowd?). I to this day don't know why I hung out there gaming as long as I did, but putting together my own groups to play with was the path to true gaming bliss.
ReplyDeleteI guess the kid who grew up and eventually became older and bought the place from the previous owner who was dying from cancer a few years ago had a different experience than I did. Then again, old owner Gary tended to have a series of very young blond boys he had help around the place. Maybe Gary was more protective and supportive of his "cabin boys" than us other young gamers. It's kind of weird that one stuck around all the way into adulthood for around 25 years to eventually buy the place.
As for the comment about Aero "going strong" above, much like most of the rest of California game shops it's hanging in there on a wing and a prayer. I think things like "Flames of War" coming along and being popular now and again are the only things keeping these shops alive. I know I hardly go to them anymore, what with mini's and other game materials being available online.
A few people have mentioned Aero Hobbies. The store moved from the location shown in the ad, but is still is on Santa Monica Blvd. The previous owner, Gary, died a few years ago. They seemed to be pretty big on Mustangs and Messerschmitts there.
ReplyDeleteThe post above wasn't there when I started typing mine. I didn't start going to Aero until about 1986, but Gary was always really nice to me.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Aero Hobbies, I only got a chanced to go there twice before Gary, the old owner, passed away. I'm going to write a more in-depth post about it some day on my blog, but the short version was that he was... "quirky."
ReplyDeleteThe first time I went, it was right after work, and I went into the store about fifteen minutes before 6:00pm and was just amazed at how much stuff was crammed in there. I was in gamer geek heaven, and spent what I thought was a long time looking around. While crouching down to look through a stack of stuff on the floor, which included (in the same stack) a brand new copy of the Iron Kingdoms Campaign Guide from around 2008 and Dragon issue #71 from about 1983, I felt a "presence" over my shoulder.
I turned to look, and there was Gary, just staring at me. He said, "It's about that time." It was at this point that I realized there was no one else in the store, and I got a little scared. I reached into my pocket to grab my keys to use as a weapon. Then I had a thought.
"Do you close at 6pm?"
"Yes."
Seriously? What kind of game store closes at SIX IN THE EVENING??? I'd never in my life been in a game store that closed before 10pm.
There's more to the story, but I'll save it for another day.
Martin: hoo boy, take it from me. Gary was not a complete asshole like a good amount of his older regulars. But He was nicest and most supportive of the regulars who spent the most money there, so those guys got away with treating anyone they wanted like shit, and happy, easily impressed teenagers (with limited funds) like me were a regular target of bile from them. He was a pretty creepy guy sometimes. Not just the blonde "cabin boys" thing, but the guy lived with his mom well into his thirties, and beyond for all I know.
ReplyDeleteI love that part about him looming over you, Martin. That was so Gary. He was a weird dude. Please keep me in mind and notify me about any more Aero Hobbies memories you might have to tell when you post on them. I got a few beauts from my old times there I may repost again in the future (I seem to have elminated them from my blog; I must have been trying to tidy up the more negative posts). Pretty interesting group of old school characters hung out there back in the early days. Sort of a pre-internet group of Dragonsfoot type S.O.B.'s
Re: Gahanna, OH -- Huh. Never knew they ran a gaming store, but the Sieglings are still around in the Columbus area; you might run into them at sf conventions. Their name (and now I realize, their store) has a cameo in Bujold's novel Barrayar, as some may recall.... You can even buy bookbags with their Vorbarr Sultana logo, totally with their permission and Bujold's.
ReplyDeleteOh, and Van apparently also collects stamps. Nothing like being multi-fandom!
Nothing in Louisiana. Which isn't too much of a shock...
ReplyDelete@Brian - Wow...poor old Military Corner! Mentioned in Dragon Mag and in the wrong state at that. After I worked at Endgames ...like you, I went to work for the corner for several years. It was a pretty cool place, and still is, although they call it Bridgetown Hobbies now.
ReplyDeleteMichael -- I used to go to a Rider's in Southgate or Taylor, depending on how you want to describe it. I actually think they had stores in Ann Arbor *AND* Ypsilanti at the same time, but can't swear to it.
ReplyDeleteMen at Arms Hobbies (Middle Island, NY) is still going strong under Jim Katona's ownership
ReplyDeleteI am a regular at the place; I was there just two days ago to buy the latest Arkham Horror boardgame expansion.
I'm surprised Games Of Berkeley isn't on the list. It's been around at least thirty years and had n excellent selection of miniatures. Plus, Berkeley Game Distributors was close by.
ReplyDeleteGood old Game Plus in Mount Prospect IL is still going strong!
ReplyDelete@Martin
ReplyDeleteThat's great news about Last Grenadier! They were closing up shop for good when I left LA several years ago. Sounds like they rose from the ashes. I'll have to visit next time I am down there.
@Tony - I'm not sure at what point you last visited the store, but I remember them when there were located on Olive (I think?) in Burbank, and the store was huge with a variety of different gaming products, a big staff, lots of customers, and a friendly, cool atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteThe store that exists now may as well be a completely different store entirely. I almost wish I hadn't gone, because that's what I remember now, versus what it used to be.
YMMV, of course.
Apparently there was a store not 4 blocks from my current residence! Maybe I should stalk the old location, see what I can find out.
ReplyDeleteGary Switzer of Aero Hobbies provided some of the painted minis shown in the photos in Chapter 11 ("Little Metal People") of J. Eric Holmes' 1981 FRPG book, and is also thanked in the introduction, along with others, for help in preparation of the book.
ReplyDeleteZenopus: not to keep knocking Gary, especially since he is no longer around, but for a guy who spent around half of each day for decades painting mini's at his register stool his stuff was very subpar, especially in the post Gamers Workshop world. I'm shocked somebody wanted to use his work as an example in a book. Take a look:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.aerohobbiesgames.com/gallery/?dir=images
Yep, Aero still has a bunch of Gary mini's on display and for sale. I saw them when I went in the other year to ask for more details about his passing (despite some old issues I had with the guy, he was pretty nice to me in my younger years going to the shop and I was a little sad I never dropped by to say "what up?" over the years). I was shocked at how very basic his style was. He never evolved it. Shading, washing, and other techniques most of us at least improve on a little bit these days were certainly not his wheelhouse. No wonder they still have so many of them laying around. You would have a hard time giving these away.
First of all, thanks for posting this. A great stroll down amnesia lane.
ReplyDeleteGood to see all the posts about Gary and Aero. Yes, he was an odd character. But once you got to know him, he was a pretty decent guy with a wicked sense of humor.
I started going to Aero when my local shop in Westwood shut it's doors. (it was on LeConte right next to Sepi's- wish I could remember the name, something like "Historical Models").
I spent many pleasurable Friday nights there in the mid 80s whiling the time away playing RuneQuest and painting miniatures. I was in high school and yes, there were some cantankerous old farts who were regulars, but this was roleplaying, would you expect any different?
As for Aero itself, it was like a treasure trove for anyone interested in RPGs. Gary wasn't exactly meticulous about cleanliness. You never knew what you'd find in some of the dusty corners or piles of books laying around the shop. During game breaks (after runs to Pinocchio's) I'd scour the shop, hunting for interesting thing. I was almost never disappointed.
I really have some fond memories of the place. Hard to imagine anyone running a business like that now. On the rare occasions when I go into a hobby store these days, I'm often bemused by how orderly and clean everything is. Just seems wrong.
Thanks again for posting this.
Andrew: if I'm not mistaken the Westwood shop was another Last Grenadier. I played at least a couple of game nights over there. The backroom was painted in a cool dungeon motiff. Around my earliest times going there I remember Gary had bought/inherited their stock when they went out of business. One of the reasons his place was so messy and cluttered was that influx of material. He barely knew what he had.
ReplyDeleteI had many a lunch from Pinnochios. The type of Italian sandwich deli you have to go to The Valley or downtown to find nowadays. It's been a couple of small nightclubs/bars since in closed.
So I'm guessing the super-creepy ex-Vietnam vet Dormouse was still there? He was one of these guys I mentioned who spent all his money there so sort of got to rule the roost of regulars with his self-rightious arrogance, Or how about the old and obnoxious "Willy," a ridiculous WW2 vet who depending on the day you asked was in either the army, navy, airforce, or marine corps during the war, who multiple times almost got into fist fights with some of the youngest kids who regularly played.
If my dad or mom had ever stepped foot in that place and saw some of these guys, I'd have been sent off to a private school in another state. Like I said, a lot of old blow hards there should not have been around anyone under 18. Glad it was pleasant for you, though. Maybe child services rousted the place after the early 80's and forced the weirdo's into acceptable behavior.
Brunomac: The book came out in 1981, and Holmes lived in LA at the time, so he probably knew Gary through the store. The photos (two with figures credited to Gary) are in black & white, so the painting is hard to judge. But the minis in the photos in that link you provided (thank you) look perfectly nice to me - a completely untrained eye, but that was also the demographic for the book. The photos in the book are most impressive in their staging.
ReplyDeleteBTW, this newspaper article about D&D from the LA Times in 1979 might be of interest to those from that area. It opens with a quote from Gary Switzer and later mentions Aero Hobbies. There's also a section interviewing Holmes where he says he has thousands of minis.
ReplyDeleteFantasy Life in a Game Without End
"Gary wasn't exactly meticulous about cleanliness. You never knew what you'd find in some of the dusty corners or piles of books laying around the shop. During game breaks (after runs to Pinocchio's) I'd scour the shop, hunting for interesting thing. I was almost never disappointed."
ReplyDeleteWaterloo in Stony Brook was like that. You didn't browse; you excavated.
Zenopus: I remember once at around 15 years old coming to a game at Aero (Runequest that night which was huge there then because Gary loved the game so much, alternating with Traveller most nights), and I did not have a mini for my character with me. Gary I think was humorously miffed when I said I didn't have the money to buy one that night. He was usually generous with the figs laying around, but as a goof on me he took one of those old blocky Risk boardgame pieces, and on the spot painted a big grinning face and some clothing on the block. He did it in 5 minutes flat, and it was the most artistic last minute block face painting I had ever seen. I doubt I could do a decent job on that, so maybe with real mini's he had a minimilist attitude.
ReplyDeleteI had the blockman for years, but it eventually got swallowed up by the storms of adult life.
Most of the hobby and games stores I frequented in the ‘70s and ‘80s are long gone now. The Battered Dwarf on Parliament – where I bought my original copy of the Holmes Basic Set back in ’78 or ’79 – was definitely a real gamers’ store: nothing but RPGs and a little wargaming; they almost never opened on time; and the staff spent as much time playing as “selling.”
ReplyDeleteThe Four Horsemen on Yonge had a good reputation but I only managed to successfully visit in two or three times – it possessed some kind of advanced cloaking technology and I literally walked right past it on a number of occasions (I was limited to “Shank’s Mare” in those days so if I missed it I usually just kept on going).
Mr. Gameway’s Ark on Yonge was a huge store – three full floors of model kits, toys, games, wargaming and roleplaying. I’ve been to the very impressive Hobby Bunker in Malden MA, but even it was dwarfed by the Ark. A huge chunk of my pocket money from 1978 to 1984 disappeared into these “black holes.”
All three of these stores “went under” in less than a year, in the summer of 1983 and the early months of 1984. By then I had discovered The Worldhouse, which migrated a number of times during its existence (on Queen St. West in ’82-’83 before I knew of its existence; on Bloor from ’83-’87; on Spadina from late ’87-’93; and on College from the spring of ’93 ‘til it finally closed its doors in early 2000.
After the Worldhouse closed it became a lot more difficult to get my games fix in Toronto. Crossed Swords on Annette was an old-style miniatures/wargaming store – it may still be there, but it’s a good bit out of my ‘hood. Other stores came and went, but I ended up getting most of my RPG products in comic book stores until I discovered Sci-Fi World at Dufferin & Steeles (now Legend’s Warehouse near 7 & 400). SFW/LW carried a reasonable range of games & RPGs and was always willing to order other games for me.
Recently Hairy Tarantula opened a second location right around the corner from me at Yonge & Steeles, and entering its doors is like going back in time. Located in a spacious underground lair – apparently a former pool hall – it’s a dimly lit “Aladdin’s cave,” packed from floor to ceiling with comics, manga, games, RPGs, and miniatures. I can’t always find what I want but I always find something interesting.
Brunomac: I don't think it was a Last Grenadier. I think it was a branch of Paul Frieller's Historical Models. There was another in Torrance in the Old Towne Mall, where I used to go on hunts for miniatures or paints. Noah, the guy who ran the place (and DM'd everything) was super cool. I lived right near Westwood, so it convenient for me, plus, like I said, it was right next to Sepi's. Can't beat that.
ReplyDeleteAndrew: Actually it was neither. A bunch of guys (one of whom was Gary) got together and bought the store from James Kennedy. I later bought out one of the partners and ran it. I had a great time doing it and WONDERFUL time DM'ing for the groups of kids who would come play. I just wish we'd been able to keep it going!
ReplyDeleteAndrew, I DO remember you, and I was very touched that you remembered the place and the games fondly, as do I.