"Which Shop has gone Which was your first Shop" Topic

The one I miss is POP Enterprises in Nottingham. It was great, you never knew what you could find and price was always good. Sprit games at Burton a bit simular 2nd hand figs but to far away now :-(

My first shop was Leisure Time in Shrewsbury buying Hinchcliffe Figures in the old Blue boxes. If you bought the last figure he gave you the box!! 7.5p a figure then mid to late 70's. Did go to the Hincliffe Shop once in Meltham, at the time it was an Alladin's Cave to me (would have been about 12)

Roger's Hobby Shop in Swifton Shopping Center. He had a vast collection of 1/72 WWII British warplanes in his display window, built from Airfix and Frog kits. I would stand outside and drool over them for hours. I was 12 years old in 1966. On a summer day when school was out I would ride my bicycle two miles up Reading Road to Swifton and lay down a hard-earned quarter for an Airfix FW-190 or a box of HO/OO Afrika Korps. That was my long-lost paradise.

I don't know the name of it but it was the hobby shop in Hucknal. That is where I bought my first minis. They were citadel D&D figures. I must have been about 8 or so. It is not still there sadly.

Redarna's in Swansea near the two shopping arcades – my first model shop. Now long, long gone.

There was also the Swansea Model Shop, later and in two different sites, but a great model shop and one that I still miss.

Tony

Um, if we're listing stores in the UK, I'd say that Mac's Models on Holy Rood in Edinburgh was very nice but apparently is no longer. I am given to understand that at least one of the Orc's Nest locations is still a going concern.

On the US side of things, my first and favorite shop is still in business. Arnie's Trains is actually expanding – not that it'll mean they're carrying more 1/87 armor, but its a good thing nonetheless.

One of the other stores that I liked to visit when I was in the area, Aero Hobbies, was truly a time warp. It had been in roughly the same place for 60 years on Santa Monica Blvd. You could even find a few old items if you dug far enough. It has amazingly survived since the death of its owner.

Wyatt

New Model Army in East Ham, The Games store in Tottenham Court road prior to becoming the Virgin Games store.

Race-O-Rama, later Allied Hobbies in Queensgate shopping center, York PA. Man I miss that place. It later moved to a mall. They had everything. Minis, skateboards, trains, model guns, models, crafts, D&D stuff, Battletech (my fascination with big robots lasted all of 15 minutes)…everything.

Sigh.

I bought my first models at a hobby shop in Seattle. It's probably still there. I'd be in there at least 3-4 times a month, but it was strictly trains, plastic models and RC vehicles.

My first miniatures came from a bookstore in the suburbs of Seattle that carried a selection of the early D&D models. The owner's son was a gamer and the store really grew the hobby in that area.

My first shop (circa 1978) was in Chicago called Sutler's Wagon. I can't remember the location. It was pretty small, and the owner was always late opening on Saturdays. It selection was pretty extensive, especially for someone just getting into gaming.

The shop I miss is The Emperor's Headquarters, also in Chicago. That was a great store! I hope that Games Plus is never forced to close. That would be the end of my Chicago game store connection.

The Dungeon, in San Antonio, TX. It was a great place to shop. I remember browsing there for 4-5 hours the first time I was there. Probably made the owner a little nervous!

I guess my real first games shop was Esdevium Games in Aldershot – (when it was a couple of doors up from Concorde Models)…

Concorde Models was my first model shop. I used to go in there regularly, and clearly remember their first premises with the lovely curved windows, full of the most fantastically painted dioramas of WW2 stuff. Then they moved, and as a Christmas presnt I was bought one of the display pieces. Unfortunately both Ballard brothers have now retired, and the shop has closed it's doors.

Anyway. Just up the road by a couple of doors was Esdevium Games, where I spent my money on Metagaming micro games, and later Avalon Hill book case games…..And of course Ral Partha / Citadel figures.

I'm pretty sure they have gone on to bigger and better things, becoming one of the major distributors in the industry, and not just a retail outlet.

Good memories.

My first model shop was Mydon's model shop in Bracknell, I used to cycle there and drool over the kits and railways

My first Wargames shop I ever went to was the GW shop in Hammersmith in London, was nearest, this was in the days when they sold other stuff apart from GW, bought my first minis there. Then they opened the shop in Reading so I started going there in the late 80's early 90's and bought my first game – Space Marine and Adeptus titanicus

The model shop in Bracknell has sadly closed and turned into a firework shop (they do a lot of the the big firworks displays in the UK)

Al

Mine was Patty's Paperbacks in Indiana PA. It was mostly a comic store but the owner played Warhammer so had a small section for miniatures.

I never got to go to POP in the flesh but I used them a few time for online mail order, not always the fastest but always good. I still kick myself for not buying the Armorcast Vulture at the same time as the Madcat.

My first shop was the BUNKER in Copperas Cove texas . Just outside of Fort Hood. It is gone now. The original owner went to work for FASA.

The first hobby shop I was in was Imperiums to Order in Kitchener Ontario. I first went in over 20 years ago. He closed up shop just a few years back. I'm friends with the owner and still game with him on Wednesdays.

POP Enterprises is much missed – a 'shark-free zone' IIRC. Fraser knew how to appeal to the worst side of your collecting tendency, so was a great salesman. Towards the end I made a policy of making sure I had no money with me when I went in as I was otherwise sure to buy more stuff I wanted but didn't actually need!

I also recall the Nottingham Model Soldier Shop though, by the Royal Centre in the middle of town. Long gone now, but fondly remembered. Tabletop Games was always an experience too, though customers were sometimes made to feel they were something of an intrusion…

Laurence

Nan's Toys and Games in the Galleria shopping center in Houston was the first hobby shop I remember going to. Back in the early seventies, he had a hidden stash of Hinchcliffe Napoleonics hidden from all the D&D stuff (for the longest Nan's was the only place in Houston you could get D&D books) Its moved and changed owners but I think its still around.

The first hobby shops that carried historicals openly were the Royal Guardsman and the Armadillo Soldier Shop both long gone.

Dave

City models in Liverpool, they seemed to fit every kind of model you could wish for in that little shop!
Happy days!

Minifigs-Skytrex, just down the road from Victoria station. What a shop that was ! The whole minifigs range plus the skytrex range plus Davco plus rules and dice ("what are average dice? What are fire dice ?").

"Have you got SF1 ? I'll have 2. Have you got SF4 ? I'll have 1, have you got….." . And then – innovation – scrap paper to write down what you want so that Dave Rotor and the others didn't have to walk back and forth so much.

The earth shattering excitement when they opened up the basement as "The Dungeon" with all the fantasy & SF stuff. But, how could anyone ever use SO MUCH STUFF ? TSR have put out 3 more modules – how will we ever play all this ???

[There must have been a choice of ~5 RPGs, around 400 SF/Fantasy figures, all the micro games and about 20 other board games.Plus white dwarf. Those were the days !]

Buying up the D&D range display figures cheap when they were prised off the cabinets when minifigs lost the licence.

And then after about 5 years it was Adventure Worlds.

Then it was gone.

Also loved shopping in Nottingham – there was a tiny shop that sold the Asgard range. The guy in there explained to me how to pirate the figures….it's ok, he said, as long as you don't do Asgard figures…..(I never did – or anyone else's)

And the pure joy of going to the GW near Ravenscourt Park Tube station – all the american import figures (not as good as minifigs !), garrissons SF range appearing about the same time as Star Wars (that figure is perfect for Vader !),all the american import boardgames.

The sentrybox.com in Calgary (still going strong) along with Little Generals (now gone). I so recall buying Esci/Ertl half-tracks at LGs and my dad asking "Why do you want 3 half-tracks--they're the same model?" Clearly not a gamer!

I know it was 27 years ago, but then a half-track model cost about $4.95. Now they are about $10-12. It strikes me inflation in plastics hasn't been that great over time.

Stafford Garrison. Tiny shop in a courtyard. A back room full of Tamiya kits but as you went in, the owner had display cases of Hincliffe figures. Also bought my first blue box of Hincliffe figures in the mid 70's in Brookfields, Longton Stoke-on Trent. I spent hours in those shops!

First US shop: The Toy Soldier, in Searsport, ME, later in Bath.

First UK shops: Games People Play (Bayswater Road) and Gamers in Exile (Pentonville Road), in London.

POP Enterprises' stock still appears in occasional eBay auctions.

The Bunker had just closed when we got to Fort Hood and bought a house in CC.

Allen

Stadium Toy and Craft in Tacoma. They had 2 stores, boardgames, Rico minitank, kits and more. Sadly they are gone too. Also the old toy store in the Lloyd Center in Portland. My parents would go on shopping trips there in the 60's and I would get about an hour to go drool at the large Rico display case. Spend my dollar allowance on an M-48 or something. Ah the memories.

Another for City Models and Toys back when they were just off Lime Street and Games of Liverpool in Manchester Street. Much missed the pair of them. CMT hasn't been replaced in the area for the range of models. Games especially has never come close to being replaced for wargames over the last decade.

Very depressed and nostalgic now.

"Soldiers" in Kennington, South East London, run by John Tunstall; and "Russ Models" of Battersea Rise, near Clapham Junction (which, I'm amazed to see, is still going).

My first modelshop was Burnett's , West Street, Boston, Lincs. Sadly now closed, bulldozed and a car sales forecourt.

It closed down in the early 1980's but I spent vast amounts of my pocketmoney and time there throughout the 1970's buying Matchbox and Airfix kits.

I bought a copy of BBC's 'Modelworld' magazine after seeing the programme on TV. I remember talking to the old boy who ran it about playing with Airfix toy soldiers. He then got out his newly painted 25mm Hinchliffe Peninsular British. I was totally lost for words. That did it for me. Haven't looked back since.

My lasting memory is buying over 100 trees with my birthday money in 1977 (when 10 years old) when I started wargaming proper, much to my parents chagrin. I did my bit to encourage new gaming blood by passing them on to a friend's son who started gaming a couple of years back to fire his enthusiasm, along with some old buildings.

Ah, the memories.

When I was young, we used to go into Tunbridge Wells every Saturday. Along the Pantiles was an excellent little store, although I can't remember it's name. As you went in there were lots of wargaming figures and if you went through to the back and down the stairs to the basement you would find all the Airfix kits and figures.
Great shop. Spent countless hours in it (while parents were at the pub opposite – not quite as bad as it sounds!)
Anyone else remember this place?

Technically, I guess that would be Sears, for their plastic bags full of little plastic soldiers, halftracks, sandbags, etc. They also sold the cowboys and indians packs.

The figures were fairly small, e.g. around 15mm – 20mm, or so in size, but quite nice. Not sure where they all went, sadly.

For metal figures, it would be in a train shop, at a mall in Alexandria, VA, where they stocked the GHQ microarmor vehicles. I saw a few in a display case, and a mini-diorama of them, and was hooked.

The first packs were the M4 Sherman and the StuG III long-barreled variant.

I asked the guy selling them how you played, and he recommended making up your own rules, so that was truly back in the dark ages, eons ago.

Beleive it or not, when I first started buying AD&D, the best places to buy stuff was Barnes and Noble (book store) and Toys R Us.

First "true" game store was a "Sattelite" store for the Compleat Strategist in Montclair, NJ.

I honestly don't know. In those days comics shops mish-mashed with game shops in such a way that it was hard tell where one ended and the other began.

If I had to say, though, it would probably be -- I think -- Toys By Roy in Tyler, Texas? I know the city is right, but I'm not sure of the name of the store. It's where I bought my first D&D Basic Set. They also had James Bond 007 RPG stuff, as well as Indiana Jones RPG stuff, and the D&D miniatures stuff, plus lots of game stuff and models I didn't really look at. That would be around 1979, I think.

Lord Flashheart – you mean Games Centre. There were 4 of them (one a Toy and Game Centre in Regent Street). I was employed there until it went bust at the end of 1983. The manager I had, Peter O'Toole, went on to run Gamers in Exile (aka Gophers in Ecstasy) but that went too.

The first pure games shop I can recall going to though was Games Workshop in Dalling Road.

Oh yes, and as someone mentioned above, Games People Play near Notting Hill tube and there was a games shop in Soho, run by Mark Green at one time. Ahh, it all comes flooding back.

As I recall, The Little Soldier in Rockville, Maryland. They later moved to old town Alexandria, VA and I believe have changed names and owners but may still be in business in some form.

Long, long ago, in Galaxy far far away (about 1972) a guy called Pete Smith had a shop on the outskirts of Bolton. As I visited it he was making a transition from Minifig to Hinchliffe, who had just started.

It was handy from the point that the long distance "Trans Lancs" Express bus to Bolton stopped at the door and I had enough time to do my purchases and catch the same bus on its eastrwards journey

The business survived about three/four years but I suspect the bulk of Pete's sales was from the trays he'd take to the twice monthly meeting of the Manchester Society.

About the same time there was a guy in Hyde selling Hinchliffe and Historex. Harder for me to get to and he didn't last long either.

And who remembers when Games Workshop sold games of all descriptions and the Table Top miniatures 15mm (noe the range sold by/as Isaurus)?

Macs models in Edinburgh was my first wargames shop.

As someone said no longer trading in wargaming stuff

The Rye Lane Stamp and Hobby Shop in Peckham :)
First and long gone…….

As an American, I think my first shop was the Hobby Chest in Skokie, Illinois. Always stopped at the bagel bakery across the street as well.

My first visit to England (1975) included stopping at a game store near the Imperial War Museum in London. I can't remember the name, but it's where I got my first set of averaging dice. They're now yellow with age, but I still have them. It's also where I learned that Der Kriegspieler's Napoleonic line was stolen from Hinton Hunt.

Anyone remember the name of that shop?

Forever People on Park Street in Bristol. Such a treasure trove of goodness for a young lad – my first miniatures, my first Conan books and comics, first D&D etc, etc…

My first proper games shop would have been one in Grimsby (just near McDonalds) it had all sorts, AD&D, Citadel Figures, micro armour, vac form terrain, and loads of other stuff that I couldn't afford -- was back in Grimsby this summer and it is still there, well moved slightly, but near enough that I could find it again after the best part of 20 years. Bought some resin houses.

The other was Castaline in Louth, a combined fishing and model shop (and air rifles back when they were legal) spent a lot more in here as it was in walking distance of home. Lots of 1/72nd plastic kits and figures, mainly esci and hasegawa IIRC. Later they carried some Citadel Figures (may even have been GW by then). No idea if this is still there.

"And who remembers when Games Workshop sold games of all descriptions"

My first shop as a 'serious' wargamer was to a place in Manchester's Arndale- and I'm sure it was a GW store.
No miniatures as I recall, but shelves of boardgames that were a godsend when your only other option was mail order.
You could walk in and buy the latest offering from Avalon Hill or SPI- plus a lot of the vintage games. And they had Fire and Movement and the Wargamer magazines on the counter.
Looking back, it was doomed really. They could never sell enough in such a niche market, certainly not with the sort of business rates they'd be paying for a shop like that.
I can't tell you how enjoyable it was to go into a wargames shop that was actually plush- top notch lighting and carpets.
Still miss that shop.
First toy soldiers were bought from M'Gowans- a toy shop situated at the end of the street, which was far too handy on reflection.
Between 1963 and 1969 I handed over my 2 bob(10p)weekly 'spends' at that shop. Handily, all the Airfix boxes of soldiers and the small kits were priced at 2 shilling.
No matter what they had in store, I'd always come out clutching something.
In the end I'd bought every box and every kit they produced.
Funny how money burns a hole in your pocket when you're eight. I even came out with the Airfix 'Farmyard Stock' figures on one occasion- no idea why.
Still glance over to that corner shop- I think it's a car parts shop now- when I drive past. Some great memories kicked off in that place.

Ahhh good old Toys by Roy. I was a manager briefly for the Toys by Roy in the Golden Triangle Shopping Center in Denton, Tx. We did carry D&D and other RPG stuff and some Ral Partha miniatures in my store. A fun job but the pay was pathetic, I left them to work as an assistant manager at a Domino's Pizza so my wife and I wouldn't starve to death. That whole chain died the death in the 80's

Dave

2 fer one:
King's Crown, in Overland Park, KS, was actually a model shop. it's where I got all my Avalon Hill and SPI games.
Yankee Doodle Dandy, in Grandview, MO, a Game shop with a good selection of models. I remember seeing my first table top mini game there.

Ahh the Train Shop Supermarket in Bradford. It was a three pence bus ride and a bit of a walk.
Back in the glory days of Lamming, Hinchliffe, Garrison and minifigs with telegraph poles for spears.
And figures came in boxes with tissue paper. It was a bit dingy but I loved it.
He carried some good books too.

Gamers in Exile and the Games Store in Oxford Street.

Tym was the shop in Shrewsbury between the library and the railway station? I bought Hinchliffe there when I was in School, you could get Les Higgins at a Shop down by Tanners on the way to the English Bridge.

I spent hours at outside the shop in Victoria waiting for them to open. I have a soft spot for Gascoignes ironmongers in Bedford, great ranges of figures. Meltham was a nice spot to look at all of Peter Gilders painted figures.

My favourite though would have to be The Train Supermarket in Bradford. Just a perfect model shop to chill out in for an hour or four. Always something you didn't know you wanted to spend your money on.

Waterloo Hobbies in the old market town of Hereford. I used to trot in with my pocket money on a saturday morning and buy a few Minifigs Napoleonics to paint up. Long gone now of course. I also used to cycle the few miles out to Peter Laing's place in the local village of Sutton St Nicholas and spend my few quid on his 15mm figures. After that it was mail order only for me I'm afraid.

Lord Flashheart, 'New Model Army' was my first true wargames shop too – except when I first went there it was called 'Wall Models', I used to go to the gaming club that met in their basement. What a small world!!! Nearby, in Manor Park was the games shop almost opposite the Wild West Store that sold Britains Swoppets (when I went through my 54mm Wild West phase).

Then there was the toy shop opposite Upton Park Underground Station – good for Britains Deetail figures.

Also there was the toy shop at Greengate, and the model shop a little further up towards Upton Park that was great for Roco Minitanks.

I also frequented The Games Store in Tottenham Court Road prior to becoming the Virgin Games store. I bought a bunch of 25mm Knights, and suchlike when they were having a sale for 5p each (how I wish I'd bought the entire stock!!!). Then there was the gaming shop near Kings Cross station.

AFAIK all the above have now closed. Sad really, good memories!

Oh, this takes me back, my 1st games shop was in Guildford, Surrey, I think it was called the Tangley Model shop.
1st mail order was Minifigs Middle Earth figures from the The Rye Lane Stamp and Hobby Shop in Peckham.
Then when I went to University, it was regular forays to GDW in Dalling Road, Hammersmith, and later to the Games People Play in Notting Hill.
Halcyonic days…I spent many an hour looking at the figures & wondering what to spend my grant/wages on.