"Last Grenadier closing its doors..." Topic

on April 1st.They will be doing some internet sales but das store ist kaput :( Ah remember gaming at the first one next to the bar in the 70's

Ah… it was the first game store I ever saw/visited. Sold me my first Ral Partha and Minifigs… long ago.

That is too bad. I used to drive up there when I was in The Corps to buy boardgames. It was kind of a haul but always worth it!

That's a crying shame. Back when they had multiple locations, I frequented the one in Long Beach. I never had the chance to get to the one in Burbank, unfortunately.

For those who are not from the area, Brookhurst, The Warhouse, Last Grenadier and Aero Hobbies are the longest-running gaming shops in the area. All date from the 1970s.

Aero has always been a small one-man shop in Santa Monica. The War House is slightly bigger and to the south. Brookhurst has grown to become a destination and Internet powerhouse, even outlasting Games Workshop's location in Orange County. Last Grenadier had two or three locations (I misremember whether the two locations I shopped at were the same store after a move) and was a larger operation than just about everyone except the 'Hurst.

Wyatt

The only thing surprising about this is how long they lasted. I went in there a number of times and apparently barely merited acknowledgment unless I was handing someone a credit card. Classic grumpy game store stuff.

Very glad to have Aero close by – a genuinely friendly local game store.

I used to work there in the mid 1990's. I loved that dusty place.

Guess that explains why they have been doing so much on ebay lately…

What is their ebay handle?

Skeptic:

Ebay handle is Iquisitor.

I was just there today… *Sigh* Sorry to hear this.

I had a client in Burbank and would often stop by the Last Grenadier whenever I was in town. While their stock of miniatures were rather limited they did have a great book collection.
I also remember the place needed a good cleaning. Even the layer of dust had a layer of dust on it.

As stated earlier, the best thing about that store was the book collection, the service was old-timey annoying nerd-style and, of course the layer of dust…Aero has the dust as well but that shop is so much more inviting than the Last Grenadier.
So, normally I would mourn its passing but not so much as I probably should.

I remember when Brookhurst had two locations. A model shop and a wargame shop. I am sorry to see Last Grenadier go, but even I have not been there in years.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

That's very sad – I'll miss that place. Time is moving on, gents.

Bummer. There were stores in Ventura, Reseda, and two different places in Burbank (at different times) that I remember…

Wyatt the GW shop was owned by Rocky of Last Grenadier. Last G had two locations. The Burbank store,(originally next to the J.C. Penny's) and the Northridge one on Reseda @ Arleta IIRC. I think the Ventura store was one where he sold use of the name. When Norm Flam owned them, I believe he also owned Napoleon's Headquarters in Chicago and one that may have been in Australia!

Norm Morris managed the ventura store, then the Northridge store for Norm Flam. Think the Ventura store was gone by the time the business was sold to Rocky ? The best store was the one next to Ross, in Burbank, with the lower level and lots of gaming tables.
As a side note…there may still be an AK walled up in ventura ? :0 <lol>

I gamed in the Ventura store a few times when I was home on leave, and went clubbing with Norm Morris (cool guy) when he was at the Reseda store. Visited the Reseda store mostly, some trips to the Burbank store in the mall, and one visit to the later Burbank store on the street.

Dang – thats been 30 years ago for Ventura, 15-25 ago for Reseda and the mall store, and 7 years for the later Burbank store. I really need to get back to the left coast more often… pity I can't drive interstate from here.

The Last Grenadiers quality of service was slowly declining over the years it started in mid 1980's and with each move to a different location just kept going down. I started the Grenadier in 1983 in my last semester of owhigh school. I liked it when Norn Flam ran the place, when the current owner took ownership it started its very slow decline.

The Last Grenadier had a location in the Pasadena area, but there was a bad situation had with Rocky and the partner invloved at that location an left a bad feeling the Last Grenadier.

Minor correction to the original post. Last business day for the Last Grenadier is this coming Sunday, 24th March. The last week they will be busy packing remaining stock as they need to be out before April 1st, so they won't be open for business.

Sunday hours are 11 AM – 6 PM.

OH-MY-G-D-NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Drove by taking out-of-town visitor to Burbank Airport and thought the place looked empty, raced to computer and did a Google search for: Last Grenadier Burbank closing" but came up empty that time. Been very busy with work and family stuff, but today -- a few weeks after the fact -- I managed to stop by, and it was confirmed: the place is done, and apparently forever, as there's no notice of new location up in the glass windows or doors up front. Only after seeing it with my own eyes did my Google searching skills manage to unearth this thread, on a site I frequent every day.

Man… I've only lived in LA for about 14 years, but as a historical miniature gamer in the Valley, it was the only place to go. Everything people say about piles of dust on the piles of dust is true, but I could still buy a new Osprey book in person, or check through the stacks of military history books arranged by subject, or pick up a new or old set of miniatures rules, or copy of a miniature wargaming magazine, or maybe even a piece of store-bought terrain. I buy all my miniatures over the web and through the mail, since the periods I game are obscure, but wargamers don't live by miniatures alone.

A good friend of mine played for about a year in a Napoleonic campaign that held its map moves and fought its battle on the tables in back. To be honest, I never understood why the owner kept the place in such shoddy shape, since it would only have taken a few people ready to work for one day cleaning stuff out to make a huge difference in appearance, but that was his business. I got a bunch of stuff there, and at the previous location in downtown Burbank, over the years, and once, maybe 12 years ago, I drove out to the Reseda/Northridge store to pick up a very nicely painted unit of Medieval crossbowmen or handgunners I had won in an eBay auction. The seller left them with the guy at the register. I remember the place was surprisingly packed. But that was at least a decade ago.

I guess there's really not much point to posting this comment, just wish I'd spotted this original post in time to stop in and say goodbye to the guys who worked there, and maybe pick up a last batch of books, Ospreys and otherwise.

Thanks Wolfshanza, for posting this topic to begin with, and RIP "The Last Grenadier."

Who knew they could get it so clean :)

I was also surprised by this… I even called and asked if they had moved, but was told they are focusing on online sales now…

I frequented the store when Norm owned it in the late 70's and early 80's. I went to the Original Store in Golden Mall. He later moved up the street to the one with the basement gaming area, which I visited twice once when I dropped by to say hello to Norm and pick up a few Napoleonic Command figures, (that I could not find anywhere else.) The second after Norm sold and the New owners acted as if I was from another planet. I asked them about gamers I had known, only to get blank stares. My last visit.
I enjoyed the store and most of the gamers, although some tended to look down their nose at you. Nevertheless, I have/had good memories of that store and Norm.
Sad to see it go away.

This makes me think of all of the gaming stores I a had supported over the years. The first one was the War Club in La Canada, CA, that was the first store that open a door to a new and very interesting hobby.

Now as a the years go by, I think about all of the stores and people that I have been to/met over the years that are no longer around.

I know this post comes almost 12 years after the closing of The Last Grenadier, but I actually was a frequent visitor. I had written this as an homage and recently came across the article, which I'll repost here. It's titled A Farewell to Arms.

It's been a while since I've wandered into The Last Grenadier, a Burbank establishment that has offered a
wide range of games (both common and rare), miniatures, and military books, since 1976. So after I picked my daughter up from school last Friday, I decided to stop by. There was a table in front of the store with a box of books and old VHS tapes labeled "Free." Once I stepped in, I immediately noticed that the place seemed thinned out. The Last Grenadier is typically cluttered, so I asked one of the staff whether they were reorganizing the place or just doing some housecleaning. He said that it's not been announced yet, but the store was going to be closing its doors come late March. I was completely floored. On my way home, I began to think back to those early, care-free days of role playing, as well as my earliest memories of this store.

What you need to understand is that The Last Grenadier really was practically the only store of it's kind when it first opened (today, it's a Tae-Kwon-Do studio). For those of you who remember Burbank in the 80s, that part of San Fernando was a sleepy part of town: there was no supermall on Magnolia, and the AMC theatres didn't exist. That part of San Fernando was a tree-lined outdoor mall open only to foot traffic.

Dungeons & Dragons was in its heyday. Religious freaks thought that gamers were devil worshippers who went into the sewers to do battle with God knows what. Yeah, we had video arcades and the Atari system, but D&D and role playing seemed the perfect escape. [Disclaimer: there is a geek stereotype associated with D&D gamers. I assure you that while my friends and I enjoyed D&D as a form of escape, we weren't trying to escape from reality. We had social lives,
kissed girls, etc.].

D&D had become a part of popular culture as well. The Saturday morning cartoon lineup included Dungeons & Dragons (followed by Thundarr the Barbarian, of course), and movies of the time made reference to it (E.T. and Taps come to mind). So when my mom would drop me, my brother, and
friends off at The Last Grenadier, it was pure bliss. The walls were lined with blister packs of lead figures from Ral Partha, Grenadier, Citadel, and other obscure manufacturers that have long since gone out of business. Every imaginable game aid was here. Hours would fly by and I would beg,
"Please, mom, just another 10 minutes." All sorts of gaming supplies, not just for D&D, could be found in this store. Sure, we had The Game Keeper in the Glendale Galleria, which had a very small section dedicated to role playing games, but it was nothing compared The Last Grenadier. They even had a room in the back that was used by gamers to host D&D campaigns.

My friends and I played from 1982 through our junior college years in the early 90s. We initially went through the TSR dungeon modules (White Plume Mountain and The Tomb of Horrors remain my personal favorites), but soon our DM began to craft his own dungeons. Our DM was an unbelievable story teller and would weave these amazing narratives. We would start playing in the morning and would continue gaming until the morning hours the following day.

However an important (and apparently irreversible) trend had taken root. Improved game consoles and PCs were offering games with dramatically improved graphics. These had come a long way since the old Commodore 64 days. Through it all, my friends and I continued to stop by The Last Grenadier. But over time, we visited less and less. And at some point, I couldn't tell you exactly when, we suddenly stopped gaming. Other commitments, college, and work began to take precedence. And with what little time we had left, well, I guess we chose girls and parties over venturing into some unknown realm.

The Last Grenadier was originally in the trunk of Norm Flam's car during the mid 70's. Norm strongly supported historical gaming & micro-armor. The first store front was on San Fernando road below Olive where it lived for many years (two 6x8 gaming tables & a small sand table) & hived a branch in Northridge on Reseda Blvd south of Northridge Blvd next to the "Black Watch" store. Norm Morris was the first
manager of the Northridge store & it had a 6x8 & 4x6 gaming table. For many years this was the state of affairs while development companies played with the downtown Burbank area – including closing it off & making it pedestrian only for several years. Then they designated the building for
demolition & the Burbank Last Grenadier moved north on San Fernando Road to a much larger 2 story building where 6 very nice gaming tables were setup as well as a very large sand table in the downstairs area. Though he always had a few military books for sale before this time, Norm started building a very large collection of used military books for sale since he had the room. After a couple of years Norm sold out to Rocky who moved first to a new building on San Fernando Road after a major redevelopment in the area & then was forced out & moved to the last location on Hollywood Way. Rocky was never much of a Historical or Armor player & switched the focus of the store to a very good collection of used military books & more fantasy gaming. The last time I was there (I moved from the area about 6 years ago but
have visited a couple times since – the last time was 2008) it was cluttered and the historical section was disappointingly small with no micro-armor and mostly the fantasy & card games & comic books predominated, but the military book selection was still large & very worth a visit to the store.

Sadly the other Northridge start-up manager passed away in 1999 while in her early 40's. Norm Morris passed away in early 2011.

By the early 90s, The Last Grenadier had moved down several blocks from it's original location. By now, both the mall and the AMC theatre had become fixtures of Burbank. The new store was larger with rows of tables for gamers to play. Perhaps I'd just forgotten what things were like at the original store, but this new location always seemed to be
happening. Games Workshop, with their Fantasy Warhammer and Warhammer 40k systems, became fiercely popular. Although I missed role playing, my friends and I took the plunge. This went on for several years, but despite its overall popularity with a younger generation of gamers, it really didn't catch on with most of the guys in our group. And like I said, D&D, aside from a few false starts here and there, never really came back into the picture for us. But D&D was still holding its own. There was a dramatic shift in gaming rules, and there were still many veterans who continued to play. The game also attracted new blood.

During it's history, The Last Grenadier opened up a few other locations. I remember my dad had a Union 76 gas station in Arcadia, and I was surprised when I came across a Grenadier store down on Duarte Ave. But despite its location, it eventually closed shop on. The Last (and truly last) Grenadier moved to its current location on
Hollywood Way. The reason: the property owner had just about the entire block torn down for some new development.

This new Grenadier store was a shadow of its former self; it was much smaller and lacked the gaming tables which historically attracted gamers and added to the store's ambience. I've been coming in to this new location ever since, but over the last few years, I could count on my hand the number of times I've walked through their doors. Perhaps I was too busy with my new life and family. Or perhaps I sensed that the tides had changed, not just for this establishment, but for gaming in general.

I went back today to say my final goodbyes to the store. I asked what would happen to The Last Grenadier after they closed. Would they go online? He said that Rocky and Clyde would continue to sell items through Ebay, but that was pretty much it.

I perused their shelves and still found some old gems that you'd be hard pressed to find in stores nowadays. But I think that's the point the guy I was talking to made the other day: much has changed. Gamers, I'm not talking about video gamers, but your traditional role players and gamers, have either moved on or buy their stuff online. Brick and mortar stores simply can't compete. But gaming has also changed. Games Workshop, once a giant among men, has grown unpopular (with the cost of a miniature figure rising up to $25 USD, it's not hard to imagine why). D&D has entered its 4th Edition, and that hammered the final nail in the coffin for role-playing's most popular system. Not to mention the advancements made in the video gaming industry. But I believe that people have changed as well. Today's youth lack the patience to sit through and imagine an experience in a sci-fi or fantasy world, rather than go for the instant gratification and quick fix provided by video games.

After enduring for decades, The Last Grenadier, aptly named, will be closing its doors. I'm saddened by this, not merely because of the loss of the store, which merits a place in
gaming lore, but because it marks the end of an era.

I can identify with the comments and recollections of bbruphoto and Dromedar114, having worked the counter (and painted minis) at the first two Burbank stores (1981-1987). Plus I worked at the Northridge store around 1984-86. Certainly the zenith of the wargaming and RPG genres back then. The large store next to JC Penny's was testament to that. I could hardly keep money in my pocket, what with all the great products surrounding me. Truly "a kid in the candy store" analogy! Then Norm decided to add trains, and I was really in heaven. If ever there was a job that didn't feel like a job! I worked various retail jobs in my life – but I must admit that the clientele at the Grenadier stores was the best. Whether it be customers or gamers. Norm was a good boss. Co-workers (most) were fun. Different times back in the day.

I was gone midway through '87, shortly after the changing of the guard, and I never made it to the subsequent locations. I got hired PT at one of the competitors in Eagle Rock, that was owned by a former customer/gamer of Norm's. A smaller store, which also sold comic books, but not the 15mm or 25mm wargame figures. He didn't necessarily need an employee – but he hired me based on my experience. Also, I promised to spend half my paycheck on merchandise (discounted). Easy to do (I had a second job). This was until about 1989. Ultimately, he also sold his store, and it moved about 10 min away. I never made it to that location, and like many, it eventually met with declining stock and sales. Run by owners who didn't have the same passion as Norm – or Mike (not yours truly).

I would end up moving to Spokane WA, and was pleased to find a gaming shop reminiscent of the Grenadier in better times. This was 2000. Unbelievable. There was also a Game Faire at the local college, which me and my kids attended. Sadly, that was the last year of Game Faire, due to the cost. The owner also had a second store across town, so it brought back memories of Norm's two locations. I had hoped to get a job at one of them, but the third time wasn't the charm. Ha ha. Shortly, the second store closed, and the main store moved a few blocks into a larger building, where it still functions today. Pretty amazing, considering the shifting of younger people's interests. I've gone in a few times – but I buy less than I used to decades ago. One thing was, before he moved, he had a sizeable amount of used games and such. Before he realized his prices would be better on this new thing called eBay…! I was able to flesh out my 2nd Ed AD&D collection, and even Planescape items, which were becoming rare.

The city even had a couple other small game shops, which closed up after a short run. Interestingly, you still had one or two new stores open up. There's always someone out there trying to realize their dream I guess. Unfortunately, they went belly up after a brief run. In the past decade there have been a couple more that have managed to stay afloat. One is in a more affluent neighborhood. Both have game tables, by the way. Still a good time to be in the hobby!

Guess what I meant to say, was that under Norm's command, the Last Grenadier had a great 10 years or so. Kind of sad to read about the way it became a dusty, post-Apocalyptic relic. And how the later staff were no longer as affable. Astonishingly, this store in Spokane that is like a parallel universe version of the mid-80's Grenadier, has been going in one form or another since 1980…!!!! That's like over 4 decades! In a populated area a fraction of the size of the SoCal surroundings the Grenadier had. So every gaming store didn't go the way of the dinosaur. Some survived. This one has a large selection of comics and graphic novels, so that may have helped. It is also a college town (3 institutions), so there's that. I have gone in and not bought anything – and was still greeted and acknowleged. In fact, at all three of the local game shops.